O2 money card (prepay credit card)

take everything

This prepay credit card from o2 looks interesting.
The main attraction for me is the high limits with it.
2500 (iirc) for starters, higher if you submit documents.
Even though i use a normal credit card i'll still probably consider this (because of nagging security concerns :rolleyes:).

Edit: link

Carne

Looks like a good alternative to 3v, I wonder if there's any hidden fees or charges?

blubloblu

Open an account with ulsterbank, get a visa debit card. The O2 money card has ATM fees, loading fees, and I think transaction fees.

Wetai

Tarrifs
Ts & Cs

I'll probably get one, seems good enough, even though I have a 3v card. At least you can use it as a physical card in shops or w/e, and you dont have that pesky 3month window of use before they expire.

take everything

blubloblu wrote: »

Open an account with ulsterbank, get a visa debit card. The O2 money card has ATM fees, loading fees, and I think transaction fees.

Yeah, there are a few fees with it.
I was mainly interested in the limits.

But now i see that Visa debit card- that's interesting as well.
Might get one of those instead if AIB introduce them.

Carne

By far an aib visa debit card would be the best option but they've no plans to introduce one yet.

Jazzkamiden

Does anyone know what age you have to be to get one? Please don't tell me it's 18+

EDIT: Yeah it's 18+ That kinda sucks.

wmpdd3

Well you don't need ID to get one do you?

McLoughlin

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Well you don't need ID to get one do you?

No unless you want to put over 2500 on the card.

douglashyde

I work for o2 - We ask for id to confirm age (within reason of course)

Aug2009

I thought this sounded great until I read the costs. 4.99 to buy it. €1 to take money out of ATMs. :eek:

I got a card that does everything I need and i dont have to pay anything like the charges O2 have on their card. (Mine is from credit union in Bishopstown.

I like the 02 advert though - it is cool with the magician idea.:cool:

joeybloggs

I apologise, this might be a stupid question?
I presume you have to be with O2 to avail of this?
Also is there additional charges with transactions overseas?

blubloblu

If anyone's thinking of this, I seriously repeat my recommendation of opening a bank account with Ulster Bank. It won't cost you anything, it's just a bit more hassle to put money into it.

McLoughlin

joeybloggs wrote: »

I apologise, this might be a stupid question?
I presume you have to be with O2 to avail of this?
Also is there additional charges with transactions overseas?

No and Only in foreign currencies at 2.75%.

Its better than allot of things out there and suits me fine as I won't be using it as an atm card.

Aug2009

McLoughlin wrote: »

No and Only in foreign currencies at 2.75%.

Its better than allot of things out there and suits me fine as I won't be using it as an atm card.

As long as you dont use it abroad or using foreign currencies or in ATMs it isnt too bad i guess. They do charge you to top-up though.

Nobody has yet beaten my card (Bishopstown Credit Union) €1 a year and no other charges. You can use it abroad, in ATMs - everywhere really - without charges. Some ATMs charge but it is written on the ATM so just avoid those and go to ones without the charge. Of course if you use a different card abroad you will be charged regardless.

The challenge is out there for everyone - Can anyone beat the Bishopstown credit union card? I have done my homework and I cannot find one.

condra

I've just been reading the FAQs on the O2 site.

Seems like it might be a great compromise between the pain-in-the-ass 3V cards, and a "full" credit card.

I'm sold to be honest.

Butch Cassidy

blubloblu wrote: »

If anyone's thinking of this, I seriously repeat my recommendation of opening a bank account with Ulster Bank. It won't cost you anything, it's just a bit more hassle to put money into it.

It costs nothing to open an account with Ulster Bank? Nada? Zilch? There must be SOME hidden charge somewhere?

Dazza

Is there am age you must be to buy it?

Iron Hide

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

It costs nothing to open an account with Ulster Bank? Nada? Zilch? There must be SOME hidden charge somewhere?

Only charge is some yearly government handling fee thats on all(i think) bank-issued debit or credit cards, i paid €13 i think.

Butch Cassidy

condra wrote: »

I've just been reading the FAQs on the O2 site.

Seems like it might be a great compromise between the pain-in-the-ass 3V cards, and a "full" credit card.

I'm sold to be honest.

These aren't far removed from the 3V -pay-in-the-ass-cards
http://www.o2online.ie/o2/uploads/pdfs/o2-money/O2-Money-Tarriffs.pdf
It's a bit cheaper than 3V to "top up"/buy vouchers.

They have a nasty little hidden fee:

Inactivity Fee

There is a €1.50 fee per
month if the balance on
your card is not zero and
does not change for more
than 15 months.
The fee is applied every
month until the balance is
reduced to zero or until you
use the card.

condra

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

These aren't far removed from the 3V -pay-in-the-ass-cards
...
It's a bit cheaper than 3V to "top up"/buy vouchers.

They have a nasty little hidden fee:
..........

It's ten times better than 3v in my opinion.
With 3v:
You usually need to know in advance how much you are going to spend.
You get a different credit card number every time.
Your cvv code is sent as a text message to your phone.

With O2 you have one card, one number, one balance. No text messages, no faffing about.

As far as the "nasty little hidden fee" goes, that applies if you leave your card dormant for 15 months, which is fair enough as far as I'm concerned.

The top-up fees are very reasonable. For 3 euro, I can top up by 350 euro. Any product online for that sort of money is likely going to save me a packet compared to buying it in a "brick-and-mortar" shop.

I've always thought it would be great to have a prepay visa card that can be topped up like a phone. So far, I like everything about the O2MC. They've taken the 3V concept, and made it user friendly.

condra

Darragh12 wrote: »

Is there am age you must be to buy it?

18+

Butch Cassidy

condra wrote: »

It's ten times better than 3v in my opinion.
With 3v:
You usually need to know in advance how much you are going to spend.
You get a different credit card number every time.
Your cvv code is sent as a text message to your phone.

With O2 you have one card, one number, one balance. No text messages, no faffing about.

As far as the "nasty little hidden fee" goes, that applies if you leave your card dormant for 15 months, which is fair enough as far as I'm concerned.

The top-up fees are very reasonable. For 3 euro, I can top up by 350 euro. Any product online for that sort of money is likely going to save me a packet compared to buying it in a "brick-and-mortar" shop.

I've always thought it would be great to have a prepay visa card that can be topped up like a phone. So far, I like everything about the O2MC. They've taken the 3V concept, and made it user friendly.

Yeah having the one card, one number is certainly an upgrade from the 3Vs. Taking the concept further is a good way of putting it I suppose.

I might try one out after I see a few more reports from people.

fritzelly

Been using it for a month now, and is far cheaper than anything else. Haven't used 3V in a long time since you were basically giving them money everytime you bought a top up - how many times do you buy something that comes to 30 or 40 or 50 euro.
Payzone Money credit card (which no-one has mentioned) is 3.50 minimum top up fee and then they charge you a purchase fee on everything you use it for.

O2 Money - €1 to 2.99 top up, think €1 would cover most people, and no commission charges except for foreign currency which works out about 50c per €20.

Only reason I'm keeping the payzone cc is that you Ryanair dont charge credit card fees for using it so 3.50 top up charge saves you €20 (for the moment)

Cian1991ferrari

I got one of these yesterday and I'm extremely unhappy with it! :mad:

- Won't work on TypeKit where I tried to buy a subscription.
- Declined my transaction after accepting the card when I attempted to buy a book from Wiley publishing.
- Can't link it to PayPal.
- Can't seem to link it to my Apple account.

I've literally tried only these 4 things and none worked for me!

fritzelly

My card is on Paypal so there is no problem there.
Make sure you're selecting Visa Debit and not just Visa

Cian1991ferrari

fritzelly wrote: »

My card is on Paypal so there is no problem there.
Make sure you're selecting Visa Debit and not just Visa

Thanks man! Turns out I was entering a wrong setting! My bad!

Did you get charged €1 to add it to anything though? I added to PayPal - Charged €1 and that wasn't part of the €1.50 activation key. Then another €1 for correctly adding to my Apple account. :eek:

fritzelly

A lot of sites do that, they authorize (not charge) €1 euro against the card to make sure its real and working, but you get it back 4/5 days later.

Cian1991ferrari

fritzelly wrote: »

A lot of sites do that, they authorize (not charge) €1 euro against the card to make sure its real and working, but you get it back 4/5 days later.

Ah grand so! Thanks for reminding me Happier about it now than before.

CyberGhost

Nice thread, was just coming on boards to ask about the new O2 Money card...

condra wrote: »

It's ten times better than 3v in my opinion.
With 3v:
You usually need to know in advance how much you are going to spend.
You get a different credit card number every time.
Your cvv code is sent as a text message to your phone.

With O2 you have one card, one number, one balance. No text messages, no faffing about.

As far as the "nasty little hidden fee" goes, that applies if you leave your card dormant for 15 months, which is fair enough as far as I'm concerned.

The top-up fees are very reasonable. For 3 euro, I can top up by 350 euro. Any product online for that sort of money is likely going to save me a packet compared to buying it in a "brick-and-mortar" shop.

I've always thought it would be great to have a prepay visa card that can be topped up like a phone. So far, I like everything about the O2MC. They've taken the 3V concept, and made it user friendly.

Nice list of pros and cons, thank you!

It's nice to have one CC number and CVV, updating all the sites with new info everytime is a pain in the ass!

Does 3V have any advantage over O2?

EDIT: BTW, why do you have to know in advance how much you're going to spend, with 3V cards? Sorry if it's a stupid question but I don't have a 3V card, my guess is cause the Credit Card number expires after a period and money is lost?

blubloblu wrote: »

If anyone's thinking of this, I seriously repeat my recommendation of opening a bank account with Ulster Bank. It won't cost you anything, it's just a bit more hassle to put money into it.

Thanks blub, I'll decide between O2 Money and Ulster Bank.

Cian1991ferrari wrote: »

Ah grand so! Thanks for reminding me Happier about it now than before.

So does it work with iTunes?

Also what about billing address? When you order something online some sites(and iTunes) ask for a billing address, as far as I know neither 3V nor O2 offer one, so what do you write in there? Does the payment still work?

Cian1991ferrari

CyberGhost wrote: »

So does it work with iTunes?

Also what about billing address? When you order something online some sites(and iTunes) ask for a billing address, as far as I know neither 3V nor O2 offer one, so what do you write in there? Does the payment still work?

Yep, I have now successfully linked to my iTunes! Haven't downloaded anything but free App updates but seems to work fine.

As for address, they take your address when ya buy it so it comes up when you register the card online. Maybe thats what they use.

I use 3V on Itunes

Butch Cassidy

What is the situation with this Paypal "auth transaction" fee fiasco? On 3V these auth fees take weeks to actual show up as refunded meaning if you wanna buy something for €20 exactly you can't because a temp transaction is placed against the card which reduces the balance for a few weeks until it is returned.

Is this refund procedure speeded up with the O2 card?

condra

I got my o2 money card today and linked it to my Paypal account. Took about 3 seconds for the activation transaction thingy.

Butch Cassidy

Yeah but it will have performed an auth transaction against the card and then refunded it... has the refund gone through automatically or are you missing about €.70c ?

What is purchase approval when buying online?

Purchase approval is a small test transaction for €1 or similar amounts that are posted by sites such as PayPal when a customer registers their card on a site. The purpose of the test transaction is to validate the card details provided by the customer. Test transactions do not settle and are automatically reversed after 10 days. Test transactions can be reversed by Customer Care if required by calling 1890 81 21 02

Topping up €20.00 to €59.99 costs €0.80 so that's surely far better than the €2.50 it would cost with 3V and this does seem more flexible in the sense that you can just add/top up like a ready-to-go phone. I assume they're looking at a revenue stream of more topups more frequently over 3V's one off vouchers. I can't understand for the life of me why someone would want to use this to take money out of an ATM when it's money you've put in - maybe it's to be aimed at the 20% who don't have bank A/Cs.


One thing I'm concerned about is this 15 months of inactivity charge per month. Am I legally ombliged to pay this or can I just bin the card and get a new one? Is there a process for cancelling the card/account? I can't see one, in fact I don't even see where you're supposed to sign a contract.

What is the deal with the stamp duty? Is this fiver taken out of whatever balance you have at a particular time of year?

Butch Cassidy

Ah I think I've found a catch. With 3V where the cost of the voucher (topping up) was added to the voucher amount you wanted with this card the cost of topping up is included in the top up amount.

This would mean that if you wanted to buy a thing for €20 this would cost .80c however this amount is subtracted from your balance meaninig your balance would be €19.80 ergo you couldn't buy whatever it is you want for €20. Very cute.

condra

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Yeah but it will have performed an auth transaction against the card and then refunded it... has the refund gone through automatically or are you missing about €.70c ?

Paypal took 1.50, which will be refunded in the next couple of days.

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Ah I think I've found a catch. With 3V where the cost of the voucher (topping up) was added to the voucher amount you wanted with this card the cost of topping up is included in the top up amount.

This would mean that if you wanted to buy a thing for €20 this would cost .80c however this amount is subtracted from your balance meaninig your balance would be €19.80 ergo you couldn't buy whatever it is you want for €20. Very cute.

I don't see how this is a catch or "very cute". It's actually very convenient.

This is a regular credit card, it just happens to be prepay. I'm sure there will be people who already own "account" credit cards who will get an o2 money card and cut their old one in half.

McLoughlin

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

Ah I think I've found a catch. With 3V where the cost of the voucher (topping up) was added to the voucher amount you wanted with this card the cost of topping up is included in the top up amount.

This would mean that if you wanted to buy a thing for €20 this would cost .80c however this amount is subtracted from your balance meaninig your balance would be €19.80 ergo you couldn't buy whatever it is you want for €20. Very cute.

Only when you top up from your bank account.

McLoughlin

Butch Cassidy wrote: »

One thing I'm concerned about is this 15 months of inactivity charge per month. Am I legally ombliged to pay this or can I just bin the card and get a new one? Is there a process for cancelling the card/account? I can't see one, in fact I don't even see where you're supposed to sign a contract.

What is the deal with the stamp duty? Is this fiver taken out of whatever balance you have at a particular time of year?

If you don't use the card in 15 months 1.50 will be taken out every month if the balance is greater than zero till balance reachs zero if you have no money on the card and don't top it up you don't loose anything.

Stamp Duty is 2.50 a year if you use in an ATM and another 2.50 if used in POS transaction.

thisisadamh

I am sold. Getting one as soon as I am 18, not too much longer now.......

Cian1991ferrari

Yeah works with Apple.

I bought an App for the iPhone there the other day cost of €0.79 but charged me €1.99

el dude

I used to use 3v, but have been using the moneybookers master card for a few months now and have been delighted with it. Can upload money instantly and for free using my laser card. Its ten euro for the year. There are ATM charges but I'm never going to use it in an ATM.

I was thinking of joining one of the banks that offered a visa debit card but the charges for having an account there were ridiculous, something like thirty euro every three months. Might have been AIB.

jamescd

+1 to the post above.

I got mine in October last year I think and I've been using it like crazy . Have made several purchases on sites like ebay, amazon, the hut, etc. and have had no problems whatsoever.

There are no top up charges, no transaction fees. The only thing you pay is the 10 euro a year. And best of all you can top up using your Laser card. I only top up mine when I want to buy something i.e. if I want to buy a DVD worth 5 euros then I just top up 5 euros by Laser and then spend it

Here's the link for anyone that's interested http://www.moneybookers.com/ads/mastercard/

r_f

Does anyone know if you can move money from your paypl account to this card?

K.Hammett

r_f wrote: »

Does anyone know if you can move money from your paypl account to this card?

Im pretty sure you cant do that. With any visas in fact. I may be wrong about that though.

Edit: Since searching this ive read comments from about 4 or 5 different people saying you can and you cant. Better off emailing O2 for a definite answer.

condra

How do I top up my Card?

After you have entered your O2 Money Code online, you can top up your card by transferring money from your bank account to the card, in any O2 store or Payzone outlet. Bank account transfers are the cheapest way to top up.

Apparently no, but why not just transfer money from Paypal to your bank account by clicking on "withdraw" in Paypal?

blubloblu

el dude wrote: »

Its ten euro for the year. There are ATM charges but I'm never going to use it in an ATM.

I was thinking of joining one of the banks that offered a visa debit card but the charges for having an account there were ridiculous, something like thirty euro every three months. Might have been AIB.

Where did you read that?
I use Ulster Bank, the only fees I pay is the Government stamp duty, which would be €2.50 a year if you don't use the card in an ATM. I have a Visa Debit card I can use anywhere that takes Visa.
O2 Money charge €5 for the card, up to €3 for every topup, €1 for ATM withdrawal, €5 if you ever want to take money off it, plus the Stamp Duty.
I don't know why anyone would use O2 Money.

el dude

blubloblu wrote: »

Where did you read that?
I use Ulster Bank, the only fees I pay is the Government stamp duty, which would be €2.50 a year if you don't use the card in an ATM. I have a Visa Debit card I can use anywhere that takes Visa.
O2 Money charge €5 for the card, up to €3 for every topup, €1 for ATM withdrawal, €5 if you ever want to take money off it, plus the Stamp Duty.
I don't know why anyone would use O2 Money.

Didn't read it, i applied online for an account and got a callback where it was explained to me that would be the charge to open and hold a new account, but that was if i didn't choose to 'transfer' bank accounts, i.e. have my wages paid into their bank, rather than BOI. Like i said, i'm not entirely sure who it was, might even of been Permanent TSB.

Butch Cassidy

blubloblu wrote: »

Where did you read that?
I use Ulster Bank, the only fees I pay is the Government stamp duty, which would be €2.50 a year if you don't use the card in an ATM. I have a Visa Debit card I can use anywhere that takes Visa.
O2 Money charge €5 for the card, up to €3 for every topup, €1 for ATM withdrawal, €5 if you ever want to take money off it, plus the Stamp Duty.
I don't know why anyone would use O2 Money.

No feeds with Ulster Bank now and they're getting people in the door with the lure of Visa Debt Card but for how long? This is what banks like doing, luring people in and then lay on the charges nice and thick once they've gotcha.

PenguinMan

Jazzkamiden wrote: »

Does anyone know what age you have to be to get one? Please don't tell me it's 18+

EDIT: Yeah it's 18+ That kinda sucks.

Ulster Bank give Visa Debit cards to all customers . Open a current account there .

condra

If you're under 18 just get your parent to get one "for the family".