Appointeeship and Deputyship FAQs

The Money Carer card is a designated bank card that is used by tens of thousands of carers across the UK to buy shopping and other items for clients or loved ones in a safe and secure way. The Money Carer Foundation was the organisation that came up with the concept and then launched the service in 2010 to support our own clients and their carers.

These days, hundreds of solicitors, local authorities, care providers, charities and families, trust our carer card service to support their own clients, carers and loved ones.

The success of the Money Carer card was one of the reasons why The Money Carer Foundation was selected by The Parliamentary Review in 2018 to represent best practice and innovation in the finance category.

View this video in the Money Carer YouTube channel

The Money Carer card is a designated bank card that is used by tens of thousands of carers across the UK to buy shopping and other items for clients or loved ones in a safe and secure way. The Money Carer Foundation was the organisation that came up with the concept and then launched the service in 2010 to support our own clients and their carers.

These days, hundreds of solicitors, local authorities, care providers, charities and families, trust our carer card service to support their own clients, carers and loved ones.

The success of the Money Carer card was one of the reasons why The Money Carer Foundation was selected by The Parliamentary Review in 2018 to represent best practice and innovation in the finance category.

View this video in the Money Carer YouTube channel

The Money Carer card is a unique Mastercard that is linked to a bank account that is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The account cannot go overdrawn.

The bank account is opened in the name of the vulnerable client on Money Carers’ own banking platform, and the contactless cards can be used in exactly the same way as any other Mastercard, that is, in-store, or online, however, they are not credit facilities so can not go overdrawn.

Uniquely, Money Carer has its own dedicated banking platform with Zempler Bank which the organisation has worked in partnership with for over 10 years. Over 250 law firms and local authorities use the Money Carer banking platform to open bank accounts and support their own vulnerable clients.

Money Carer cards are contactless and can be used in any retail outlet that accepts Mastercard in-store, or online, anywhere in the world.

This means that the cards can be used in the vast majority of retail outlets as nearly all retailers accepting card payments accept payments via Mastercard.

The cards can also be used to withdraw cash from ATM machines importantly, with no fees charged for this, due to Money Carers’ unique banking partnership with Zempler Bank.

The Money Carer cards and smartphone app, have been designed to support and protect carers, and the vulnerable people under their charge. As such, Money Carer cards and the linked Money Carer app, have a number of unique features built in.

Here are just a few of these helpful features:

• The ability to set maximum and minimum balances on the cards.
• A ‘sweep’ system to transfer excess funds from the cards and back into the funding account.
• Payment requests can be made directly from the Money Carer smartphone app.
• Instant payment notifications sent to carers via the app and by email.
• Carers and clients can make money requests directly from the Money Carer app.
• Carers can send in shopping receipts and other documents directly from the app.
• Carers and clients can send and receive secure messages on the app.
• Helpful information such as welfare benefit letters and client budgets can be viewed in the app.
• Emergency money vouchers can be requested and received in the app if a card has been lost.

The concept of the carers shopping card was developed and introduced by The Money Carer Foundation in 2010, over 13 years ago. Monies held in Money Carer card accounts are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) as the funds are held in properly regulated bank accounts with Zempler Bank.

Very quickly, the Money Carer card became the preferred choice of thousands of carers and care providers to be able to support the vulnerable people under their charge with a secure and protected way of obtaining client funds to perform everyday shopping tasks. Today, hundreds of law firms, local authorities and national learning disability charities choose the Money Carer card to support their own clients as Money Carer is a secure, and financially robust organisation that is entrusted to manage the finances of some of society’s most needy people.

In recent years, a number of start-up companies have launched carer card products, however, these organisations either became insolvent and failed, or were unsuccessful and moved on to new ventures leaving disappointed customers behind. Money Carer, in many cases, then assisted these individuals who are now the safe clients of our organisation.

It is always worth checking out the history and heritage of any new companies offering a prepaid card-type solution to this important client group without having any real experience in the sector.

The person or organisation managing a Money Carer card can set a balance limit on each account to avoid excessive funds accruing.

This means that if you are the appointee, attorney, or deputy of a vulnerable person and our using a Money Carer card to provide their carers with shopping funds, you can control the limits.

So for example, if the money that you manage for a loved one is held in a high street bank such as Barclays, Lloyds, or HSBC, you can set up a standing order to add funds to the Money Carer card account for nominated carers to use. However, if you wanted to set a limit on the amount of money that could be held in the account at any time then you can do that.

You would simply log on to your Money Carer account, set a balance limit, say two hundred pounds for example, and then if the balance on the Money Carer card goes above that our sweep system can automatically transfer the funds over the two hundred limit back to the bank account of your choice automatically.

This helps to provide greater protection for your loved one and demonstrates that you are acting responsibly and shows that you have financial control measures.

Yes, we can.

In fact, our ability to do this is a very helpful service as it enables us to assist family members who may have the legal responsibility for managing their loved ones’ finances however, they themselves may struggle with online banking or getting to a bank branch to set up a standing order to top up their Money Carer card.

We can take care of this by setting up a variable direct debit instruction via our banking platform. This also enables us to be able to take additional funds, one-off funds for larger purchases from time to time such as buying a new TV or enabling carers to have access to money to organise a holiday for example.

This card funding option is protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee which always means the person or organisation that is managing the finances of a loved one or client is in control.