Choosing the Best Prepaid Card for Your Needs
A look at how you can narrow down the wide choice of products on the market to those that are most suitable for you.
People that would like a credit card for the convenience that they offer but have been turned down many times in the past now have the option to apply for one where there is no need to undergo a credit check in order to be approved. As you need to load these products with money before they can be used, strictly speaking they are not really credit cards. However, because they operate via the Visa or MasterCard networks, they are accepted at all the same places and can be used anywhere that accepts ordinary credit and debit cards.
A number of companies are offering this type of product to consumers at the moment and in order to make sure that you pick the right one for you it is necessary to look a little closer at what exactly each one has to offer and the fees that you may incur when using them. When they first appeared, it was normal for companies that issued people with a prepaid card to charge them a monthly fee. However, as the market for these products has become increasingly competitive, many issuers have stopped charging a fixed fee and some of them have no transaction charges either.
In the past, companies that issued cards with no monthly fee would usually charge customers a percentage of the purchase price every time that they bought something. The availability of products that are completely free, as far as transactions and maintenance fees go, has encouraged many consumers that were previously put off by these fees to apply for a card. However, the majority of them still charge for cash withdrawals made at ATMs so if you are planning to use your card to take out money on a regular basis, you might like to check how much it will cost you before choosing which one to go for.
It is possible to top up many of these products for free but this will depend on the method used. If you choose to go to a post office in order to load your card, it is likely that there will be a small charge involved in the process. Websites with details of all the different products are useful if you want to compare one or more cards before applying.
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