Virgin Pre Paid Mastercard Great If You Cant Get Credit!

dmackay41

John_in_the_city wrote: »

If you just require some no-hassle plastic which allows you to make purchases then thses may eb a solution. BUT, you need to bear in mind their limitations. They are NOT Credit Cards. They are pre-paid cards. Try checking into a hotel or renting a car with one and you will hit a brick wall.

They can be used for making purchases, but they cannot be used to "reserve funds" against the card. For example, when you check into a hotel they get authorisation to cover the possibility of say mini-bar or restaurant charges; and when you rent a car they get reservation for gas-refuel charges for the car. Then, when you check out or return the car, the final bill is settled and either they release the difference back onto you available credit line, or request yet more funds.

Pre-Paid cards cant do that. You swipe for solely the cost of the transaction.

So if your "holiday" plans include Hotels / car Rental then you may need to think again.

Hope this helps.

Not strictly true, depends what card you have. I can rent a car and reserve funds against the card for anything that a normal MASTERCARD card can do. I have an EasyKard MASTERCARD, £4.95p a month and transaction fees of 10p a time. Well worth it... and no debt!!

John_in_the_city

I dont think what you are saying is correct. In fact I am certain that if you tried to use it at Hertz or Avis or similar it would be declined...... the reason is simple. The rental agencies have existing agreements with the card suppliers to be able to retrospectively take funds from the card presented at reservation. For example, you park rental car and drop keys through box ... there is no gas in the car and it has some damage. Your card will take the hit, and without dispute by the credit card issuer. You will need to sort it out later.

Also, take a look at the T&Cs of the card you are proposing:-
[URL="javascript:__doPostBack('q25','')"]Q. Is my prepaid card a normal debit card or credit card?[/URL]

A. The EasyKard prepaid card account is not a credit card, charge card or debit card. Your prepaid MasterCard card is a re-loadable card that carries a value equivalent to that loaded on to the card upon purchase or funds which have been loaded at a subsequent time after purchase. Each time you use your card, the value of the purchase is deducted from the funds available on the card. In no case may transactions be authorised for purchases where the value is greater than the balance available on the card.

What you have suggested just wont work with any corporate hotel / rental car agency. Perhaps the one man operation with a few cars to rent may be more compliant. But this would be the exception.

perhaps you can tell us who accpeted the card and under what circumstances?

Copolia

If I may put forward my two pence with regard to pre-paid cards in general. My suggestion would be that pre-paid cards are useful to have if you know that you go crazy on credit cards and would prefer to have a pre-planned budget for a holiday or birthdays or christmas etc. You can load up the card with your budget and go out shopping knowing that you are restricted to the amount on the card. Of course the downside is that most cards do charge you a fee (approx 2.95% or £1/£2 in some cases) for each transaction, so that has to be borne in mind. However, if similarly to myself, you do not want a credit card, but prefer to have a piece of plastic rather than ready cash to spend then pre-paids are useful to have, provided you have shopped around and acquired the best card for your purpose.

Some PPs charge you a fee (around £5) per month, whereas others don't charge you a monthly fee, but hit you per transaction or even with a yearly fee. It really is worth shopping around especially as PPs increase in popularity and their fees drop - as can be clearly seen in the US.

For those who have poor credit or want to improve their credit then it is worthwhile having a look at secured credit cards. I believe that Capital One and Vanquis are the two main ones at the moment (please correct if I am wrong). They work almost similarly to PPs in that you have to provide funds upfront, usually through a bank account. This means that should you fail to pay up when your bill is due, the company can take their funds from your account. HOWEVER, the good side of them is that in using them you build up your credit rating - providing you behave yourself and pay off your bill in full monthly.

The only thing that hits me about secured credit cards though, is that even though you are providing funds upfront, you are still hit with the same charges are non-secured credit cards - loophole worth investigating maybe??

dmackay41

John_in_the_city wrote: »

I dont think what you are saying is correct. In fact I am certain that if you tried to use it at Hertz or Avis or similar it would be declined...... the reason is simple. The rental agencies have existing agreements with the card suppliers to be able to retrospectively take funds from the card presented at reservation. For example, you park rental car and drop keys through box ... there is no gas in the car and it has some damage. Your card will take the hit, and without dispute by the credit card issuer. You will need to sort it out later.

Also, take a look at the T&Cs of the card you are proposing:-
Q. Is my prepaid card a normal debit card or credit card?

A. The EasyKard prepaid card account is not a credit card, charge card or debit card. Your prepaid MasterCard card is a re-loadable card that carries a value equivalent to that loaded on to the card upon purchase or funds which have been loaded at a subsequent time after purchase. Each time you use your card, the value of the purchase is deducted from the funds available on the card. In no case may transactions be authorised for purchases where the value is greater than the balance available on the card.

What you have suggested just wont work with any corporate hotel / rental car agency. Perhaps the one man operation with a few cars to rent may be more compliant. But this would be the exception.

perhaps you can tell us who accpeted the card and under what circumstances?

The car hire company which accepted my EasyKard was Hertz and I have used it to reserve rooms at Travel Inn, Holiday Inn and secured an onboad account with Carnival Cruises and Royal Carribbean on cruises.

I also have a Cashplus Mastercard which is not accepted for car hire and some car parking companies and that is plainly stated in the T&Cs. Apart from that anywhere which accepts MASTERCARD will take these two cards.

spinningsheep

Vanquis dont offer any secured cards at all, they are simply a high APR eg 39.9%. And Cap One dont offer their secured cards in the UK anymore. I have one, which is exactly the same as the Classic card with a 34% APR but they hold a £139 deposit against my limit of £200, but all customers who have run their account in order are having their deposit refunded on their Sept statement and transferred to a standard card. Vanquis are great in my opinion, never had any issues with them customer care wise, and the APR doesn't bother me as I clear my balance in full each and every month, which is what they advise you to do each month anyway.

Copolia

I thought that the Capital One Classic Card was for those who need to improve their credit rating and it's secured? Non?

spinningsheep

Capital One USED to offer the secured card ie all you needed to be accepted was a landline phone, no CCJ's or BR and a deposit of up to £200 (£200 limit though!), and some customers still have them, me being one of them, but they no longer offer this product to new customers, it is not possible to apply at all for this card. Those of us with one of these cards are being transferred to the standard Classic card when our security deposits are returned on the september statement.

orangemollie

Information on prepaid cards and car rental...

http://www.which-prepaid-card.co.uk/car-hire/Using-prepaid-card-hire-a-car.html

smithja

I think as long as you have the available funds on a prepaid card to use for the pre-authorisation it will work for anything. I think you need at least £50 to use an automated petrol pump, however, it will mean waiting a while for the authorisation to drop off, as the pre-authorised amount and the actual spend unless you get it to exactly £50 (or whatever the pre-authorised amount are) will not be the same. So, under Mastercard rules it can be anything up to 30 days, whereas with Visa I think it is up to 1 week. James