Prepaid Cards Guide Discussion Area

spinecho

samwsmith1 wrote: »

Why not just use your credit card which will protect you in the event that the goods don't turn up?
(Or at least it did with me with First Direct)

Thanks for the reply!
If the website was dodgy, i didn't want the company to get my credit card details and max it out! Or am I being naive and this couldn't happen?

samwsmith1

spinecho wrote: »

Thanks for the reply!
If the website was dodgy, i didn't want the company to get my credit card details and max it out! Or am I being naive and this couldn't happen?

If they did that I would have thought that the bank would refund you for it as it's fraud.

Savvy_Sue

spinecho wrote: »

The purchase is for about £99 and I only really would use the card once, so I don't wish to pay too large a fee for the card.

<snip>

One last question: with the card I choose, how does one go about cancelling the card? Are you tied up in a contract etc?

I think you've had some good advice already, but one thing which you may find (and therefore need to check) is the loading limits and whether you can get back any money on the card.

You almost certainly won't be able to load the card with the precise amount you need for one transaction.

And you may then not be able to get back the balance if it's less than the minimum amount, and there may be a charge to cancel the card.

So going for a card which you can load and hang on to may be your best bet.

Plxply

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You almost certainly won't be able to load the card with the precise amount you need for one transaction.

And you may then not be able to get back the balance if it's less than the minimum amount, and there may be a charge to cancel the card.

This is one of my reasons why I think opening a basic bank account would be better for some people, of course you will have to be careful to ensure you don't go into an unauthorised overdraft but even if you can leave £50 in there and never let it go lower it will be much cheaper than any prepaid card and you'd be able to transfer money in and out for free. Although everyone does of course have their own individual circumstances.

I do however see a use for the AA card as it gives rewards which I wish other prepaid cards offered. I know that Orange does it too, but then you have to be with them as your provider.

Tanz825

Hi,

Im new to this forum and im looking for some advice. Im thinking of ways to save for our wedding in a few years and in work for working overtime we sometimes get vouchers for doing so. Our options are sainsbury's vouchers or bonus bonds. I have found out that if i get the sainsbury's vouchers they sell the mastercard gift cards and can use my vouchers to purchase these. As I will be using these for sometimes large purchases i would rather the money be all on one card rather than lots of different gift cards. So my question is can i use these mastercard gift cards to top up a prepaid card? and as i would be looking to do this fairly frequently would it look dodgy to the card company as i will be using different card numbers? If anyone has any other options for me to look at that may be easier these would be greatly appreciated also.

Thanx
Tanya

Anthorn

Plxply wrote: »

This is one of my reasons why I think opening a basic bank account would be better for some people, of course you will have to be careful to ensure you don't go into an unauthorised overdraft but even if you can leave £50 in there and never let it go lower it will be much cheaper than any prepaid card and you'd be able to transfer money in and out for free. Although everyone does of course have their own individual circumstances.

I do however see a use for the AA card as it gives rewards which I wish other prepaid cards offered. I know that Orange does it too, but then you have to be with them as your provider.

The problem I have with some basic bank account is that they add a debit card coupled with the ability to overdraw. Some if not most of those whose only option is a basic bank account will have been kicked off their previous current account for being overdrawn with the inability to pay it back. Giving a debit card to people who are proven to be incapable of budgeting is like throwing a bottle of whiskey to a drowning alcoholic!

Where prepaid cards and also bank accounts with prepaid cards such as Secure Trust Bank are handy is because they can't be overdrawn and therefore there are no unauthorised overdraft charges and interest. The Barclays Cash Card account is good in that respect but still make a charge if a direct debit or standing order can't be paid due to lack of funds - £8 each! Then the charges spiral out of control because the £8 charge makes their account overdrawn with the result of an additional charge for an unauthorised overdraft plus interest! Prepaid cards and bank accounts with prepaid cards don't charge for bounced direct debits, they just cancel them which means that the account doesn't go overdrawn!

Weighing the costs involved with prepaid cards against the costs which may be incurred with charges on a basic bank account, the prepaid card will often be cheaper in the long run.

Gormenghast

I haven't read every post but I wanted to mention a few things about the Cashplus card which weren't mentioned in the article (Perhaps there are additional features for all of the cards).

1) The monthly fee is the only price you pay as long as you top up at the post office (FREE), by BACS (FREE), or at a Moneyshop (tm) (FREE).

2) There are tariffs with no monthly fee which charge by transaction which may be more suited for infrequent use.

3) I don't know what the rules are for how long before they offer it, but if you use the card well, they have a feature called IAdvance where you can borrow up to £400 (I can only have up to £100 and started at £30!).
This is at horrendous interest rates (TWICE as much as a payday loan!!!) BUT IT IS BILLED DAILY :j. This means if I have a crisis the day before payday and need £100, I can borrow it for a day and pay just £2 charges (£25 at least from a pay-day lender). I think it's worth it for this alone tho I try not to use it.

4) You can set up direct debits to go from the card and if there is no money available, the payment will not be made but you won't be charged as you would by a bank.

I'm interested in what others have to say but I think this is a pretty good card for those with choppy / uneven finances.

Cheers,
Mark...

Added (hopefully useful info)
1) There is no fee to renew the card provided enough cash is passing through.

2) I used a Pay-at-Pump at a well known supermarket garage and a £50 authorisation check debited the account which took about a week to get released (.
I no longer use Pay-at-Pump!

3) I have three credit builder notes on Experian (and some for the Provvy and others). They report that I have a significant number of non mail order settled debts as one of my strengths.

prepareathome

I agreed, I have had the cashplus card now for about 5 - 6 years, could be longer and know where I stand with the charges - I use the creditbuilder feature as well so each year its a plus on my credit file that I have repaid a loan and the iadvance is very handy for odd times I suddenly find I need to pay something and no money for a few days ( I will only do it up to 5 days or so . I don't use it often but I have now up to £350 available, but as I know I could never repay that within a week I will never use that amount but at moment have got £70 from them so will pay back around £76 next Wednesday and because of this was able to buy something I planned to get next week but on Friday saw it at half the price as was in a sale that ended that day, so worth the £6 to save myself £64. It seems to be the same interest charge up to a week, have never taken one for long than 6 days.

I have been thinking about changing my direct debits to them as we use a building society as a bank ( have done for a very, very long time) and they charge £20 if money not in, rarely happens but things can go wrong. Just want to check all the small print before I seriously think of doing it.

I know a lot of people do complain about the monthly ( per transaction charge) but I have never thought it to much to pay for the convenience of having a credit card without the chance of ending up in a lot of debt and they do cover you the same as ordinary cards for purchases plus the cashback if you shop through their affiliated stores which I have done sometimes as they worked out the best.

fiftyg

Hi

I have a moneybookers, Orange and Cashplus cards. I have found Cashplus to be an excellent resource especially when they started using a proper account number and sort code for their details!

Something that Cashplus used to do was accept cheques. I never had too many but it was a useful option. As far as I know this option is no longer available. Orange allows top-up payments in the Post Office, would anyone know if that includes cheque payments too?

I will attempt a basic account soon, but still felt a little worried when on applying for the co-op account and after the bankruptcy question (which I have not been) they asked if I had any defaults in the past six years ,which I had. My mobile coverage is a little spotty so the call got disconnected. but I did not really feel like calling back after that...

Ladygrim

Hello all,

Ive been looking into getting something to use as photo ID. I have an old paper driving licence and my passport has expired and will cost over £70 to renew, so I was wondering if one of these would be a good idea:-

http://citizencard.com/visa-prepaid-or-classic-.html

Ive looked around the website, and Im quite interested in getting this card. Has anyone got one? What do you think of it? Please let me know.

LG

P.S I would DEFINATELY be in the 21+ band :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: