Prepaid Credit Cards - More useful than you think
66In this the day and age of e-commerce and online shopping, there is not doubt that you need a credit card. Even off line you need one, for such things as car hire, booking a hotel... it's simply gotten to the stage that it's almost impossible to get by without one.
So what do you do if you can't get a credit card? Or if you just plain don't want another bill arriving on your door mat? Prepaid cards are most certainly the way to go. The problem being is that a lot of prepaid credit card issuers charge you quiet heavily for their services. Some have very high set up costs (up to $100 and more depending on your currency), they can also charge you for depositing money with them, which can be very off putting for most. Not all prepaid card issuers will charge you such fees, but a lot will. They usually require a minimum spend and charge limit.
But there can be other reasons to get a good prepaid card. The majority of e-commerce sites whether you're buying airline tickets or jam accept Mastercard and Visa. Same goes for off line shopping. They don't however always accept Dinersclub, AMEX (American Express) or JCB credit cards. There are all sorts of reasons and urban legends as to why they don't but the fact of the matter is they don't. But what if you could use your AMEX card as a Mastercard?
So to go back to the title, how can a prepaid card be more useful than you think. Well in all me research, I have found one prepaid card that you can pretty much get world wide, at millions upon millions of points of sale both on and offline. Here are the highlights as I see them
1. NO DEBT or BILLS!! This is a great advantage, no extra bills
2. You can't overspend. If you have not money on your account, you can't spend it
3. You can use the card everywhere Mastercard is accepted (which is nearly everywhere)
4. There are NO credit checks, not monthly fees for use and you are not obliged to keep your account loaded with a minimum amount.
5. No overdrafts or late payment fees
6. Accounts can be in opened in a variety of currencys.
7. Low currency exchange fees
7. If you have a card that is not accepted all over the world (AMEX, DinersClub, JCB, or Delta) you can fund this particular card with these credit cards and use them all over the world as a mastercard (this particular option does incur a small fee though, but at least you can still use these cards internationally, particularly for JCB as a lot of Asian travellers have been caught out with this card as it's not internationally accepted)
This prepaid credit card has some of the best services and lowest charges offered by prepaid card issuers, so it's well worth the effort of getting one, and using it for what ever you want.
Edit: Since I originally wrote this article, I've also started effectively blogging about credit cards and prepaid credit cards, I accumulated quiet a lot of information on them, you can find both blogs here,
