Debit Cards for Elderly Parents

If you’re caring for aging parents, you may want the ability to monitor and manage their money without taking away all their independence. It might be helpful to have legal authority to manage their accounts or open a joint account with them to manage things as a team.

Here are some debit cards for seniors and caregivers to compare, as well as some helpful information to know about taking over someone’s finances.

7 top debit cards for elderly parents and their caregivers

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What to look for in a debit card for elderly folks

Here’s what to look for when comparing debit cards for your aging parents:

• Low or no fees. It’s pretty common for seniors and retired folks to live on fixed incomes, so look for accounts with no monthly fees or accounts with simple requirements to waive fees.
• Joint access. A great way to manage an elderly person’s account but still give them some independence is to open a joint account with them. Most traditional banks and credit unions support joint accounts, but some fintechs or online banks may not.
• Fraud protection. Seniors can be at more risk of financial scams or manipulation. Be sure that the account you go with is insured by the FDIC or NCUA, has fraud protections, encryption and standard bank-level security.
• Easy to use. While online banks and banking apps can be great, a senior may not be tech-savvy enough to manage things on their own. Be sure to teach your loved one how to manage money digitally or choose a bank with an easy-to-use app.
• Customer support. No matter your age or situation, customer service and access to customer support are always important. Trustpilot, the Better Business Bureau and app reviews are great places to read about how the bank handles customer complaints or resolves issues.
• Notifications and control. If you’re largely managing the account for your older relative, daily spending limits, low-balance alerts or even transaction notifications could be vital.

Should I get a power of attorney or a joint account?

A power of attorney, or POA, is a legal document that allows you to make decisions on someone’s behalf, such as financial or medical decisions. For example, there are financial POAs that can be used for short-term purposes, such as being able to pay for someone’s bills while they are sick. There are many different types of POAs, so if considering this route, ask for legal guidance.

For someone to grant you power of attorney over them, they must agree, sign up for it themselves and they must be mentally competent when they sign it. In short, it’s better to get a POA for an aging parent earlier rather than later.⁽²⁾

However, if a senior can live on their own but just needs help with depositing checks, making trips to the bank, ordering checks or other basic financial help, then a joint bank account might be best. You and your loved one can sign up for an account together, where both of you have equal access and ownership rights to the funds in the account. There are also joint accounts that allow for three or more people.

Help seniors avoid financial scams

Unfortunately, seniors are heavily targeted for identity theft and financial manipulation. Adults 60 and up who experienced financial exploitation collectively lost an estimated $60 billion in 2024.⁽¹⁾

Here are a few safeguards and tips to help reduce the chance of your loved one becoming a victim of financial scams:

• Register their number on the National Do Not Call Registry to help reduce spam calls.
• Set up transaction alerts to watch for suspicious activity.
• Warn them to never share personal information over the phone, email or text.
• Educate them on common scams and types, like phishing or gift card scams.
• Limit or supervise online shopping and digital payments if they’re not tech-savvy.
• Consider a password manager to track passwords and usernames.

Bottom line

Managing an elderly loved one’s finances can be a delicate but important responsibility. However, managing someone else’s money isn’t just about paying bills — it’s about protecting their independence, peace of mind and financial well-being as they age.

Ask your elderly parent or relative about everything that needs to be paid and their due dates, so things don’t fall through the cracks. You could also review bank statements for recurring expenses and set up automatic payments and alerts to keep everything in order. If your loved one agrees, adding yourself as a joint account holder or getting a POA can make it easier to manage accounts legally and smoothly.

If none of the debit cards we mentioned were the right fit, compare more top bank accounts and types.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take over someone’s bank account?

Unless the account is willed to you or you marry them, probably not.

Taking over someone else’s bank account is called “retilting” an account, which often requires you to supply the bank with a marriage certificate, trust certificate or a divorce decree. Unless you inherit someone’s bank account, there’s very little chance you can “take over” an aging relative’s account, so going with a power of attorney is likely a better option.

What is the Greenlight Card for elderly parents?

Greenlight is a fintech company that focuses on debit cards for children and their parents. While Greenlight is mostly designed for kids, there are no age requirements for its cards, so caregivers of elderly parents could issue a card for their parent.

The Greenlight cards offer custom spending controls, real-time alerts and fast and free transfers from external bank accounts. With its plan Infinity, it also provides identity theft protection tools and alerts. Greenlight also launched a plan called Family Shield for $24.99 per month, designed to safeguard your senior loved ones’ financial and digital safety. Family Shield offers extra perks not included in other plans, such as suspicious activity alerts, deceptive transfer fraud coverage and identity theft coverage.

To make sure you get accurate and helpful information, this guide has been edited by Holly Jennings as part of our fact-checking process.

Written by

Bethany Hickey

Banking editor

Bethany Hickey is the banking editor and personal finance expert at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto. Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt. Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others. Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine. See full bio

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