Fundamentally, yes, it is a prepaid Mastercard but with some restrictions.
The card can only be used in ‘most UK supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, and markets that sell eligible food items’. They probably just have a list of retailers which meet these criteria and block anything else.
The card also cannot be used online, outside of the UK, or to withdraw the money.
There have been news stories about people buying e-scooters and stuff. The restrictions are a little coarse because they have to rely on the limited information they will get from retailers but the card at allows for more restrictions cash would.
The only alternative I can think of is a voucher scheme which would require much more involvement from shops to implement and would be more complicated. Maybe the government decided the ‘cost’ of people using it to buy other things was less than the cost of a more complicated system.
Sorry, this is only for families on benefits with young children. It’s just to help encourage people to buy healthy stuff for them. (maybe this makes it more exclusive than some of the cards here???)
This actually made me look into it more. The cashiers might enforce the rules but some won’t know about it; it’s nowhere near as strictly enforced as something like Check 25 for alcohol.
I’ve known cards can block gambling and other 18+ purchases because children’s accounts do this. Specifically because tobacco is an 18+ product the NHS card might be able to block it. (it also goes a little against the ‘healthy’ part of the scheme I guess).
There might be more restrictions as well but people say that ‘mixed’ baskets containing both allowed and disallowed items work sometimes.
The ‘World Business Debit’ card shows what that could look like. (though it has a deeper premium looking blue shade as well)
Does anyone know the reason for the addition of the yellow with the redesign? It’s in the Rooster Money logo as well but is it in their brand guidelines or anything?
Oh this takes me back to 2018, sitting in NatWest Leamington Spa, staring at the posters on the wall and the TV whilst my parents were opening their current account.
