Pre-Paid credit card opinions?

[iwannadie]

I am looking at getting a pre-paid card for my niece as a christmas gift(recommended by someone else) but not sure its a good idea. The theory being, give her a card with a chunk of money on it that she can use anywhere, then later we can add money to it however often as we want instantly with little hassle.

At first it sounds like a great idea but the more I am looking into it the more I am hesitant. Does anyone have any first hand experience with these types of cards or even in the same situation?

Some drawbacks I am seeing, most of the major card companies like Amex charge a monthly fee. Even if its $1 I feel like I am gifting a burden to someone if they need to keep up on fees just to maintain access to the money. Then they all have their other hidden fees, if you use certain ATMs, add funds from certain sources, etc.

 

[scottmcneal]

I would talk to my bank to find out how this would work best for you and him/her. I know i wasn't much help but they can tell you the best way to go at it.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

http://www.mastercard.us/repower.html

 

[w_howey]

We do this with my oldest daughter and son.

While in high school we used Bluebird by Amex. There is no monthly fee and my wife could recharge it at China*Mart while getting groceries. You can set it up to do an EBT from your checking account also. The EBT takes a week to clear normally.

There are no monthly/yearly fees. The fees come from the end users use of the card. If they use an ATM fees come that. They can avoid that from setting up a direct deposit from a paycheck or other account.

Now that our daughter is away at college, she needed to change to something that would work better with her campus. She doesn't have a car and China*Mart is quite a distance from campus. There is a bank there that specializes in college kids and the banking products they need. So she now has a pre-paid credit card through them. My wife can still EBT money onto the card if she needs some and the bank offers direct deposit.


The TL;DR version. We had/have really good experiences with Bluebird. BUT... we knew its limits going in and were ready for it. Once our situation changed.. we found a different product to address it. You might be best off starting with whomever you currently bank with, they may just have a product that works for you.

 

[Pchitti]

Ive done walmart card, bluebird, and know paypal prepaid.

Both walmart and bluebird have been a pain in the ass when it comes to getting someone on the phone when there is an issue. Paypal has been great so far, but has has the highest fee's of the 3.

Bluebird was alright but we ran into issues with it being Amex, not accepted by a rather large amount of places. Was rather shocking, but they also have some of the highest costs per transaction on the vendor side.