Optimum Card: Ditch & Switch before your Orange becomes a Lemon !

Gerry1

If you have an Optimum pre-paid Mastercard, it's now time to ditch & switch: there will be a £1.99 per month fee from 31 August 2020.

The old Orange Cash card has become a Lemon; it was once useful for online purchasing because the risk of losing money was limited to the pre-paid balance.  It was also handy if you don't like contactless cards but want to have one available for places where only contactless is available, e.g TfL buses.

However, its few modest benefits such as free text disappeared when it became the Optimum card, and at £23.88 per year it's now pointless.  Indeed, I wonder whether it will survive?

The_Urbanite

If I still had one I'd pay the £1.99. The value you get out of it depends on how it's used.

Cards with top-up functions and far fewer fees like Dozens, Monzo and Starling are available.