No-line-of-credit debit card?
This arrangement might be a bit of a pain, but what about Visa gift card(s)? The transfer of money just doesn't happen if the money isn't already on the card. See here. We have a pre-paid mastercard.  This will only allow the spending up to the amount already paid into the card account.  Visa Electron is a bank account linked debit card that will not allow the account to go overdrawn but this card type is getting quite rare. "I think what you are looking for is a secured credit card. They are mostly used by people who have ruined their credit and want to rebuild it, but it might also serve your purpose.  Essentially you deposit some money in an account and the credit card can be used up to the amount left in the account. Each month when you pay the bill, it resets the balance that you can charge. Also, many credit card providers also offer ""disposable"" or ""one use"" credit card numbers for the express purpose of using it online. It still gets charged against your regular account, but you get a separate number that can only be used for up to X dollars of transactions." Having worked at a financial institution, this is a somewhat simple, two-part solution. 1) The lendor/vendor/financial institution simply turns off the overdraft protection in all its forms. If no funds are available at a pin-presented transaction, the payment is simply declined. No fee, no overdraft, no mess. 2) This sticking point for a recurring transaction, is that merchants such as Netflix, Gold's Gym etc, CHOOSE to allow payments like this, BECAUSE they are assured they are going to get paid by the financial institution. It prevents them from having issues. Only a gift card will not cost you more money than you put in, BUT I know of several institutions, that too many non-payment periods can cause them to cease doing business with you in the future. TL:DR/IMO If you don't want to pay more than you have, gift cards are the way to go. You can re-charge them whenever you choose, and should you run into a problem, simply buy a new card and start over.
My son who is now 21 has never needed me to cosign on a loan for him and I did not need to establish any sort of credit rating for him to establish his own credit.  One thing I would suggest is ditch the bank and use a credit union. I have used one for many years and opened an account there for my son as soon as he got his first job. He was able to get a debit card to start which doesn't build credit score but establishes his account work the credit union. He was able to get his first credit card through the same credit union without falling work the bureaucratic BS that comes with dealing with a large bank. His interest rate may be a bit higher due to his lack of credit score initially but because we taught him about finance it isn't really relevant because he doesn't carry a balance. He has also been able to get a student loan without needing a cosigner so he can attend college.  The idea that one needs to have a credit score established before being an adult is a fallacy. Like my son, I started my credit on my own and have never needed a cosigner whether it was my first credit card at 17 (the credit union probably shouldn't have done that since i wasn't old enough to be legally bound), my first car at 18 or my first home at 22. For both my son and I, knowing how to use credit responsibly was far more valuable than having a credit score early. Before your children are 18 opening credit accounts with them as the primary account holder can be problematic because they aren't old enough to be legally liable for the debt. Using them as a cosigner is even more problematic for the same reason. Each financial institution will have their own rules and I certainly don't know them all.  For what you are proposing I would suggest a small line of credit with a credit union. Being small and locally controlled you will probably find that you have the best luck there. The FDIC is pretty confident about them being legit. http://www2.fdic.gov/idasp/main_bankfind.asp  (type in Bank Of The Sierra in the name field and search on that) You got to realize how much money they will make if you use them per the agreement.  Every credit card / debit transaction gets them some cash.  Businesses get between 1 and 5% of each transaction even on debit cards.  Then there is a flat fee the merchant pays for accepting the credit card between .25 and .50 per transaction.  Even at 12 transactions a month, the bank is looking at making around $6/month.  Probably more because who uses a debit card just 12 times a month.  It would be convenient for most people to juse use it all the time. Does 4.09% APY beat $6/month?  You would have to keep a balance of $2000 plus to cost more than you earn.  And if you keep more than $2k in the account, they have other ways to make money off of you. I would also assume they make money on the bill pay and direct deposit side of things, but I can't speak for certain about that. Bottom line is this seems like a good deal to attract customers, they would rather make a bit less profit then BofA to grow their business.  They are betting their offer restrictions will change your habits and make you more profitable to them. Debit cards are the dumbest development ever. I now have a piece of plastic that allows any yahoo to cause me to bounce my mortgage. Great. Throw away the debit card. Use a credit card and exercise some self control. Take out a sufficient amount of cash to cover your weekly incidental expenses under $50. If you want something that costs more than $50, wait a week and use the credit card. You'll find that using cash at places like the convenience store or gas station will cause you to not spend $3 for a slim jim, lotto ticket, donut or other dumb and unnecessary item. The question should be - do you need a debit card?  Other than American Express I have to tell my other credit card issuers to not make my cards dual debit/credit. Using a debit card card can be summed up easily - It creates a risk of fraud, errors, theft, over draft, and more while providing absolutely no benefit.   It was simply a marketing scheme for card companies to reduce risk that has lost favor, although they are still used.  That is why banks put it on credit cards by default if they can. (I am talking about logical people who can control not overspending because of debit vs. credit - as it is completely illogical that you would spend more based on what kind of card you have.) "This is not a normal occurrence, and you have every right to be annoyed, but the technical way it usually happens goes like this: What can happen is when the merchant incorrectly completes the transaction without referencing the pre-authorization transaction. The bank effectively doesn't ""know"" this is the same transaction, so they process it the same way they process any other purchase, and it has no effect on the pre-authorization and related held/pending transaction. As far as the bank knows, you purchased a second set of blinds in the store for $200 and are still waiting on the first order to come in, they have no idea the store screwed up. The reason this is possible is the purpose of the pre-auth in the first place is that it is a contractual agreement between the bank (credit card) and the merchant that the funds are available, will be available except under rare special circumstances, and thus they can go ahead and process the order. This lets the merchant be secure in the knowledge that they can collect their payment, but you aren't paying interest or monthly payments on something you haven't even gotten yet! This system works reasonably well for everyone - right up until someone screws up and fails to properly release a hold, makes a second transaction instead of properly referencing the first one, or the bank screws up their system and fails to correctly match referenced pre-authorization codes to purchases. The problem is that this should not be a normal occurrence, and the people you are speaking with to try to sort out the issue often do not have the authority or knowledge necessary to properly fix the issue, or its such a hassle for them that they hope you just go away and time fixes the issue on its own. The only sure-fire solution to this is: make sure you have so much extra credit line that this doesn't effect you and you can safely let it time out on its own, or stop doing business with this combination of merchant/payment that creates the problem. Back when my credit limits were being pushed, I would never pay at gas pumps because their hold polices were so weird and unpredictable, and I would only pre-pay inside or with cash to avoid the holds." A few reasons make sense: They have a defined process for rentals, risk assessment, and customer credit. Especially for a large corporation, making changes to that process is not trivial, adds risk/uncertainty, and will be costly. Such changes for a relatively small customer base might not makes sense. Many rental companies DO allow you to rent with a debit card. Why do some businesses take cash only?  With a debit card, there is no third party guarantee. With a credit card, the cash is coming from a well-established third party who will pay (assuming no disputes) and has a well-established history of paying. Even if the merchant holds your account, it is still your cash under the control of you and your bank until the deposit clears the merchants bank. It is not surprising they view that as more risk and potentially not worth hassling with debit. EMV cards use an offline transaction counter to increase security. This counter is maintained inside the card and incremented every time a transaction is confirmed by the card. For (online) contact transactions, the card will usually receive feedback from its issuer, which (among other actions) will reset that counter to zero. For offline transactions, the card will increment the counter by one each time it is used. For contactless transactions, things are a bit different: Since contactless transactions usually do not maintain a connection between the card and the terminal long enough to transmit issuer feedback to the card, the counter cannot be reset that way. The counter will therefore even be incremented for online transactions. The implications of this are dependent on what your issuer is actually doing with the contents of the offline counter: Some issuers use this as a safety measure for contactless cards and allow only a limited number of contactless transactions, since those usually do not require any cardholder verification method below a certain threshold (e.g. 25€ in many European countries), and the total risk in case of physical card theft can therefore be limited to <number of offline transactions>*<maximum contactless transaction amount>. Usually, you would have to use your card in a contact-based transaction to reset the counter, and the terminal would display an according notice. It is indeed strange that the terminal instead requested your PIN. If this happens again, you could try to use your card once via the contact interface and see if this resets your offline counters and allows you to pay without PIN entry for the next few transactions. With change in technology and regulations, quite a few clearing systems provide an ability to directly credit a credit card. In Europe Sepa transactions allow one to credit a credit card. The service would be offered by Local bank rather than Visa or Master Card