Is there a way to block being able to make purchases online?

It might be easier to prevent it by withholding a means of payment. Is someone else managing her finances? If she can’t enter a credit or debit card number or link PayPal to her bank account, isn’t she effectively blocked?

On the other hand, if she can afford it, why not let her have a little shopping fun? Or at least give her a chance to show what she’ll do before they cut her off? Is what she does with her money any of their business?

My husband is the financial manager for an elderly, disabled person. She was spending her rent money and the money for her medicines and such on the TV buying shows before she asked him to manage her accounts. Her social security/disability is deposited into an account that she has no access to, and she receives a monthly allowance to spend as she pleases.

All her other expenses are paid directly out of the main holding account.

Like the woman @YARNLADY‘s husband is the financial manager for I am disabled. Like that woman (someone else) my husband is in charge of our household’s accounts. He also, (set up by the state) is the manager of my SSD money. They were both set up so that I have an allowance, but have no access to the money earmarked for our mortgage and other household bills. He is in charge of the house accounts under the guidance of my Psychologist, and the SSD because they wouldn’t let me have it until I was made unable to access it.
It is humiliating, but neither my doctor nor the state think I can manage the money. I am given an allowance every month so that I can keep some self-respect. That way also I don’t have any way to spend the money on something that I don’t need at the expense of the bills for my medicine and the house.

An allowance will help her to be able to act like a “normal” person and keep her self respect.

She has full access to her checking account and she has a credit card. I really don’t think she will start spending tons of money, I am not concerned. But, if I can tell my other relatives there is no way for her to purchase online it would just be easier for me to deal with them. I am basically going to go against them, I think it is horrible for her to be so isolated. I have wanted to do it for months now. Part of the reason they are against it is having internet will be more expensive also as a monthly expense in general.

But I, like @Jeruba, think she should be able to have some fun, and most of all have some control over her life and her time. She gave the bulk of her money to my sister and me, we keep it in our name, but it is still really hers, and she did not have to do that. She did it so if she died it would already be in our names (she had been seriously ill at one point and we thought she wouldn’t make it). I do pay all her bills now, and help make some decisions.

I already fought off my family for her, because she needed some dental work done, and they wanted her to go to the dental school, because it would be free with medicaid. But, the dental school had been a disaster the couple times she tried it. My family kept saying it would be thousands for my aunt to get the bridge she needed and some other work. Without venting the whole story to the collective, the bridge wound up being around $120. The additional work was about $400.

Gawd, I hope my husband does not die before me, I can’t rely on my family to take care of me, it would suck. They can be so mean and intolerant.

@JLeslie, if I’m reading your story right, it’s none of their business. Why are they even butting in? What reason do they have for thinking she’d be irresponsible?

I can hear a quiet voice behind your voice saying “I intend to treat her as I’d like to be treated. This could be me in a few years.” I hope you have a niece or nephew or other young relative who will remember how you stuck up for her and do the same for you.

When my husband and his brother were looking after their father during his final decline, which lasted a difficult three years, their attitude was, “It’s the old man’s money. Let’s spend it on him.” So they made sure he had full-time geriatric care, household help, and various other comforts. I was proud of them for the way they handled it. And I hope that kindness comes back to them in their turn.

I don’t think there is a way to block purchases on the computer end. As others have said, it would be a lot easier to control from the financial side.

But if I were you, I’d not worry about it at this point. I’d buy her the computer, regardless of what the rest of the family thinks. If she proves to be an irresponsible spender, that would be the time for a family discussion (if one is really necessary at all). I mean, if she’s going to shop herself out of house and home, then yeah… by all means, step in. But if she has the money to spend, what business is it of anyone’s, really?

Besides, if she’s quite elderly and also new to the whole computer business, it will probably be enough of a challenge just to get across the concept of e-mail and help her learn to use it. Unless someone goes out of their way to teach her about shopping online, she may not even try it.

From a technological point of view, you could do things. Such as block her browsers from being able to access paypal, visa, mastercard, and all such other sites.

You could also make a script that opens the browsers, and then listens for triggers. If she types in her credit card number, half way through the computer will automatically delete what she has typed before she can finish entering her details.

There are also many other things you could do to the computer to stop it making purchases. Some parental control programs will have useful tools too.

However, there is absolutely nothing you can do on the technological side that can’t be undone by her or a friend or a computer repair guy.

If you are going to limit her spending, you need to do it via the financial side and not the technological side.

EDIT: When people pay online, they usually do so on secure sites. SSL, HTTPS, and all that good stuff. So the most effective way to stop her making purchases would be to tamper with the security validation of your browsers. However, this would cause side affect problems, such as not being able to visit HTTPS pages, even if they don’t sell things.

@Jeruba Actually, I have no one. The only neice and nephew is on my husband’s side, and his family is not great at being close, I would never think they would help. I honestly don’t know exactly how I am goingto deal with being older, or ill, or unable to care for myself. And, yes, I want to treat her as I would want to be treated.

@all My other family members do help care for her. My sister shares the biggest burden, because she lives close by and she is a nurse, and she works for the company that sends my aunt her caregivers.

My aunt is only 65. Her memory is a little lacking, but really not that much. She still can carry on conversations about interesting complex topics with no problem if they are based in old knowledge, but she is weak, tires easily, and is in very bad chronic pain. When I say based in old knowledge, she was very with it in her day. She has a masters, she had a career running a foundation, she has always been interested in history, politics, women’s rights, health, animal rights, she has travelled practically around the world. New things like computers and other new technologies she is a little confused about, but really not bad at all. She can use a computer fine, but knowing things like wifi, routers, how it all works, that sort of thing she doesn’t. I barely do.

Thanks everyone for your answers.