Mom and adult son have a joint dda account that is primarily used by the son. He has apparently went off the deep end and is non-responsive to family phone calls etc and has withdrawn all the money in his account through debit card usage.

Mom (who has no debit card on this account) would like to deposit enough money to cover the transactions that are coming through. She would like to cancel his card so that the deposit she makes does not become available through the atm system before it covers the transactions in suspense.

Can she cancel his card?

The bank can cancel the card for acct abuse. She should put just enough in to zero out the account, take herself off the account and get her own sep acct.

No previous acct abuse and we only have her statement that he has 'gone off the deep end' so we aren't comfortable cancelling his card.

We have had other such requests from joint account owners in the past so I thought I would verify joint owner authority. I can't find anything in Reg E that addresses whether one owner can cancel another owner's card.

Why wouldn't the mom just close out the account. Since it is a joint account, she could deposit enough to bring the balance to zero and close it out.

Account still has a positive balance, we just know from looking at our suspense items that it is about to overdraw so any deposits go out to the atm system as available funds until everything clears. So Mom wanted to just cancel the card to prevent any other transactions.

She doesn't want to close the account.

Sounds like this is headed for disaster. Mom can't cancel his card, doesn't want to close account, wants to stay on account, but thinks he is taking the money via ATM leaving items to bounce.

If the bank does not want to strongly suggest she get her own account and let him suffer the consequences of bounced items, and she doesn't see this herself, then she must be planning to keep him going.

Make sure the bank doesn't come up short.

My official opinion would be that she:

1. Close the account pending a zero balance (which would cancel the debit card but allow pending transactions to clear.)

2. Continue to enable him by depositing money to cover his overdrafts. (including the fees which come with it)
Hopefully the Branch Manager will agree that those are her only choices and we don't start a song and dance routine that could leave us holding the bag.

I still am not sure if one joint owner has the authority to cancel another joint owner's debit/atm card.

Exactly. I don't see how one adult can act for the other. They are joint owners, each with full rights. She is not acting for him.

I hate it when people expect the bank to parent their children.

She needs to close the account if she no longer wants to cover for him.

Does your account agreement speak to this issue?