Hi everyone,

I'm taking over my father's financially responsibilities soon. He has poor (internet) spending habits and has volunteered to forfeit all management to me.

I'm looking for a checking account I can set up for him such that I can impose the following restrictions:

(1a) Disable all internet point-of-sale transactions.
(1b) Alternately, disable all debit card transactions
(2) Restrict the amount of cash that can be withdrawn per week from the account.

I see some "teen accounts" that allow for this. But I couldn't find one that allows me to restrict debit/internet transactions.

Ideally the goal is to allow him to make everyday grocery purchases, and occasional doctor copays, but nothing more.

Anyone seen this type of account before?

Thank you.

I am not aware of any kind of account/card/whatever that lets you restrict transactions based on what kind of merchant they are made through. The whole system of classifying merchants as this type or that is not particularly accurate, anyways.

Could you enable him to make specific types of purchases with gift cards or store credit cards? Though that would restrict him not just to a specific type, but a specific merchant.

What about good old cash? Hard (though not impossible) to spend that on the internet.

If he is that able to control himself, perhaps he needs some mental health counseling? Or to be checked out by a doctor for some underlying problem?

Obviously the ideal would be to set up a second checking account and transfer money into that account each month/week. Let dad have access to that one, but not the main one.

Basically, its you giving him an allowance.

The only other alternative is to have him only pay cash for things.

Thanks all. I'll work on a minimal secondary account and enforce cash when possible. As far as health, yes he's been diagnosed and is seeing a counselor

I'm not even sure if I can provide enough information to get you started on this but here goes:

A few years ago when the US Treasury stopped (or proposed stopping) issuing physical checks for payments like social security and welfare in favor of direct deposit, the issue was raised that many recipients did not have checking accounts and banks were not interested in having those people as customers. The solution was some sort of limited account that all chartered banks were required to offer free of charge for receiving government benefits and for accessing the money. I know that banks were not thrilled with this idea and they don't advertise them, but this might be something for you to research.

Even though they don't precisely fit your father's situation, finding out about these might get you started. Unfortunately I can't even tell you what those accounts are called.