Prepaid Debit Credit Cards : Which Is Best

By: EconomyWatch Content Team   Date: 2 February 2010

About The Author

EconomyWatch Content Team

The Economy Watch Content Team manages our thousands of reference pages on economic, industry,

EconomyWatch, Content Team

 

  • Dot Div
  •      

With the recent increase in popularity of prepaid cards as an alternative to traditional checking accounts or credit card account, this means that there are more of them showing up on the market every day. Not all of these will be a very good deal and some may just be a downright scam to bog you down with a lot of fees. There are a lot of advantages to carrying them over a traditional card and can help you take control of your finance, but you do need to do some research to find the best prepaid debit credit cards.

The first thing you want to do in your search for prepaid debit credit cards is to look for ones that do not have transactions. Sometimes avoiding all fees is just not possible, but this is one that you definitely do not want to pay if you plan on using your card regularly. These fees are assessed on every transaction you make and can be anywhere from $1 to $2 on every single purchase. If you want to use your card on a regular basis this can turn out to be very expensive and defeat the purpose of getting the card at all.

Next you want to look for prepaid debit credit cards that have monthly maintenance fees of less than $5. They can be as much as double that, and you definitely don’t want to be paying more than you need to on a monthly basis. There will almost always be a monthly maintenance fee with any card that you consider, but there is no need to be paying too much for it. Along with this you should look for a loading fee of a similar amount, less than $5. This one can be easier to negotiate since a lot of companies will drop this fee completely if you have a paycheck being direct-deposited into the account. This is definitely something you should ask about before you apply.

In addition to looking for low fees ask how soon you will be approved for the card. Some places can offer you a temporary card until you get approved almost immediately but others will take a few weeks to send you the card in the mail. If getting this card is urgent then you definitely want to look for a card that is approved quickly.

Another benefit that is becoming more popular in the prepaid cards world is a referral program. Some companies will offer you lifetime commissions if you refer other people to the card. Others will offer you a one-time referral payment for signing someone else up to the card. If you are going to use a prepaid card, you might as well get a little bit o incentive for it too.


  • Dot Div
  •      

Most Popular in Debit Cards

Related Links
blog comments powered by Disqus