When it comes to debit cards, you’re spoiled for choice in Australia. It certainly is possible to have more than one debit card per person. In fact, most people do.

Many Australian debit card users have more than one debit card, and there are definitely advantages of having a variety of debit cards.

Although people would often have a variety of credit cards depending on the rewards scheme, they generally only had one debit card.  This is because traditionally debit cards have been tied to transaction accounts as banks and other financial institutions saw debit cards as a replacement for cheque books and a way of reducing the number of time that people went to a an ATM.

Previously, most banking customers only carried a single debit card, one linked to their transaction account. Debit cards were seen by banks as an almost direct replacement for cheques, which tended to be provided only to transaction accounts. These accounts are set up for constant transactions, charging for processing cheques or charging a flat fee for cheques and other transactions.

However debit cards do not tend to cost the bank or the customer each time they are used.  This has meant that debit cards have been offered with many other accounts such as mortgage accounts, loan accounts, securities trading accounts and savings accounts.  A debit card user can usually find that they can ask for another debit card on one of their other accounts.

Getting another debit card can be very useful for a number of reasons.  For a small business owner (even if the business is part time) a separate business debit card can be a very useful way of keeping track of business expenses.  This can mean that it is possible to track how well the business is doing as well as looking for how the company is doing.

Advantages of multiple debit cards

Another use for a separate debit card is to look for the money that is spent on work related expenses.  Many jobs have an expenses system where the employee incurs work expenses and then get paid back the expenses by their employer.  This can mean that keeping track of expenses becomes quite hard.  Using a separate debit card can mean that the expenses can be tracked more effectively.

The other way in which a separate debit card works is when reclaiming expenses.  Although most jobs want to have receipts, they will often accept a bank statement with a separate debit card.  The statement will identify how much is spent and with whom.  This will mean that the debit card user should have a separate statement firstly as a way to hide their personal expenses from their employer and secondly to make sure that their employer is less likely to query expenses claimed in this way.

You could also have multiple debit cards to maximise on rewards programs, offset accounts, online shopping and even withdrawing cash. If you regularly shop online overseas you’ll know the sting of foreign transaction fees. Some debit cards, like the ING Direct Orange debit card, waive or refund these fees, if you meet a set of criteria. This could potentially save you hundreds of dollars over the course of a year.

Other debit cards such as the Bankwest Easy Transaction Debit Card, when linked with Qantas, will earn you Qantas Points on your balance and every time you spend.

So in this scenario someone could use the ING Debit Card for shopping online, and the Bankwest card for over the counter purchaess.

Final Verdict

So is it worth having multiple debit cards? Well this all comes down to how you’ll use them and whether you’re ok with managing multiple accounts and potentially paying multiple account keeping fees!