New fees for Optimum Prepaid Mastercard (was the Orange Cash Card)

The_Groat_Counter

Just a heads up for anyone with the Optimum Prepaid Mastercard - this is the prepaid card that many moons ago was known as the Orange Cash Card (launched and marketed by the mobile phone company Orange, now part of EE).

I have just received an email stating they are introducing a "Monthly Management Fee" of £1.99, effective from the 31st August 2020.

It goes on to say that "From 31st August 2020, a fee of £1.99 will be taken from your available account balance on the last day of the month, each month."

You can of course close your Optimum Prepaid Mastercard account and they will "return any balance to you free of charge". If you want to do this, you are asked to contact them within two months of receiving the email which announces this change (and some people have been sent the email earlier this month, so best to act sooner rather than later).

Alternative prepaid cards feature in this Money Saving Expert article - Monese is perhaps the best choice at the moment :
www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-cards/

Of course it's always possible that other providers might introduce fees or charges of some sort, so it's worth keeping an eye out for changes.