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✎ EN Debit card for teenager

Discussion in 'France' started by Jlock, Apr 27, 2020.

  1. Jlock

    Jlock New Member

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    Hello! My daughter (14) go to Paris for a month this July for her friend and I want to have a debit card for her. What debit card you can recommend for teenagers? Thanks!!!
     
  2. Cyrilexpat

    Cyrilexpat Administrator
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    Hello and welcome to EasyExpat.com.

    First of all, I would recommend to be careful with any plan for this summer. With the Covid-19 pandemic, July is close and although some European countries are starting relaxing some confinement measures, we still don't know what will happen this summer in term of travels. It might be that some borders are still close and the European Union might decide the keep the borders of the Schengen area shut, which the UK is not part of. Therefore it might be impossible for non French residents to travel from Britain... Again, I have no idea, but I just want to emphasize that better be cautious than sorry.

    More generally, in order to give some response to your question, I have found the information below.

    Several options:
    Prepaid prepaid travel money card: Guardian Money has done a very good article on it and they say:
    "The obvious solution for young people – or anyone with standard bank cards – is a prepaid travel money card. They are quick and easy to get hold of – there are no credit checks – and once you have loaded them up from your UK bank account at a typical currency conversion fee of 1%-2%, they can be used abroad just like any other bank card – but (mostly) without hefty charges."
    According to the article, the best options are Caxton FX Black, Sainsbury’s Bank Cash Passport and WeSwap. All will let you load multiple currencies – up to 18 in the case of WeSwap – and each allows you to make fee-free purchases in shops, and free ATM withdrawals – provided you are getting out the currency you have loaded on.

    UK main banks: Easy but expensive > to be use as back up card
    UK banks (assuming you are in the UK as your profile says) have got bank accounts for youths, that can issue a payment card. For exampel children aged 11 and above can open a bank account with MyMoney Children's Bank Accounts at HSBC and get a Visa debit card that they can use to withdraw in any ATM up to £100 (as long as the child has money on his/her bank account). Same thing with BarclayPlus, where you can get a cash card or a debit card from 11 years old. And the same applies to other canks such as Llyods or Metro.
    With the Visa card they all provide, children are able to pay abroad.
    Unfortunately they will charge a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee (~3%) for using the debit card abroad.
     
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  3. Corrko

    Corrko New Member

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    Hi, I agree with Cyrilexpat, this summer is definitely not for travelling, though my wife and I really wanted to visit France too. However I'd recommend Blackcatcard as you can issue a lot of extra cards to your account. So you can control your daughter's spendings. There's no setup and maintenance fees and all the transfer inside bcc are free.
     

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