Prepaid Cards Guide Discussion Area

aimik78 · 18 October 2011 at 5:35PM

hiya all
just looking for bit more advise going travelling for 4 months to nz and oz whats the best card for this most of them only talk about euro/us dollars?

useless_git_requires_wife · 18 October 2011 at 7:41PM

~evanesco~ wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's been posted but Orange are doing a prepaid card now which is only £5. There are no monthly fees, or transaction fees, there is for withdrawals though.

It's a good card for general UK use, though there are some unusual charges that it's worth being aware of:

http://cash.orange.co.uk/costs/

wohic · 19 October 2011 at 11:51AM

I like the look of the orange card but is there better ones, perhaps ones with cash back or voucher insentives? I have been reading all morning but am still confused.
The reason I want a PAYG card >
I have a basic bank account that receives just £30 a week in to it so no chance of upgrading to a visa account, I have just received a cheque as compensation (nothing grand mind lol) and would like to be able to buy the children a few nice christmas presents on line, the prepay card seems my best (well probably only option) so what would you money saving expets recommend for me please ?

JConnors · 22 October 2011 at 7:10PM

I currently have a credit score of 548, having plummeted from the high 800's in early 2009 after I left my wife who spanked the joint credit cards and didn't think she had any reason to tell me or help pay them off.

Experian say the following on my most recent score...

Factors that are having a negative effect on your score
- You have made two or fewer applications for credit in the last six months.
- You have several credit agreements (excluding mortgages), and the outstanding balance is high.

I have been paying off the £40k debt on my own since 2008, and am now down to the last £10k, but I want to start fixing my credit rating in order to be able to buy my own house, currently renting and hate it!!!

My question is: would a pre-paid credit card help my situation, and if so - which would be best suited to me?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

Jamie

prepareathome · 23 October 2011 at 2:10PM

JConnors wrote: »

My question is: would a pre-paid credit card help my situation, and if so - which would be best suited to me?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

Jamie

I use the the Cashplus card, ( https://www.mycashplus.co.uk) they have an option of what they call credit builder, they do charge £4.95 a month but they give you the option of making it seem that the monthly amount you pay is actually a loan you are paying off and every quarter - so long as you paid the fee on time they report to the credit agencies that you are paying your loan of well.

I am sure there are plenty out there that do this as well but we have been using this card for about 5 years now it as we wanted to stop debt building so cut up our old cards and after asking around choose this one as the best at the time. Now happy to say we are debt free to anyone.

Hope this gives you a starting point:j

prepareathome · 23 October 2011 at 2:30PM

One thing to note for prepaid cards - I have asked around and found this true of many not just mine - is the first time you register your card online with a new company, even before you have bought anything. For Example I pay my internet provider with my card and when I first gave them details of the card £1 was taken off and put in the pending file, even though the company were not actually taking money off me. The charge will sit in your pending file for up to 15 days then returned to your account as it was not actually requested by the company. Even if you are actually paying for something via phone or online when you check your statement you will very often see a £1 charge before the actual payment in pending file ( I call it pending file for ease) so if you tried to pay for something costing say £90 and you only have £90 on your card your actual payment might be declined as not enough funds available because the £1 will have been taken off - its not the actual companies that do this not even sure if its the card companies, its more just as a check to ensure the card is operational as far as I can find out. At the moment I have £96.45 sitting in pending which I will get back in a week as I ordered somethings online so the money for it went into pending but then I added to my order so company did a new total of £168.09 so of course that is now sitting in pending as well -as I knew this would happen i ensured I had enough on the card, so at the moment £264.54 is sitting in the pending file but only £168.09 will be taken by the company and the rest will be put back on my card after 15 days. There have been times when I have wanted to do something similar but didn't have the funds on the card so had to wait till I did.

So you have to plan a bit more carefully with a prepaid than ordinary card as there is no debt allowed. I transfer money to the card via bank account ( actually a building society) but it takes 4 days so admit I have used the credit card loans for that - say as pay day loans, if I have not been able to get out to physically put money on the card, but there is the interest but as I am mainly housebound and would have to use a taxi to go and put the money on the interest for a few days is cheaper than what it would cost in a taxi and at least I can order what I need when I need it - roll on November 19th when building society change to fasterpay system so money will be transferred if not same day at least within 24hrs so unlikely to need to use the loans then.

To me prepaid are a boon, no debts ( except the short term loans) and I cannot spend what I do not have, but you just have to make sure you work withing the way they work or you can find yourself with a nice sum stuck in the pending file and not able to touch it.

useless_git_requires_wife · 25 October 2011 at 1:42PM

wohic wrote: »

I like the look of the orange card but is there better ones, perhaps ones with cash back or voucher insentives?

http://www.theaa.com/prepaid-card/reward-points.html

Savvy_Sue · 25 October 2011 at 10:09PM

I noticed today that Sainsburys are doing both UK and 'foreign' prepaid cards. No idea how they compare with other options.

stripee · 31 October 2011 at 11:17PM

Hi

Has anyone had any RECENT experience of this card ie 2011 onwards?

It would seem, from reading some of the older posts on here, that some of the costs and benefits of owning and using one have changed. I'm already a UW mobile customer (their sim only deals are very competitive) and am currently swayed more into the "get one" camp, than the "don't get one", but would appreciate hearing people's views, opinions and experiences of owning one. From what I can work out, even with the monthly cost, 35p charging cost, and "lack of" consumer rights cover (vs credit card), the potential savings using this card for your normal shopping (as opposed to any other cash back card) more than outweigh the associated costs.

I'd certainly appreciate some people's view points before I take the plunge.

Many thanks

Stripee

I_luv_cats · 1 November 2011 at 10:25AM

Wonder if Martin can update this guide!!

Such a choice and series of charges.

The o2 money card closes soon and it was ideal, so leaves a gap.

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