Post Office Prepaid Visa Card

babydino

Hi

I saw on telly the other day, a prepaid visa card from Post Office.
I tend to travel a lot due to work and am not keen to hold too many currencies. I am also not eligible for Nationwide credit card which has no charge for spending oversea. In addition, I also like to shop on the net.
I don't like the idea of keying my credit card details on the net and was thinking that the prepaid visa card would solve my problem.
Just wondering if any one can share their experience (if any) or your thought on this.

Thank you.

dhug

Co-incidentally I picked up a leaflet in the post office this morning. It is a pre paid vise electron card and you can choose from sterling, euros or dollars, there is a £10 charge for each card you choose and the min initial deposit is £250 then you can top it up £50 a time. It seems to be a replacement for travellers cheques.
If this is the same thing its called the "travel money card"

Lord_Chris

if its a visa electron card why bother with the post office? i used my Halifax Cash/Debit Card to withdraw money from an ATM in Holland last month and i wasn't charged a penny. All the banks (except Nationwide) will issue debit cards with 0.00 overdraft, so essentially its the same as a prepaid card

Stuart_W

Lord_Chris wrote:

i used my Halifax Cash/Debit Card to withdraw money from an ATM in Holland last month and i wasn't charged a penny.

This may be the case at the moment but you may find some of the charges have not yet appeared on your account. The Nationwide are pretty unique in not charging a commission (typically 2% - 2.75%) on international debit card purchases. It is "included" in the amount converted into UK pounds, so it may "appear" to be free. The Halifax also,according to their website appear to add a £1.50 service charge immediately - but in your case they didn't actually do this.

This from the Halifax website:

www.halifax.co.uk/bankaccounts/rates.shtml#card_use_abroad wrote:

If you use your card abroad, the amount of the transaction will be changed to pounds sterling on the date we take it out of your account. This may not be the same date that the transaction is carried out. We'll choose the exchange rate that applies and we'll include a conversion fee of 2.75% of the amount of the transaction. We will also deduct a service charge of £1.50 from your account immediately for each transaction.

TrickyDicky

Lord_Chris wrote:

if its a visa electron card why bother with the post office? i used my Halifax Cash/Debit Card to withdraw money from an ATM in Holland last month and i wasn't charged a penny. All the banks (except Nationwide) will issue debit cards with 0.00 overdraft, so essentially its the same as a prepaid card

I used an ATM in spain (using my smile account) and the charges werent added to my statement until about a month later.

babydino

It is not the charges that I am worried about, but the Internet security. I would like to make purchase over the Internet but don't trust those website with my credit card info. If I had a prepaid VISA card, that would solve the security issue.

Lord_Chris

security issues? hmm, well if your using a debit card from a bank account you can always transfer money from another bank account in small amounts at a time, that way your not being charged for moving mony around, unlike a prepaid card of any sort, which always charge a fee for putting money into the account.

Stuart_W, this was about 3 weeks ago so maybe it hasnt been put on yet, but i didnt really appreciate the tone of calling me a liar.

Cumbrian_Male

dhug wrote:

Co-incidentally I picked up a leaflet in the post office this morning. It is a pre paid vise electron card and you can choose from sterling, euros or dollars, there is a £10 charge for each card you choose and the min initial deposit is £250 then you can top it up £50 a time. It seems to be a replacement for travellers cheques.
If this is the same thing its called the "travel money card"

How about this for an idea to save the £10 charge.

Provident do a Visa Electron (soon to be full Visa) card which is pre loaded with £300. Take out a card and then cancel the agreement within seven days. They will want the £300 back in cash as they won't know if you have spent on the card. So you effectively get a Vanquis Visa pre pay card for no charge.

Limited availability but soon to be rolled out nationally as full Visa chip and pin cards.

jesster_2

worth noting if you're planning to use the post office travel money card for sterling, the summary box says there's a "1.5% of value" commission on sterling transactions, (min £3, max £20). It's 0% for dollars or euro.