Pre-paid credit cards to budget

blt

Can I just say that I don't work for this company or anything first of all! It's just that at work we got flyers for a new prepaid credit card called bluecorner. They're really aimed at kids to be honest but I thought that someone might find them useful for budgetting purposes and buying things online etc. Again - I don't work for them!

Conor_3

They're nothing more than a thinly veiled scam to get more kids into the habit of buying stuff with plastic so they can ween them into the world of the "must have now and bang it on the credit card" culture. Just look at the magazines they're using to push the things.

They're certainly no bargain and you DO NOT get the benefits from buying online that a credit card company offer such as being able to claim from the CC company if anything goes wrong.

It is no better than using a debit card.

blt

I know that they don't ofer the protection that a credit card can offer, it's just that I've seen threads on here for people who want to buy goods online for example because they're cheaper and are having problems because they can't have a credit or debit card due to their credit rating. I know that they're far from ideal but I just thought it might work for someone

jellycat40

Thank you for taking the time to post blt. All you can do is put the info out here and let those that want it take it.

Louise

wil06

Conor wrote:

They're nothing more than a thinly veiled scam to get more kids into the habit of buying stuff with plastic so they can ween them into the world of the "must have now and bang it on the credit card" culture. Just look at the magazines they're using to push the things.

They're certainly no bargain and you DO NOT get the benefits from buying online that a credit card company offer such as being able to claim from the CC company if anything goes wrong.

It is no better than using a debit card.

Conor, I have looked at the website at bluecorner.co.uk and it says they offer the following:

Teen Cards
Adult Cards - for those that can't credit or want to use for web safety and limit the risk of using a credit card online
Travel Cards - 0% foreign exchange on all overseas transactions. Surely this makes them the cheapest on the market and available to all. I know of only Nationwide who can offer this on a credit card, and not everyone who applies can get one
Gift Cards - well these have been around for a while now

On the basis of what I have just seen I think you are being incredibly short sighted. In the UK, there are thousands of teenagers who can't control their spending and their bank accounts linked with a solo or electron card allows them to go overdrawn. Speaking from experience of my own children, the overdraft fees and hassle spent in resolving the accounts are far worse than £9.95 to purchase and nominal amounts to top-up the cards that the bluecorner products offer, particularly as these cards cannot go overdrawn

On top of that, there are thousands more adults who have misused or been unfortunate with credit and now can no longer obtain a card or even a bank account, but still want to be able to purchase things on the internet. Well these cards seem a perfect solution to that.

I also noticed that they have 0% foreign exchange on their cards. So if I use the card abroad I don't pay any charges, that's a bargain!