I am considering getting a prepaid debit card for my senior parent so that I can assist with some of the financial needs/burdens, which one would you recommend?
I don’t have a specific recommendation- but welcome to the community here!
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Hey @M_Donald, welcome! I don’t have any direct experience with this, but maybe a Chime debit card would be worth looking into.
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I know of a couple of products for children which allow another account holder retain control, I wonder if those would work for this scenario. The two cards I’ve seen recommended are Greenlight and a couple products offered by Chase Bank. Chase has one debit card for elementary/ middle school aged and another for high school age but they make it really easy to manage and get more money into the account. I’m not sure how strict they are about the ages and if they’d allow these products to be used with seniors or not.
https://account.chase.com/banking/first-banking/comparison
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Hold on, I am confused…do you mean you’d get a debit card for your sr parents to use and who is going to load it up and use it? Would it be you doing the loading or your parents? Who would spend off that card?
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Say, for example, if you want to help with groceries, you could put money on a card for a specific store. I do this sometimes to budget my grocery spends.
You could also offer to pay for specific bills, and that really would take the load off. We did this for a family member who lost her husband to COVID in 2021. She wasn’t used to handling finances whatsoever, so to give her time to get up to speed and for insurance payouts, we each took a bill (I took electricity), got her account number, and paid the bills directly. We did this for around four to six months, and she told us it saved her life. The bill stays in their name; you just pay it
Or, I guess you could give a debit card as you suggested to use for whatever. But I like to give for a specific purpose. That way, I know that absolute necessities are taken care of.
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welcome to the community i have no idea but i’m sure which if you got one through your bank it would be safe
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Good suggestions already posted - allow authorized user on current credit card, obtain utility account info and pay for them, purchase gift cards for groceries and activities - massages, golf, etc.
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those are some great ideas! I love what you all did for your family member. I will definitely remember this.
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I like the idea of a debit card and add money to it. Try to find one that doesn’t have fees or charged you to add more money to it. The idea of adding them to credit card as a user be careful they don’t over use it. Unless you have a credit card that doesn’t have much available on it.
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A suggestion would be to get a gift card to store(s) where they get the bang for the buck.
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