BaBeeCard (pre-pay Mastercard) - too good to be true?

On_A_Mission_7

I just feel safer knowing that the housekeeping money is separate to the bills account so cannot jeopardise any of the direct debits that will be coming out of the Co-Op a/c assuming our application is accepted. I see it as a budgeting tool that could also save me money on my regular shopping bills.

As I do a lot of shopping at Asda anyway, saving 5% will soon cover the cost of the card and all it takes is to buy an Asda gift card through the discount portal that should take a couple of days to come through.

Frank_Martin_2

I have a Cashplus card and used to use it all the time. As we know to function nowadays you need some kind of debit/credit card (certainly online, with eBay etc), and the Cashplus is a great way to do this without actually raising any more debt, as everything is of course your own money.

However, I then found out that you get a Visa Electron card with the basic Halifax account - which has no credit check whatsoever - and since I've moved over to there I no longer use my Cashplus at all. Visa Electron is not as accepted worldwide as the Cashplus Mastercard, but it worked fine when I recently visited the USA* and it's been brilliant in the UK. Plus the transaction costs on the Visa are much lower (£1 everytime for the Cashplus, or £4.95/month) and as my salary goes direct into there, I don't have to muck around paying money into a Money Shop, pawnbrokers or somewhere embarrassing like that.

* It's worth noting that very few Visa debit cards work well outside of the UK. Amazon.com accepts Visa Electron, but there were a few problems in some US stores (Walmart, although they cleared it after some investigation) and some independent online retailers in the USA didn't like the debit card (they told me their system doesn't recognise it). But for everything else (ATMs, most stores etc) it was great.

timsy

I looked at this card and nearly signed up but just as I was about to submit my application, I noticed in the terms and conditions that it is not protected under the FCS. Therefore, if the Newcastle Builiding Society goes under, you lose all the money that is loaded on your card as it is the bank that provides the card accounts.