Cheapest prepaid debit card?

Dipdog

I'm looking for a prepaid card to help me budget my spending / pocket money. Plan is to pay all my bills, save some, then allocate money for train fares / daily spending to the prepaid card.

I was looking at the O2 Wallet and card but don't like that you need to pay £1 plus a percentage for each cash withdrawal from an ATM. I'm happy with everything else, and don't think I would incur any other usage fees. There's also no fee to get the card or monthly charges either. So for me it would basically be free to use bar the ATM withdrawal bit.

Can anyone recommend a card that has cheaper ATM withdrawals?

pmduk

What's wrong with a bank debit card? I know of none which charge for standard ATM withdrawals, although some non-bank machines may charge.

Dipdog

I don't have a bank account at present. Don't think I'm on the voters roll ( in process of sorting that out). My passport has expired and I don't drive, so have no photo ID, so it is a struggle trying to open a proper account.

Hominu

Whats wrong with getting a wallet and putting your spending money in there, taking so much a day out for stuff you need like train fares, daily spending, etc.

alanq

If I read the O2 site correctly they no longer issue a physical card so cash withdrawals at an ATM will not be a possibility.
http://money.o2.co.uk/cashmanager.html

Owing to money laundering regulations there are strict limits on the amount of cash that can pass through a prepaid card account without identity verification. If you don't have sufficient ID for a bank account you are unlikely to get an unrestricted card.
e.g. Orange restricts cash withdrawals to £600 pa on a restricted card.
http://cash.orange.co.uk/costs/

Dipdog

They do issue a card

System

I personally use cash when I need to budget.

Many pre-pay providers will do an ID / Voters roll check in any case and will charge if not loaded via the banking system (Faster Payment / BACS)

A basic bank account would be best with Barclays, HSBC and Nationwide all offering a Visa Debit card and full ATM access.

Dipdog wrote: »

I don't have a bank account at present. Don't think I'm on the voters roll ( in process of sorting that out). My passport has expired and I don't drive, so have no photo ID, so it is a struggle trying to open a proper account.