Prepaid Cards Guide Discussion Area

Glittermonkey

brunix wrote: »

Just a line to confirm the previous post by rtX.

Travelex T&Cs state the following (recently edited page from the first time I looked I suspect - sorry can't post link as I am a MSE newbie):

"Please note that a 2% commission will be charged for reloading your GBP Cash Passport by Telephone or via Internet/Telephone banking"

This 2% commission on reloads defeats to a large extent the money saving purpose.

so now my feel is that the only way to reload for free is to go at a travelex branch - can someone confirm this please?

Thanks,

B

You can not reload sterling cash passports for free at Travelex branches.The only comm free promotions are on currency.

Just wanted to add, that from this week there will be no charges in ATMs when using a Travelex Cash Passport abroad. I posted this elsewhere but probably in the wrong palce.

simax

Pauljw wrote: »

I have a pre-paid mycashplus mastercard. In their FAQ's it says that my money is 'held in trust by the RBS'.
I happen to have a debt with the RBS which I am paying off regularly, they seem happy with the arrangement - however, is it possible for them to access the money I have put onto my pre-paid card??
Or is mycashplus independent and safe?
Any advice gratefully received - thanks.

They hold the money with RBS in a holding account - your money cannot be traced by RBS, so you are safe :-)

simax

Alfie_E wrote: »

With prepaid cards featuring in the July 8 Money Tips e-mail, I thought I’d take a look at the prepaid cards page. When I looked at them a few years ago, I was always put off by the terms and conditions that warned that retailers, especially online ones, may not accept them, i.e. a retailer who accepts Visa Electron might refuse a prepaid Visa Electron. From what’s been written, this doesn’t appear to be an issue anymore.

The MSE prepaid card page says the following about the cashplus prepaid gold MasterCard with creditbuilder.

This is also a rarity among prepaid cards, in that it does give you Section 75 protection, meaning pay for something costing between £100 and £30,000 on it, and the card issuer’s equally liable with the retailer if something goes wrong.

Is this something that’s been stated by the card issuer, APS Financial Ltd, or something that MSE have surmised? From reading the cashplus website, I don’t see how can be the case. The card is still a prepay debit card and the credit given is a fixed-sized loan from the separate company that manages the card, Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd. The only connection between the loan and the debit card is that the loan is repaid by taking money from the debit card balance. This cannot make the card a credit-token as defined by the Consumer Credit Act.

The difference with this card from other pre-paid cards is that it is fully embossed (ie: stamped), does not have "Electronic Use Only" all over it, and the leaflet that came with mine shouted about the purchase protection!!

It's the only one that looks like a proper MasterCard!

cam8367

I can see the benefit of applying for a Travelex cash Paasport card if not anything but to just avoid Ryan Air's additional charges, but I notice you can only pick them up at Airports so where's the saving ?

simax

suetwong wrote: »

I think there are very few cards out there which still say "electronic use only" - and from a retailers perspective - it is imporssible to differentiate between a prepaid card or a debit/credit card so its not just cashplus but pretty much all the prepaid cards now that are open to use as they say "in store, online and over the phone" :rolleyes:

Oh really?

http://uk.virginmoney.com/virgin/prepaid-card/
http://www.idtprime.com/
http://www.payzonemoney.com/
http://www.debenhams.com/prepaid

I could go on, there's hundreads of them. I can only see the CashPlus one being a proper embossed card without that tag on it.

http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/

ksh123

Hi
its not actually me, but my daughter who wants one of these cards. Does anyone have any specific recommendations before she goes ahead? Looking on Money supermarket.com its quite difficult to know what's best. Some of the lesser known ones are cheapest but are they safe?
And, if they have the master card symbol does that mean they are accepted everywhere REALLY?
Thanks

savagej

I think a few of the ones Newcastle Building Society do as a Mastercard are properly embossed. I have a Caxton FX card and that is, but it is for use outside the country as a way of saving money on currency conversion and ATM fees.

savagej

ksh123 wrote: »

Hi
its not actually me, but my daughter who wants one of these cards. Does anyone have any specific recommendations before she goes ahead? Looking on Money supermarket.com its quite difficult to know what's best. Some of the lesser known ones are cheapest but are they safe?
And, if they have the master card symbol does that mean they are accepted everywhere REALLY?
Thanks

I have a Virgin Prepaid Mastercard and never had it rejected anywhere. I once tried to use it in the local off-license and it would not swipe and I was told they could not type the numbers in, thankfully it did swipe in the end. Also, I have bought things from Switzerland after emailing them my card number and expiry date, and they never had any problems with it, but they could not get a NatWest Solo and Maestro for abroard to work in their machine.

probablyedible

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what the best prepaid card to take to Hong Kong is.

I'm finding this a little confusing as most cards can only be loaded with Euros or dollars so surely there will be extra charges for currency conversion.

Taffy99

O2 Money has recently launched two types of fees free pre-paid debit card http://money.o2.co.uk/

No annual fee, No purchase charge, No UK ATM charge, No loading charge, free text message banking, online banking, :beer:

- should knock all these other UK pre-payment cards into touch!

Requires you to have an O2 contract or payg sim (has link to apply for free O2 sim if your not an O2 customer (requires £10 top-up).

Debit card is backed by Natwest.