Thoughts and advice on a reloadable debit card

In My Humble Opinion
1

My father passed away several weeks ago; I have been working with my mother on changing over bank accounts and things after his death.

My sister lives with my mother, who is not in great health, and no longer can drive or shop on her own, so it’s up to my sister to do things like buying groceries and household supplies. My sister does not work (she is the primary caregiver), and she does not have a bank account nor a credit card of her own.

Over the past few years, there have been repeated issues with someone taking money out of my parents’ bank accounts for online gaming and gambling. Yes, I know who has been doing it. No, it is not my mother. No, I cannot, at this point, force them to stop doing it.

Please note that I am not looking for any advice, at all, on any of the above. I only share this to help explain why I am asking the following question.

In the wake of my father’s death, I am now the co-holder of my mother’s bank accounts. I have worked with the bank to ensure that I am the only person who has any of the account information (i.e., account numbers, online banking access, debit card, checkbook).

Because my sister needs to be able to buy things for herself and our mother, and on the advice of our banker, I bought a reloadable debit card from Walmart, and gave it to my sister to use. It has the advantage of me being able to load money into the account remotely (my mother and sister live 200 miles away from me), as well as allowing me to monitor expenditures for anything hinky. Also, as it is completely separate from my mother’s bank accounts, it can’t be used to directly access my mom’s money.

In fact, last night, spurious charges (for an online casino) began occurring on that card. Walmart sent me a text alert on this, I indicated that I had not authorized the charges, and Walmart froze the account, while they send me a new card. However, in the meantime, this means that my sister has no access to a debit card.

I have done some research, and have discovered that there are several companies which offer reloadable debit cards – primarily intended for use by teenagers, and/or seniors who may be susceptible to being defrauded. My understanding is that these cards allow the primary account holder (e.g., me) to exclude certain categories of vendors/stores (e.g., online gambling, cash transfers, etc.), which sounds like exactly what I need.

I spoke with our bank; they do not offer any reloadable debit cards at all, much less ones with these security features.

In short, this is what I need:

  • A reloadable debit card (which excludes secured credit cards, gift cards, etc.) My sister does need to sometimes get actual cash with the card, as well as making purchases with the card.
  • Easy remote loading of the card – I need to be able to put cash on the card when I am not in physical possession of the card.
  • The ability to set the card up so that it will automatically exclude/decline non-ATM cash transfers (e.g., CashApp), as well as online gambling and gaming vendors, without shutting the card down entirely when such a purchase is attempted.

I have found at least two such cards which offer something like this:

True Link Financial offers this type of card, specifically intended for seniors. I have done some reading, and see that they seem to be very fussy on setting up an account (they want two forms of ID), don’t have a great reputation for customer service, and apparently are often overly aggressive on locking out expenditures which should be authorized. Also, it appears that they also sell other financial planning services, and are, from what I can see, pretty aggressive in selling these.

Another one is from Greenlight. Their card is more oriented towards parents giving teens a debit card with guardrails, but they indicate that seniors are also a target for their cards. They, too, seem to want to offer the card as part of a broader financial/safety product line, so here, too, I am concerned about them spamming me with sales pitches.

Do any of you have any experience with these cards, or other, similar cards? Do you have any recommendations?

2

You might also look into gift cards (which can either be physical or electronic) for use in a single store and then acquire them for the primary stores your sister/mother commonly use such as grocery store, walmart, local gas station chain, etc.

3

I like Greenlight.

The older grandkids have them so they can purchase the ala carte menu in their lunch room.

You can set purchase amount limits and certain online shopping out of bounds limits. You get instant notifications when it’s used.

So far my DILs think it’s working great. They have paid into a few game apps and Mid-dau disabled that.

It’s a Mastercard product.

I suspect there are work around to use it wrongly, but the kids have not figured that out yet.

They are planning on using them in the Book fair next week.

Loss of card is a problem with kids. Adults probably can be trusted to keep it safe.

It instantly locks the card if it goes missing.

4

That would probably be a last-resort option. Gift cards would be sub-optimal for our needs, for a couple of reasons:

  • They shop at enough different places that it’d require a large number of different cards (and I am not of a mood to tell my sister, “you can only shop in three places”).
  • They have to pay for things at places that aren’t retailers (copays at the doctor’s office, veterinarian visits, etc.).
  • My sister does sometimes need access to actual cash.
  • It would be difficult, if not impossible, for me to monitor if the balance on the gift cards was getting low, and they were in need of new cards.

Thank you, Beck, that’s useful information.

You have not met my increasingly memory-challenged mother, nor my chaotic sister. :smiley:

I am guessing that this is “the card is instantly locked if you report it missing,” rather than “the card instantly disables itself if it thinks it’s gone missing.” :wink:

5

I don’t have experience recently - my kids had visa buxx maybe 20 years ago, which had the features you wanted.They were issued by individual banks and therefore customer service etc depended on the bank.
This site has links to a number of reloadable pre-paid visa cards, I’m sure they all have different features.

I’m not sure if any will let you monitor it if the card is in your sisters name- I’m sure she can set up an online account and give you the credentials, but I’m not sure if that works for you.

What you might want to do if you can’t find a pre-paid card that meets your needs is set up an additional joint account with your sister with a debit card and have it function like a pre-paid debit card. Only keep a small amount of money in it, etc.

6

My intent is that the card will be in my name (that is how the current Walmart card we are using is set up). IME, for the sorts of uses she will have for it, she doesn’t have to have it in her name, because the name is never checked. (Frankly, that is how the person stealing money has been able to do so, all along.)

I could do this. However, it would not prevent the person making the thieving withdrawals from doing so for online gambling and cash withdrawals, only prevent how much damage they could do at one time. And, it would require me to essentially be continually disbursing money to my sister’s card, and my sister to be continually asking me for more money; not ideal.

7

If you’re worried about unapproved use of the card, wouldn’t cash withdrawals also be a problem? If they need money for something like online gambling, what would prevent them from taking a cash withdrawal and then putting it into their own reloadable debit card for whatever use they like?

Also, what does your sister really need cash for? Most people hardly use cash at all these days. Credit cards are used just about everywhere. If she had no cash, what would she be unable to buy?

8

Is the person making withdrawals and doing the gambling using the prepaid debit card ? I thought it was your mother’s bank account that was being stolen from. If if it was the card, I don’t think there’s any way to stop them because it must be someone who was able to get the card info , presumably without your sister’s knowledge. And they’ll likely be able to do the same with any new card.

And, it would require me to essentially be continually disbursing money to my sister’s card, and my sister to be continually asking me for more money; not ideal.

I might not have been clear - I meant you could fund the bank account with the same amount and frequency that you would with the debit card. You could monitor the balance and add money when she needs it.

9

I am getting the idea that the issue is the bad actor having access to the physical card itself. If your sister is technically savvy enough, perhaps setting up a debit card that is loaded on a digital wallet on her phone might work. Preferably with a biometric lock in order to use it. You would retain possession of the physical card.

This limits her to using only vendors that accept tap to pay, but that’s not as much of an issue these days, even Walmart is rolling it out this year I think. Might not solve the cash issue, though maybe some bank ATMs might allow withdrawals with a card in a digital wallet.

10

They have not been. The thief has had access to the card number(s) and three-digit security codes, but has not (AFAIK) had access to the PIN numbers. The thefts have been entirely done online.

It is a lesser need compared to the others, but it’s still something I’d like to be an option for her.

Yes, and yes.

To reiterate from the OP: for the past three years, this person has been able to get access to my parents’ debit card and credit card numbers, and use those to do online transactions (online casinos and online cash withdrawals, via CashApp).

Two weeks ago, we changed my mom’s bank account, and only I have access to that account and card info now. I got the Walmart debit card for my sister. Last night, someone (99.9999% chance it is the same person) used the card info for the new reloadable Walmart debit card to attempt to make transactions with an online casino.

This is correct.

Let’s assume that she is not.

Also, I can tell you for a fact that the two Walmarts where they do a lot of their shopping do not yet accept tap-to-pay, and that my sister does online shopping – she buys things from Amazon, and has groceries delivered from Walmart.

As I noted in the OP, the two specific debit cards which I listed are built for a parent/caregiver/guardian to be able to monitor and limit what the cardholder can spend on. Both of those appear to specifically allow me (as the “caregiver”) to specifically block transactions with certain categories of online retailers – and list online gambling and cash apps as two such categories – as well as specifically blocking particular retailers.

This is why I was asking for opinions and experiences with those particular cards, and whether people were familiar with other cards with similar controls.

11

Don’t be too sure about that :). I’m pleasantly surprised that my credit union hasn’t started charging me for replacement debit cards, as frequently as I misplace them, accidentally send them through the laundry in a pants pocket… (FYI, debit cards typically survive the wash cycle still usable, but generally don’t do well in the dryer.)

12

Well then, perhaps a low tech mitigation effort. New cards these days do not have the account numbers embossed in the plastic. The account number and security code are simply printed on the back of the card and can be removed with sandpaper. Take a photo of the card back for your records, sand off the numbers, and give it to your sister.

Not ideal, I admit, but I’m running out of ideas here.

13

@kenobi_65 , I assume your sister doing the online gambling or willingly giving info to the person who is has been ruled out?

14

As I noted in the OP, there are reloadable debit cards which allow the account holder (i.e., me) to limit which categories of retailers the card can be used for.

15

Yes, that is correct. She is, however, aware of who is doing it. But it’s not what I want to litigate in this thread, and I do not need nor want any suggestions on dealing with that end of things, at this point in time.

16

We had very good experiences with Acorn cards (was GoHenry) for our twin boys while they were in high school. Only dropped it because they both got adult checking accounts when they turned 18 and were getting ready to start college

They’re Mastercard branded and work just like a standard debit or credit card at any store or ATM, but the app allows you to set controls for maximum spending, max spending in a single transaction, max cash withdrawals, etc. it also excludes any “adult” type purchases such as gambling since it’s assumed to be used by someone who is underage.

It’s super easy to add money to as needed and to monitor every detail of the use. Might be a good option for your situation.

17

You might see if there’s a bank which offers a traditional debit card which only works with a PIN. Most debit cards these days are also credit cards, so it might be hard to find a bank which does it that way. You might have to contact smaller, local banks to find one. But with a debit-only card, it couldn’t be used for online charges.

Another option would be a card which didn’t allow any online purchases. If there’s a card which always requires the physical card to make a purchase, just having the numbers wouldn’t be useful.

18

This would stop the thief from doing their thing, yes. It would also prevent my sister from being able to make legitimate online purchases; as I noted above, she regularly orders groceries to be delivered from Walmart, and items from Amazon.

I’m trying to find a solution which does not overly cramp her ability to continue to do the things which she does to run the household, but minimizes the avenue for the thief to do their thing. The two cards which I mentioned in the OP, and which several other posters have mentioned, appear to do this.

19

Thank you for this information; I’ll take a look at them.

20

One thing about allowing online transactions is that even if you block certain categories, like gambling, they could buy high value items from regular retailers and sell those items for cash. For instance, they could buy phones from Walmart.com and then sell them on Craigslist or Ebay. Or they could buy things that are basically cash from Ebay. There are auction listings for things like bundles of $20 bills, gift cards, prepaid Visa cards, etc.

If there are just a fixed number of online retailers that your sister uses, you could setup accounts on those sites with a unique card that’s different from your sister’s card. That way the card in her possession could be in-person only but she could still make online purchases from these pre-configured accounts.