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When I was a kid, I had a joint bank account with one of my parents. When I was around 16 I was able to get a "Check card", which behaved like a debit card in t

When I was a kid, I had a joint bank account with one of my parents. When I was around 16 I was able to get a "Check card", which behaved like a debit card in that I couldn't spend more money within was in the account, but it looked like a Visa card to anyone who was processing it. I recall being pleasantly surprised when I learned that I could use that card to "prove" I was over 18.

vidarh 5y ago
My son has a visa card tied to the app his pocket money gets paid into (Go Henry). It's available from age 6.
tekknik 5y ago
> When I was around 16 I was able to get a "Check card", which behaved like a debit card in that I couldn't spend more money within was in the account Not relevant to the conversation at hand, and perhaps this is US only, but using a debit card you can absolutely spend more than you have. Sometimes banks won’t remove the funds until the actual transaction posts. Most shops won’t post the transactions until evening. So in some cases you can double, triple, quadruple spend. Doing so of course is fraud.
- BenjiWiebe 5y ago
  Are you sure that's fraud? When I accidentally spent more than I had, the bank never cancelled my account / told me I'd committed fraud / sicced the cops on me. My balance went negative, and I was charged an overdraft fee. Reading the fine print on my account, it said that charges would go through on an overdrawn account until a certain dollar amount, at which point the debit card transactions would fail. Now reading what I just wrote... It does seem like it would be very much specific to each bank.
- nfriedly 5y ago
  Oh, good point. Now that I think about it, I did overspend by a small amount once, and I remember the bank paid it but charged me a $25 fee so that my account was left at -$26 or whatever. I think my paycheck cleared the next day, and then they refunded the fee when I called and complained. (I think it's only fraud if you do it intentionally, though.)

vidarh 5y ago

My son has a visa card tied to the app his pocket money gets paid into (Go Henry). It's available from age 6.

tekknik 5y ago

> When I was around 16 I was able to get a "Check card", which behaved like a debit card in that I couldn't spend more money within was in the account Not relevant to the conversation at hand, and perhaps this is US only, but using a debit card you can absolutely spend more than you have. Sometimes banks won’t remove the funds until the actual transaction posts. Most shops won’t post the transactions until evening. So in some cases you can double, triple, quadruple spend. Doing so of course is fraud.

BenjiWiebe 5y ago
Are you sure that's fraud? When I accidentally spent more than I had, the bank never cancelled my account / told me I'd committed fraud / sicced the cops on me. My balance went negative, and I was charged an overdraft fee. Reading the fine print on my account, it said that charges would go through on an overdrawn account until a certain dollar amount, at which point the debit card transactions would fail. Now reading what I just wrote... It does seem like it would be very much specific to each bank.
nfriedly 5y ago
Oh, good point. Now that I think about it, I did overspend by a small amount once, and I remember the bank paid it but charged me a $25 fee so that my account was left at -$26 or whatever. I think my paycheck cleared the next day, and then they refunded the fee when I called and complained. (I think it's only fraud if you do it intentionally, though.)