Prepaid Cards Guide Discussion Area

ian_h

ian_h wrote: »

Has anyone renewed a Cashplus card and know what the "modest fee" is that their T&C's say they charge when issuing a new card at renewal?

Surely someone must have renewed a cashplus card ?

mccstuff

Hi all, I hope someone can help me.

I need a prepaid credit card for business that:
Does not allow cash withdrawal
Transactions can be viewed online
Needs to be topped up via a linked bank account - no other way to top up should be available (eg Post Office)

Any help appreciated.

pmduk

ian_h, mycashplus bury their fees away in the terms and conditions. For the pay as you go cards it says up to £9.95. You're best checking their website for the precise type of card you have.

ian_h

pmduk wrote: »

ian_h, mycashplus bury their fees away in the terms and conditions. For the pay as you go cards it says up to £9.95. You're best checking their website for the precise type of card you have.

Thanks, the T&C's just mention "up to" for pretty much everything so have called tonight and my pay as you go will apparently be 4.95 renewal

jago25_98

I just wanted to warn everyone that the various `free international cash withdrawals` are not free. They load typically a 3% fee in the conversion process.

hershon27

Hi
Im planning to take my husband on a surprise trip to Paris hopefully. We would like to go to a concert but I need to phone up and book the tickets in person, I cant do it online. Can I do this with a prepaid credit card, and if so which would be the best to use? I dont want to have to top up with hundreds of pounds everytime, and only want it for occassional european trips. Am I correct in thinking it is better to have a card in Euros for this purpose giving me a better exchange rate? Id like to be able to use it in an ATM as well.

Thanks ever so much, Im a total novice to prepaid cards.
cheers
L

ian_h

hershon27 wrote: »

Hi
Im planning to take my husband on a surprise trip to Paris hopefully. We would like to go to a concert but I need to phone up and book the tickets in person, I cant do it online. Can I do this with a prepaid credit card, and if so which would be the best to use? I dont want to have to top up with hundreds of pounds everytime, and only want it for occassional european trips. Am I correct in thinking it is better to have a card in Euros for this purpose giving me a better exchange rate? Id like to be able to use it in an ATM as well.

Thanks ever so much, Im a total novice to prepaid cards.
cheers
L

You would be better off with a Euro Currency Travel Money Pre-paid Card, I use Caxton FX because they give a fair rate, it can be used over the phone and they dont charge for Cash Machine withdrawals - you load the card by debit card and the rate is fixed so if you withdraw €100 from an ATM thats the amount Caxton deduct.

I applied through this link on this site the banner was on the right, when I got mine.

Dee_Hall

My husband used a pre-paid card on our recent (July 2011) holiday in America and experienced a problem. For the first time we visited America and toured around Colorado, staying in six different hotels. My husband used his card when checking in to our fully pre-paid hotel rooms to cover 'incidental charges'. It seems it is common practice for hotels to ask for either a card or cash to cover 'incidental charges' and we were led to believe that charges would only be made if we incurred these charges. I must point out we DID NOT incur such charges.

My husband carefully kept a detailed note of all actual 'spends' he made with the card and so knew what the balance should be. However, on the penultimate day of our holiday when he tried to use the card in a store to purchase goods, just within what he calculated was the card's balance, the transaction was declined. He tried to establish the reason for this but could not contact the card's provider. Fortunately I had my credit card (one recommended by Martin for overseas spends) and could use this to pay for the goods.

On our return home my husband contacted the card's provider and discovered three of the hotels had actually made 'claims' on his card of between $25 and $40 each. It appears this is done in order for the hotel to keep the details of the card so the incidental charges can be made later if necessary. These 'claims' appeared as pending transactions on the card and so reduced the balance accordingly. These 'claims' have since been re-deposited to the card but now my husband now has over $100 on his card that he can't easily spend and will have to incur a fixed redemption fee of $7.50 or 3% of the balance to transfer it to another account.

So other users of these cards beware and don't use them in hotels if you want/need to have all of the balance available for use and/or don't want to incur redemption fees.

ian_h

Hi Dee Hall

Most of the material accompanying pre-paid cards (certainly the ones I got) made specific mention of not using your card as an "Incidentals Guarantee" at hotels specifically for this reason.

It's the same process at pay at pump for fuel and Car Hire Deposit - the funds are reserved which on a pre-pay card means your money is held for up to 2 weeks.

If you have any credit card whatsoever its better to let them hold the banks money but then actually clear the final invoice with your pre-paid card.

Sorry you had problems - why not book another trip to use the funds up (and dont forget the card can be used online so you may find you buy something from a site in Dollars at some point and can avoid the fees that way).

eddymcmanus

can anyone advise me on this.
i work around europe and am paid weekly in euros,i need to send money over to my family but find it expensive using western union.if i send cash through the post my wife has to pay rip off exchange fees.anyway is there a pre paid credit card around that can be topped up in europe with euros and that can transfer to another prepaid card which my wife can use in the uk .any help or advice appreciated thanks
just to add i am a self employed lorry driver who pays tax in the uk