How to Choose a Prepaid Visa Credit Card

A prepaid Visa credit card is perfect if you don't have a bank account or if you want to give your teen a card to teach them how to manage money. With prepaid credit cards, you make an up-front deposit which then allows you to use the card in almost the same ways as a standard credit card. Learn exactly how to choose the best prepaid Visa credit card for you.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Search the internet for prepaid Visa credit cards. A few sites with large listings of cards include CreditCards.com, CreditCardGuide.com, and CardRatings.com. Choose a site, and navigate to their prepaid credit cards section to see what they offer.

2. Check the fees. If there's something you can do with your card, there's probably a fee for it. These include fees for using Direct Deposit, loading your card with cash, making a transaction, activating your card, and calling customer service. There may also be weekly or monthly fees, "signature" fees, "international" fees, cash advance fees, and many other miscellaneous fees.

3. Decide if you want a card with Direct Deposit. This means your paycheck is used to load your card automatically--a feature offered by most prepaid Visa credit cards.

4. Consider getting a card with online bill payment, which lets you pay your bills online with your card. If you want to be able to send checks to people, many cards let you do this as well.

5. Ask yourself what balance limit you're looking for. This is the maximum amount of money you can add to the card. $10,000 is a typical limit.

6. Consider the Bank Freedom Prepaid Visa Card which is a card that eliminates the main fees of activation, cash load, and monthly if you use Direct Deposit and your paycheck is at least $350/month. If you don't use Direct Deposit and load by cash instead, your main fees are a $9.95 activation fee, a $4.95 fee for each cash load, and a $9.95 monthly fee.

7. Consider the All-Access Visa Prepaid Card which costs $7.95. It charges no monthly fee if you use the card at least once every 90 days--otherwise it's $5.95/month.

Tips & Warnings

• Carefully read what the fees are for various prepaid credit cards, as well as what their terms and conditions are. Ask yourself how often you'll likely have to pay each fee so you have an accurate picture of how much the card will actually cost you.
• Prepaid credit cards are really more like debit cards. As a result, they don't help your credit rating much, if at all.
• For info on how to find and choose other kinds of card, check the resources below.
• If you're planning on using your card for a hotel, airline flight, or car rental, keep in mind some cards may not be accepted. If accepted, a hold may be put on part of the funds, so make sure you have more on the card than the cost of what you're purchasing.
• When buying gas--if you don't buy enough--some cards will put a hold on part of your card's funds for some period of time.

Resources

• How to Choose The Best Credit Card
• How to Find Zero Interest Credit Cards
• How to Find Credit Building Credit Cards
• How to Find The Best Rewards Credit Card
• How to Find The Best Student Credit Cards

[kimmango]

on 11/3/2009 I find it interesting that this article is specifically entitled, "How to Choose a Prepaid Visa Card." I once work for a company that marketed Visa prepaid cards but now I write for a MasterCard prepaid card called Mango Money.

I've never walked into a store that accepted Visa over MasterCard. They always accept both. From a consumer perspective it doesn't matter to me whether it's Visa or MasterCard. What matters to me is what I'm paying for in fees.

As the author of this article notes, be very careful about fees associated with prepaid cards. The fees can add up quickly if you're not educated on how to use the card!

Best,
Kim
http://www.mangomoney.com

[bar10dr98]

on 1/8/2009 Good info

[jamaclassics]

on 1/7/2009 I hate all credit cards. This is good info for someone who's looking to get one, tho'.

[sunshine11219]

on 1/7/2009 well written