Credit Card for Helper

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kashismum

Registered User
We try to remember to give our helper cash every week for shopping, etc. Sometimes we forget, and often she runs out and needs to ask for more.

So, I'm thinking of giving her a credit card - a supplementary card on an existing account - or perhaps a new card with a lower limit. This way, she'll be able to do a big shop for delivery without having to calculate the cost, and limit what she can buy. I thought this will also be a good safety net for when we go on holiday and leave her in the flat in case anything happens i.e cat needs to go to the vet.

Obviously, we trust our helper. If any transactions were unaccounted for, we'd be able to ask her. I just want her to be able to do the household shopping efficiently so that we always have what we need.

Just wondering if anyone has done this and your experiences. Thoughts/comments appreciated.
 
kashismum said:
If any transactions were unaccounted for, we'd be able to ask her.
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Just make sure that she brings back each receipt, so you can cross-check with your bill.

It's not such a bad idea, since you'll know pretty exactly where/for what she'll have spent the money. If it doesn't work (ie she 'loses' some receipts or all of a sudden begins to spend suspiciously much), you can always consider cancelling the card.

Maybe you should also give very specific instructions on how you want the card to be used (e.g. not allowing her to buy something for her friend/husband/... with the promise that she'll pay you back 'some day').
 
I couldn't do it. I know my helper and she'd spend money on it for herself and come up with some excuse like - my sister was in hospital and needed the money. So far each month we've had her she's tried to hit us up for extra money for something or other and just last week she asked for a loan for a big sum of money for someone earning what helper's earn. She thinks that we have tons of money and doesn't realise how hard we work to earn the money we have. For anyone who thinks i'm being harsh i'll give one example to illustrate how far she will go to get whatever she can for us. 4 weeks ago we helped her pay for a funeral for her father despite her telling me that he was already dead before we took her on! Yeah we gave the money because it was just easier that way. We're getting rid off her now for other reasons but her continual efforts to get us to part with our money hasn't helped. She lost $500 the other day and kept mentioning it as if i should give $500 to her!

You are lucky if you trust your helper to the extent that you could give her a credit card. I'd definitely be putting a very small limit on it however. If anything major comes up when you are on holiday i'm sure you will always be in phone contact and can deal with whatever needs to be dealt with on the phone.
 
My immediate reaction would be "I personally would not". I know you said you trust your helper, but it seems to be a risk not worth taking. I sometimes forget to give enough money, so I told my helper that she should just tell me when it's running low, so I can get money to give her. It's not really a hassle. I trust my helper too, but that does not mean she has not borrowed from the finance co ("loansharks") either for herself or for friends (so she tells me). If you are going on holiday, she can always leave her some money on the last day for emergencies. When we went on holiday and she had to look after the cats, I just leave her no. of my brother/friend in case she needed money for the vet. Also, you can arrange with your vet on payment when you return if need be. There just seems to be more con than pros in providing her with credit card.
 
If its just for supermarketing, I think ParkNShop and Wellcome still issue charge cards. I have seen people using them. I used to have a Wellcome card years ago.
 
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credit card for helper

I personally wouldn't do that. I mean there are emergencies and that's when friends/relatives are for, plus you can always leave emergency cash. I think a credit card is dangerous, even if it has a low limit, because they may have the ability to access additional account information. I'm just old fashioned I guess....
 
Have you thought of giving your helper a cheque already signed and made payable to ParknShop? That way all she has to do is fill in the amount. It's safe as only ParknShop can cash it and you don't have to worry that she won't have enough money to do all the shopping.
 
I trust my DH a lot, but I wouldn't give her a credit card for the same reason I wouldn't leave too much cash and jewelry casually around the house - too much temptation.
 
why dont u give her the octopus card with 500 hkd on it and then keep adding money as and when you run low. that would be safest way accordingly to me
 
I wouldn't give my helper a credit card either. I always give her cash to go shopping on Monday for the week. I have a spreadsheet of what we spend weekly so I can budget how much to give her. If we are out of town and she needs money for emergencies, she can always call my mom or sister.
 
sunrays said:
Have you thought of giving your helper a cheque already signed and made payable to ParknShop? That way all she has to do is fill in the amount. It's safe as only ParknShop can cash it and you don't have to worry that she won't have enough money to do all the shopping.
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Does Park'n'Shop accept a cheque? I hadn't thought of this.
 
Thanks everyone for your advice. The general wisdom is 'Don't be so stupid/naive!'. Anyway, I didn't know that P'n'S will accept cheques, so I'll try this. Failing that, a store card would be a good option.
 
LittleLams said:
Kashismum, PnS no longer issues store card unless you have an existing account/old store card with them.
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Thanks, LittleLams. I did check their website but everything on that site seems to relate only to online shopping. When I called Customer Service, they didn't know how to answer and asked me to call the store.
 
sunrays said:
Yes, they do. We do this quite often with our helper.
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I sent my helper with a cheque and they rejected it! A call to customer service confirmed that they'll only accept a cheque presented by the account holder and accompanied by their HKID card.

All a ploy to push you to use the online I ordering, I think.

Sunrays, has this not been your experience?
 
cash & notebook is what we do. every week, we give her cash & she has to keep the receipts each day & write everything she bought on the book at the end of the day & present it the next morning. we try to check it everyday cos it'll pile up. as for home grocery, i do the shopping online at parknshop.com. they do free delivery & it's a quite efficient website. wellcome has one too. so the helper only goes out for perishables.
 
Another way to do it is for you to go to PNS and buy the vouchers. You can then give the vouchers to your helper when she does her grocery. Of course you will need to give her some spare cash since they don't give change for vouchers.

I don't know if this solves the problem you originally posted here. We do this because we want to get the credit card points while still letting our helper do the grocery shopping for us (my credit card give 8% cash back for shopping at wellcome/park n shop).
 
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