IDT Prime prepaid debit card - Scandalous!

Alan_Kemp

I just checked Prime's website, (21/04/09), and their charges are a lot more than that:

Monthly charge: £2
Transaction fee: 2% (minimum 50p)
Paypoint reload fee: 2% (minimum 80p)
Dormancy fee (for not using the card): £2.95 per month.

I've changed to a Paypal topup, which only charges for reloading, no monthly charge, no transaction fee, no dormancy fee.

There are loads of topup cards. Prime must be one of the worst.

HawklordPXR5

I wouldn't like to conduct my day-to-day finances with a facility like that, but I have just used the card for the first time ever: renewing a couple of website memberships.

So, no matter how buggy the site code is, or how clever the hackers might be, nobody* can find my real name, or my DoB, or my address; and if they steal my card details then the maximum I can lose is 65 pence. I think that sort of peace of mind is well worth the few quid in fees that I paid.

*nobody apart from the security services... presumably they could trace me through my IP address if they felt it worthwhile.

sharpy2010

Hahahahaha I can't believe how OBVIOUS it is that at least 3 or 4 of the people on here are IDT staff members. They ALL write in the same educated way, they ALL have only a few posts, two of them "nickoxford" and "garyfromlondon" have such similarly named nicknames that it is obvious it is the same person, and also they ALL seem to bang on about the fees being good value for money.

Oh dear, IDT must be struggling for new customers if they are resorting to coming on here to drum up business!

cantosis

One point people are forgetting and I think it is the same for most of these prepaid cards is that if you top up by post office you dont get any reload charges. I have a quidity,Virgin and IDT prime all for different reasons.

I would say the virgin is the best but they all do a purpose, the best thing to do is look here:

http://www.what-prepaid-card.co.uk/features/compare-cards-prepaid.html

And look at the charges and requirments and work out which is best for you, with so much competition companies will start to offer better deals

ElkyElky

Spam, reported. This thread is turning in to some sort of advertising campaign for IDT.

ariaane

Alan_Kemp wrote: »

I bought a Prime card to buy books online, to limit any loss from fraud. I registered it, so that I could top it up. It's really expensive to use- charges to load it, monthly card rental, dormancy fee etc. etc., so I ditched it for a cheaper card.

To cancel the card they want: a call to their customer-services (reasonable)
A £10 cancellation fee (ripoff)
A photocopy of the picture-page of your passport, endorsed by a doctor, lawyer or teacher.(Ridiculous)
A copy of a recent utilities bill similarly endorsed.(Ridiculous)
All posted to their office in Gibralter.(Ridiculous)

The point of getting the card was to avoid fraud, so to put together an Identity Fraud Kit, and post it to Gibralter, is not what I want to do.

If you just say 'can't be bothered', the £2 monthly card charge, plus the £2.95 monthly dormancy fee, go on, and on, and on, until you can.
If this all sounds too ridiculous to be true, check idtprime terms and conditions (9). This is a separate site, they don't show these rules on the main site. They might be horrible, but they're not stupid.

My sentiments exactly. I lost my card and requested that my remaining balance be transferred to my bank account as a rep told me that I would have to pay £5 for another card- AND that in I would not be able to make my card reloadable as I would not post registered details of my address.

I refused and asked to be put through to a manger called "Ryan". He was an Asian man with a strong accent- based in the London office.

He kept repeating nonsense about read the terms and conditions etc etc etc- and said that if I wanted my remaining balance transferred to my bank account I would have to pay £5 and write a letter to Gibralta. What a !!!!!!!!.

Just so you all know, the London office only has about 10 people- a fact that took me a good few minutes to extract froim the rep I spoke to in the London office.

DO NOT USE IDT PRIME

NJSH1

Due to online fraud on a credit card, I started to use these cards online. The previous company I used was great but the card expired. IDT prime was automatic so purchased one (the fee is understandable) and was fine for the inital transaction.

However changing it to reloadble and being able to access my money has turnt into a complete nightmare. It seems at every given chance their customer services comes up with a new reason for not allowing me to access my money that they have, not to mention the cost of have to call them.

Their requested for my bank details, yes bank details, passport and bills is not an option given the suspect manner in which they operate. NOT TO MENTION in their terms and conditions it states that their parent company IDT finance uses the personal information in the USA.

So what am I left with? giving them even more info to use abroad or losing the money.:mad:

CHEEKYCHEETAH

Amanda wrote: »

I know this isn't a credit card but this seemed the most appropriate forum for this post.

My local convenience shop sells these cards over the counter. The idea being a debit card with no credit checks and no possibility of going into debt. You load money onto the card and use it to withdraw cash from Atms and make purchases anywhere a normal debit card would be accepted.

I can see that it would appeal to those on low incomes and benefits who are unable to get a current account with a debit card.

However, I am amazed at the charging structure for obtaining and using these cards. Firstly, the card costs £3 plus £1.95 to make it 'Top-uppable' or reloadable as they call it which sounds reasonable, but then you get charged not only for each purchase, but for each top-up!

You get charged 2% of the amount you top-up the card with (min 80p)!

You get charged 75p or £1.50 for using UK and foreign atms respectively! This means that if you use a chargeable UK Atm, say £1.50 for withdrawals, you will pay £2.25 for getting your own money!

Transactions charged at 2% of amount of transaction (min 50p max £1)

If you don't use the card for 3 months, they start charging a so-called maintenance fee of £2.95 per Month! You can tell that this is designed to empty accounts where the card has been lost or forgotten about - Clever eh!

So you get a card which costs you every time you top it up, every time you use it and charges you for every ATM withdrawal whether you use a free ATM or not!

It even charges you for not using it!

These transaction fees may seem small on the face of it but used over a year would likely result in many hundreds of pounds in charges and fees.

The only thing that I think it may be good for is for purchases over the internet where you can keep a modest balance to pay for such purchases.

Hi Amanda
Can you advise me as to why i am currently finding problems accessing my account online. It states that my card is invalid!
But i reloaded it on 30 June 2010 so there should not be a problem there.
I have never had a problem before i have had this card a while now and it does not expire till 12/10.
Do you have any ideas on this that may help.
I know that i have to phone them now on monday because i arrived home too late today, would be grateful if you could help in any way. cheekycheetah.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

CHEEKYCHEETAH wrote: »

Hi Amanda
Can you advise me as to why i am currently finding problems accessing my account online. It states that my card is invalid!
But i reloaded it on 30 June 2010 so there should not be a problem there.
I have never had a problem before i have had this card a while now and it does not expire till 12/10.
Do you have any ideas on this that may help.
I know that i have to phone them now on monday because i arrived home too late today, would be grateful if you could help in any way. cheekycheetah.

I don't think Amanda has any inside information to help you. In fact she seems pretty scathing about it.

chrisspectre

Well they have now changed to chip and pin and for some reason the balance from my expired card has not gone onto my new card.
Also, when i tried to log into my account, it asked for my security answer, but won't accept it. As my email address is not currently valid (sites gone down due to non payment of hosting fees, due to waiting for my new IDT prime card!) it cannot send me a new one.

Anyway more importantly, i reported to them 3 days ago that there is a security issue with their website. I cannot post it here for obvious reasons, but it means that anyone who has your card details (such as a dodgy shopkeeper) can get into your account details through a very simple and easily discoverable method.

They have not bothered to phone me, just sent me an email saying to phone them (at my cost, i don't have a land line).
Now i would have thought that such an issue would be dealt with urgently, but no.
I'd be careful if you still use their card.