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Why Not PrePay?
So, by now you probably think that prepay cards are the solution to everything and why haven’t you got yours already? Well this is true, but you need to know that they aren’t perfect! Here are some of what we consider to be the main limitations, or problems, with prepay cards. This is just our opinion,- nothing personal to the prepay companies, but we think it needs to be pointed out!
You can’t get your balance on an ATM
A little thing but to some quite important. With many of the providers, even some of the big ones, you tend to get your balance either online, via text message or via unpopular telephone IVR’s.
Some ATM usageIf you use an ATM’s that charges you a fee, you need to remember you will also be charged by the card issuer as well, and nobody likes a double whammy of charges.
Car hire
You often can’t hire a car with one unless you have that function switched on. Each provider has their own rules, but essentially you have to qualify with good behaviour and they wouldn’t ttell us what the criteria are (and we’re not saying we should be told either because those bad ‘fraud’ people may use the information for evil purposes), so you’ll have to check with your card provider.
Pay-at-pump petrolBit of an odd one here but if you ever go to a place like Iceland, where they have a number of petrol stations that you can only pay at the pump, you will not be able to use your card. Okay, we know we have them in the UK but we’re just showing off that we have tried it in Iceland and it didn’t work!
It’s not a credit card
We do like to state the obvious sometimes, but you don’t get a credit card so there can be some issues with that if that is what you want! Also, you may experience some limitations with the product, such as car hire – you either won’t get this or will have to get speak directly to your card provider to have it turned on.
Shops need to be ‘online’
This sounds a bit odd but what it means is that retailers need to be able to connect to the internet so they can check that you have available funds on your card, This is because you can only spend the money that you have on your card, and not credit. If you have enough funds then happy shopping, if you don’t, well you may go a bit red faced and have to pay with something else. But if the retailer doesn’t have access to the internet, to send the provider the signal they simply won’t know so won’t accept your card , so you won’t even get as far as the red-faced bit.
No guarantee
You can’t use it as a guarantee to purchase items like mobile phones, like you sometimes can your credit card, because it’s not a credit card!
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