Prepaid Cards Guide Discussion Area

eDicky

Disability_Focus wrote: »

Which best prepaid cards are available for those with a disability who are in receipt of benefits that do not cost the earth.

Most banks now offer a basic bank account and card to virtually everyone, but if you're unable or unwilling to apply for one there are only a few prepaid cards that provide a sort code and account number to enable funds to be loaded from a third party, such as benefits.

Cashplus has a monthly fee of at least £4.95 so can be ruled out.

Pockit has low fees but there are several reports recently in this thread of inward bank transfers going missing and laborious efforts to resolve it with their CS.

Revolut has started providing a sort code and account number, they are very good for foreign currency transactions and the app may be excessively complex if you need don't need that. Also the plastic card now costs £5 and there's a 2% fee on cash withdrawals after the first £200 per calendar month (But no other relevant fees).

Loot is relatively new, with no fees whatever apart from £1 per cash withdrawal after the first two per month. Transfers are sent and received by Faster Payments, which works very well when I tried it, but I haven't tested the card yet (not received within the week before I departed UK). CS respond well on the in-app chat.

Revolut and Loot require a smartphone, managed totally by their app. I would give Loot a try and see how you get on, let us know.

https://loot.io

hallaig

Don't use PockIt. I have regularly found they lose payments and always take days to find them and add them. Their customer service sounds like it's in a dodgy bar in London with no complaints process or supervisors. I'd not recommend them to anyone and certainly don't transfer large amounts as you might not see it again and are not protected legally.

P-Nuts

eDicky wrote: »

Revolut has started providing a sort code and account number

You can only use that account number to fund your Revolut card from a bank account in your name. It's just an alternative to topping up with a debit card. If someone else tries to use those details they'll bounce the payment after deducting a stupid tax.

eDicky

P-Nuts wrote: »

You can only use that account number to fund your Revolut card from a bank account in your name. It's just an alternative to topping up with a debit card. If someone else tries to use those details they'll bounce the payment after deducting a stupid tax.

I'm referring to the personal account number and sort code that Revolut is now offering to users, with which they can send and receive payments by FP to/from anyone. Previously funds could only be loaded from one's own account (which was made very clear), by debit card or transfer to Revolut's accounts with Barclays/Lloyds'

Norbzilla

Hello everyone!

I signed in to this forum for one reason.
That is to tell You, NOT to use the Pockit Prepaid Cards.

That was the short version, this is the long one:
I signed up a couple of weeks ago to get a prepaid card that I can use for more secure online purchases and when going out with friend.

I went to Pockit's website; signed up; payed 99p; got my card in two days; toped it up on the same day with £100; worked as soon as the money showed up on my balance.
I was blown away by the initial experience and instantly went and signed up my wife as well.
And this is where everything went to hell.

The card arrived on the 4th of April; went on the website; activated the card (had to do it twice, which was unnerving); then sent £200 on the account; got the conformation email of the funds; showed up in the statements; but the balance stayed at £0; parts of the account don't work; and the activated card disappeared from the account.

So the money is with them, but we can't access it. The card is useless. And I have a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

Filed complaints to them through their form. No response.
Called their support line. Waited for 15 minutes for an answer. No response.
Wrote a direct email to their help@pockit.com address. No response.

This is unacceptable support.
I can understand, if something goes wrong in the system and they have to fix it or something. But not having even an automated message confirming that they received our complaints is BAD customer service.

Now our money sits in Limbo, not being able to access it.

DO NOT USE THEM!
It sounded too good to be true in the first place. Only 99p my ***!

PS:
Any idea where I can go too, if they still won't bother contacting me? I would like to get my money back, really.

Saras

Try qck-card. It come to any name to mailbox for free. Then you need to activate card and pay the activation fee.
Possible deposit your card with bank transfer or with bitcoins.

d123

Saras wrote: »

Try qck-card. It come to any name to mailbox for free. Then you need to activate card and pay the activation fee.
Possible deposit your card with bank transfer or with bitcoins.

Hmmm

The QCK Prepaid MasterCard is a prepaid card that comes without any form of loan or credit. The card essentially works in the same manner as a prepaid mobile phone card.

In order to use your card, you must first load it with a minimum of EUR 108.00

Minimum load €108? :eek:

grumbler

You missed the main point. This minimum load they need to charge €108 'issuing fee':

The card issuing fee of 108.00 Euro includes the personalisation of an embossed, high-end premium design MasterCard card , which will be charged with your first minimum load of 108 Euro.

:rotfl:
Other 'benefits' are
€36 annual fee (year 4+)
Loading by SEPA only

This annoying idiot had his first post killed already. After this I deleted mine. This time I will keep it.

qck-card = rip-off, but some criminals may like it

vampirotoothus

Hi, I too wouldn't recommend Pockit. I've been using it with my partner for a number of months. We did have an initial hiccup with funds going missing, but this was resolved. Now the issue is that since May they are charging my card twice with any spending (once to the vendor and then again a charge from the secondary card) which in some cases they then re-credit, but not all. My main gripe is that I can't download the transactions to check what is happening, the only option being PDF and the transactions don't show as plus and minus, therefore incredibly hard to understand. I have emailed for an explanation and a download of the data, but not expecting to receive any useful response, based on my previous CS experience with them. I am moving to another card.

Isolt

I had problems with Monzo. Used it without any problems for quite a few months. Then suddenly the card stopped working. I had about £800 in the account. A call to customer services and some strangely laid back bloke was like "oh yeah, we had to block your account. I'll try to find out why." Only after I gave them hell did they grudgingly reinstate access to my money. Their reason for blocking the card was "we think we had problems verifying you." This, after me having provided my passport and address ID 9 months before and them having emailed me 9 months before to confirm I was verified. Really strange bunch. If I hadn't been extremely persistent I would not have got my money back from them.