Pre-Paid Debit Cards

Prepaid debit cards are a part of the new consumer craze for financial products in the United States. Consumers use them for a wide variety of reasons, up to and including teaching their children responsibility. Another way that consumers use prepaid debit cards is to save money for emergencies and rainy days. Finally, some consumers use them as a means to pay their monthly bills online.

How a Prepaid Debit Card Works

A prepaid debit card is similar to a credit card in many ways, but it has some special benefits. Cardholders can use their prepaid debit cards at a wide variety of online and offline locations, such as for food purchases, fuel refills, clothes shopping, car rentals, airfare and the like. The main difference between a prepaid debit card and a credit card is that the customer creates the balance by loading the card. After he or she loads funds onto the debit card, the consumer can use it like a credit card. When the person uses all the funds on the card, the merchants will decline transactions until the cardholder loads the card again. Customers never have to worry about going over their limits or accruing any extra charges because the bank does not issue a “credit line.” Read more of this post