People with bad debt or bad credit, don’t want to be carrying around the only money they have. Having this mini credit card, that has no monthly interest on purchases; can be considered a nice change.

Just a thought.

Great article and thanks for sharing all the great information like always!

Any ways.. Most prepaid CC would benefit teens ( like me) or young adult. Have a child travelling either for university or over seas? Just get them the BMO card put X amount of money on it and give it to them. Just write down the code on it and track their purchases so you know what their doing. If they ask for more money just relaod there card online but ONLY depending on how their managing it.

Prepaid credit cards give people the option of buying stuff online. It’s easy to add funds to paypal with them. Master Cards give people the option of buying stuff online and in stores , and cash limits people to in store trades ( though theres like money order and stuff those are less conveinent and not always as safe)

I would’t say one is better then the other ( cash or Pp.Cc) but they all have different advantages.

I’m 14 but looking on that chart I’m going to try and get a BMO card because it last the longest and is reloadable

However, these things are just rife with issues. They don’t always work on-line and the don’t work at some brick and mortar merchants. The expiry shouldn’t be an issue on most gifted cards, but the expiry rates border on usury.

I honestly like the idea of cash cards. The concept of moving money onto a card is a fundamentally sound idea (mobile phone money transfers are a fast growing business in parts of Africa). But the current rates are simply un-competitive with the existing state of affairs.

When almost everybody has a no-fee bank account and free check cashing, the check option seems like a no-brainer. Heck if you really feel like paying fees to transfer money, use a Money Order or a Cashier’s Check or a fricken MoneyGram :)

Of course, if they could drop these things to like sub-1% activation fees, I think they would actually see a rise in use. Of course, they won’t for now, b/c the competition doesn’t exist, but it won’t be long.

About the Vanilla Prepaid Credit Card, you wrote on October 19th that Vanilla MasterCard has an online form that can be filled out in order to use the card for online purchase. Could you give me more details, I could not find it. Has anyone been successful with online purchase where the seller ask for name and billing address (using Vanilla MasterCard)???

I am looking to use my Vanilla Prepaid MasterCard only for online buys (iTunes, Skype, eBooks). I would really appreciate your help here… Thanks!

Steve

Pre-paid credit cards are a god-send for business people though. I use them exclusively to incent my clients into giving me referrals. Works like a charm because they can use the card almost anywhere.

Thanks earlier for the tip on RBC! I buy a TON of these cards.

I have talked to other people who’ve had issues using these cards in some stores, making them even more inconvenient. I’d still rather get cash, a real gift, or if you insist on a gift card, get one for a store I’m likely to shop frequently. (ie. not HBC, which I get with excessive regularity considering they don’t sell anything I want)

However just a word of warning I read some comments about people getting them as gifts from employers, last time I checked cash-like gifts are considered taxable income\benefit by the CRA. Otherwise I’d be giving myself and my wife one from my corp every year!

Also, I think giving someone cash (or cash equivelant) is rather lazy. If I’m really stuck on what to get someone, I’ll at least get them a gift card to a place I know they like to shop at.

Anyway, I have no monthly fee, no activation fee (at least I wasn’t asked to pay one), no fee when I make purchases, no fee for ATM use on their network (their atms are everywhere thankfully!), no overdraft fee. Some have mentioned that the money left on the card could be a gift to the company because it is difficult to get all of the money off of the card. For me, I just go to virtually any bank and ask the teller to give me the money and there is no charge.

Somebody had mentioned balances and I do not get them on any receipts. But, I am able to call their customer service at no charge and get my balance or check it at their website at moneymanagercard.com

I don’t know if you can get a money manager card from a retailer or directly from their company, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Anyway, that is my experience. I guess I should say that paying a $5-$10 fee to activate a gift card makes it an unacceptable gift!

Joey

I don’t pay fees, so there is no way I would every purchase one. It makes way more sense to give cash or a cheque -> No Fees for me, no fees for the receiver, no expiry and no restrictions on where it can be used.