which the secondary transaction card is associated provided that the secondary transaction cardholder provides to the issuer an appropriate code as specified previously by the primary transaction cardholder thus in specific embodiments a secondary transaction cardholder wishing to access account information can access a web site or other appropriate interface maintained by the issuer in particular preferred embodiments the secondary transaction cardholder is authorized by the issuer to access only a subset of the information associated with the account and more particularly is authorized to access only account information pertaining to transactions conducted using the secondary transaction card associated with the password submitted by the secondary transaction cardholder such information can include without limitation transaction histories spending limitations e g weekly or monthly account balances and the like in other specific embodiments a secondary transaction cardholder desiring to engage in a transaction with a merchant supplies to the issuer indirectly through the merchant the merchant category code associated with that particular merchant in other words the secondary transaction cardholder presents the secondary transaction card to the merchant the merchant in turn submits the transaction to the issuer typically by electronic means for approval the issuer having received the proposed transaction from the merchant determines the merchant category code with which the merchant is associated the issuer then determines whether the code matches a code provided by the primary transaction cardholder if the code corresponds to a code for which the secondary transaction cardholder is authorized to utilize the account the issuer approves the transaction alternatively if the code corresponds to a code.