Prepaid cards - how do they work?

ballalley

Hi,

How do these cards work? Are they the same as having a credit card, can they be used for example to buy airline tickets or in a hotel. Or are they just for amazon, ebay, etc.

Thanks.

BuffyBot

Depending on the kind of card*, it's pretty much the same has having a credit card and can be used in the same way/places as one.

*some prepaid cards are "virtual" ones, which can only be used online etc.

relichd

There's a few types I tried over past few years.

3V voucher is a virtual VISA card. What you get when you topup is a receipt with the credit card number. Your expiry date and CVV code is emailed/texted to you as per your preference. These 3V vouchers are pretty limited in terms of max topup per day and max total value of a single voucher. A topup card is given to you, but no plastic credit card whatsoever.

Prepaid Mastercard is another type of prepaid credit card. Unlike the 3V you actually get the real thing. Plastic card with card number, expiry date and a blank space to add your CVV code once you get it in a letter. As with 3V voucher there are topup limits (one time and 12 months maximum, which can be upgraded). You need a topup card to add fund to your MC, which makes it two cards in total you need to use.

Both above cards need to be topped up at an authorized newsagent or payzone services provider - not all payzone newsagent do the topups so you'd need to do a bit of a search.

O2 MoneyCard is a new addition to this family. And I must say it's the best solution for me personally. You can get it at any O2 store and you get the plastic thing the moment you're finished registerring with a member of O2 staff. At that point, there's a topup limit of 150 quid, which will automatically increase once you finish registration on their website. The best thing is that it is a single plastic card (no topup cards at all) with a chip! O2 MoneyCard can be topped up at any O2 store, payzone outlet and by bank transfer.

Because they are kind of special product, there are fees to use them, to topup, to pay for goods or transfer funds to/from your bank account (not all of them support it). So it's now up to everyone to do their comparison and choose the right card. After the 3V and Prepaid Mastercard experience, the O2 MoneyCard is the card of my choice!

coylemj

If you can manage a regular credit card by limiting your purchases to what you can afford to pay for when the bill arrives then you are better off with one of these i.e. if you can discipline yourself and clear the bill every month then a normal credit card is best.

I wasn't familiar with the prepaid cards until I studied the Ts & Cs for the O2 card yesterday, there are all sorts of charges, even topping up has a charge so I've come to the conclusion that they are aimed at people who need to have a credit card to pay for flights, mail order and hotels but who have a poor credit record so can't get their hands on a regular credit card.

http://www.o2online.ie/o2/uploads/pdfs/o2-money/O2-Money-Tarriffs.pdf

sanbrafyffe

i got the o2 money card the other day.very handy.atleast you cant go over the limit and fxxx a card up.lol.costs 5 euro to buy the card

relichd

coylemj wrote: »

...so I've come to the conclusion that they are aimed at people who need to have a credit card to pay for flights, mail order and hotels but who have a poor credit record so can't get their hands on a regular credit card.

Or at people who simply don't want to have any loans/credit cards at all as it is in my case... But this will soon be solved when BOI switches to VISA Debit card. I think Ulsterbank's already got this one to their customers. And Halifax had these, too...