Best Pre-paid creditcard

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

homer911

Once they are affiliated to Visa, the only real differences would be how easy are they to get/top up and how expensive are they to top up..

Dempo1

I went through the entire process of getting a pre paid credit card through payzone, on the surface it seemed like a good idea but unfortunately i discovered late in the day they do not have pin and chip technology and therefore are absolutely useless for day to day use. They can be used on line etc and overall they are relatively cheap to operate, much the same as standard credit cards. This all said, i noted that the Payzone group may now have gone into receivership. One final point, dispite advertising numerous outlest where you can top up the card, this is not the case and very much dependent on your location

http://www.payzonemoney.ie

iora_rua

Well, personally, I cannot recommend Entropay. They have a very sneaky trick of reminding you (if you haven't visited/used your account for six months), that your account is now dormant and it's going to the equiv of 2.50 sterling to get it up and running again.

Why can't they let you know just before the six months is up? I have a SKYPE account which sends a couple of reminders so you have plenty of time to rescue your account, which is very fair.

So, BEWARE if you fancy using Entropay, make sure you have a long memory or a big asterisk in your diary! I, for one, will be winding up that account as soon as I can find something to spend my dwindling dosh on!!

Dempo1

Payzone actually have the same condition. If you don't use the card or lodge money onto the account they charge a fee, quite bizarre really. The company you mentioned do have the added advantage of PIN AND CHIP though. The Payzone card is generally very good to be fair but without the pin and chip its really not worth a damn for daily use etc

Cherrycola

Dempo1 wrote: »

Payzone actually have the same condition. If you don't use the card or lodge money onto the account they charge a fee, quite bizarre really. The company you mentioned do have the added advantage of PIN AND CHIP though. The Payzone card is generally very good to be fair but without the pin and chip its really not worth a damn for daily use etc

Are you sure? I have a 3V card that i top up through Payzone outlets, and the only fee ive ever been charged is the one for the topup voucher, which is a standard charge everytime you buy a voucher. Or the charge to redeem any money left on vouchers before they expire.
I have only used the card about 3 times, and have it well over 3yrs, and have never been charged any other fee on it.

Dempo1

Hi there, i was referring to cards actually issued through Payzone, I think your card is issued through PTSB? Correct me if i am wrong, I assume whatever agreement your card issuer as with payzone covers top charges? again correct me if i am wrong, I'm just speaking from experience using a payzone card? actually i was wondering, does your card have pin and chip?

Yggr of Asgard

I would say that my favorite prepaid is moneybookers or net+ (neteller) because they offer value for money. Both also work with Ryanair to avoid fees.

You can get the moneybookers for a 10€ fee, load it for free from you bank account (including laser card) and beside a currency conversion fee of 1.99% where needed it has no usage fees like payzone or pay as you go rubycad. Withdrawing cash is also only 1.80€ but limited to getting 250€ out of the account.

You can get the net+ card for free and no usage fee beside a currency conversion of 2.95% where spending outside the € zone and a cash withdraw fee of 4€. Again you can top up via bank transfer for free or your existing credit/debit (NOT laser card) for a fee of 1.75%.

Now if you don't want bank account transfer and really would like to top it up at a shop you can only use Payzone or Rubycard which both are having really high fees of which they sometimes doe not even tell you easyly, you really need to read the full T&C. Payzone for example hides a 5% currency conversion fee in their T&C. Rubycard does not even tell you the % (and I thought the new EU regulations require that).

I'm happy with my moneybookers card.

Dempo1

Sounds much better than my payzone card, where can i get a moneybookers card?

Yggr of Asgard

Dempo1 wrote: »

Sounds much better than my payzone card, where can i get a moneybookers card?

You need to open a moneybookers account

Than you can start the application process, which is upload a scan of your identity document (passport etc.) to verify the account (takes 24-48 hours), load 10€ for the fee (from your bank account/credit card/laser card) and once the verification is done, you complete the application.

http://www.moneybookers.com/app/

Dempo1

Thanks for that, will investigate!:D

eamob85

I used to use Entropay, but got sick of them and the final straw was when Ryanair changed and started charging the booking fee when paying with Entropay. So I went in search of some alternatives. I now have a Ruby Card and a Payzone Worldwide Money card. Of the two I would have to say the payzone one is alot better and I find myself using it more on a daily basis. I have never had problems topping up and I live in Donegal!! I use the ruby one now and again as I can top it up from my bank account which is probably the only reason I kept the card as its impossible to find a Paypoint that will accept it.

With regard the fees, I find the payzone card to be very fair for example I was booking a Ryanair flight to Birmingham last week: In total it should have been €20 but I saved €10 cause I booked with a payzone card and the purchase fee was only 29cents because I only ended up spending €10! - you can't go wrong. Didn't use my Ruby card because the purchase fee would've been 75c (recession and all that).

I know its not chip and pin but I've never had any problems paying for stuff with it. In fairness chip and pin is really only used extensively in Europe so if shops are going to cater for foreign tourists especially Americans they have to accept these cards. If I ever do have a problem I would use my Ruby card but so far so good. I just hand it to whoever is working and let them work away, you'd be surprised how many swipe and sign credit cards are being used out there!

Any way thats been my experience so far, I'm not even going to think about going back to a credit card. I had a Halifax one that expired in July last year and I'm still paying it off. The worst thing is I withdrew €100 cash from it the first week I got it and I'm still paying cash interest on it...prepaid cards where made for people like me.

tony2phones

Word of warning....You cannot Top this card up at very many Paypoint operators. And whatever you do DONT phone there customer service "help" (should be egit) line.

Just got my O2 bill. 3 calls = 30 Euro, and learned nothing. Got no help and 4 emails later still waiting to get simple info from this company. Ordered the card 2nd Jan received it 5 weeks later and if I ever wanted to put money on it I have to do a 70mile round trip because my bank (BOI) wont transfer into ambiguous account.

jamesy08

where can i apply for a payzone card,and do i need a few types of id
Am currently with boi
Regards
Jamesy

tony2phones

You can get the card on line or pick up a pack at one of a few stockists.

http://www.payzonemoney.ie/

panw

I prefer Neteller's Net+ cards. Their prepaid mastercards come in both a chip and pin version and a virtual version. The chip and pin version is great for avoiding Ryanair's fees but there's an issue with their virtual card not working on Ryanair that's still being sorted out. The cards also have high limits for making purchases and withdrawals plus they recently won Best Gaming Prepaid card by Prepaid365. Here's the link to read about this and all other prepaid cards: http://www.prepaid365.com/best-prepaid-card.html