Where To Buy A Prepaid Visa Credit Card _TOP_

Use your Visa card to make purchases anywhere and you're protected from unauthorized use of your card or account information. With the Visa Zero Liability policy1, your liability for unauthorized transactions2 is $0-you pay nothing.

where to buy a prepaid visa credit card

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Visa Reloadable Prepaid cards can be used anywhere Visa cards are accepted, in store or online. Some Prepaid cards are very similar to credit and debit cards and have Chip, Pin and even PayWave capabilities.

Generally speaking, gift cards code as a cash advance when you buy them directly from a financial institution or when you buy a prepaid card instead of a gift card. However, you can get around this by buying gift cards within your normal shopping, such as in your weekly grocery haul at the supermarket.

All information about The Amex EveryDay Credit Card from American Express, Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi and Target Redcard has been collected independently by Bankrate and has not been reviewed or approved by the issuer.

Ally is an online bank. While the cards and accounts offered from Ally are not strictly speaking the same as the prepaid travel cards featured elsewhere on this list, you could open and use an Ally account in a similar way.

There are many prepaid card options out there from banks and online providers. Because Visa and MasterCard are among the most commonly accepted card networks outside of the US, many travel cards are issued on these networks to increase coverage.

Hank has had a run of financial bad luck lately, causing a serious ding to his credit score, and he can't qualify for a credit card. He doesn't want to carry wads of cash in his pockets, though, so he uses his paycheck to buy prepaid cards for his everyday purchases and even to pay his bills.

Pam sometimes has trouble keeping tabs on her account balance. Tired of paying hefty overdraft fees, her solution is to use prepaid cards to avoid spending more than she has. She would rather have a purchase denied than pay another penalty fee.

Retired teachers Patricia and Sam live comfortably on their retirement incomes, as long as they keep a close eye on their finances and don't overspend. To help in that effort, the couple uses prepaid cards loaded with specific amounts for weekly groceries and entertainment. It's a good idea to keep a rein on their budget.

Marcie is a keen online shopper, regularly scouring people-to-people marketplaces on the internet for collectibles, books and handcrafted items. Paying by cash is out of the question, and she feels more secure and more comfortably anonymous using prepaid cards rather than her personal credit card online.

Jack is fresh out of high school, still deciding where life will take him next. While he takes some time to mull his options, Jack works at a minimum-wage job. His take-home salary is too low to counter the low-balance fees of a traditional bank checking account, so he has his paycheck directly deposited onto a prepaid card.

Not long ago, your choices to pay for goods or services were cash, checks or credit cards. Today, many consumers reach for prepaid cards. In fact, prepaid cards are among the fastest-growing consumer financial products in the U.S., according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Consumers put nearly $65 billion on "general-purpose reloadable" (GPR) prepaid cards in 2012; that was predicted to almost double to $112 billion by 2018.

Prepaid cards are easy to get and can be a convenient alternative to cash, checks or credit cards. Known officially as "general-purpose reloadable" and sometimes as prepaid debit cards or prepaid credit cards, prepaid cards are loaded with cash. They can be used at ATMs for withdrawals and to purchase just about anything in person or online, similar to debit cards tied to checking accounts.

People who do not have a checking or savings accounts, or who use them very little, used to be the main users of prepaid cards. But prepaid-card usage is becoming more common, growing more than 50 percent between 2012 and 2014, driven primarily by increased adoption among those consumers who do have bank accounts.

For the purposes of this guide, we're primarily talking about this type of card: You load money onto it, and then use it like you would a debit card. GPRs typically sport network brands, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express, and can be used anywhere credit cards are accepted.

Just as the name says, instead of a paycheck, some employees receive prepaid cards loaded with their salary amounts. They can then use the cards like they would debit cards to purchase goods and services and to pay bills.

While the above are the top three most commonly used prepaid cards, others include government benefit cards that pay unemployment benefits, child support and other benefits; public transit system cards; and some college ID cards.

With prepaid cards, you spend money that has previously been loaded onto them; they aren't connected to checking or savings accounts. They work like debit cards, but you do not need a bank account (or good credit) to get one. You can purchase the card in a certain amount, but you can add additional money to it at any time. When the balance is gone, your card stops working unless you add more money to it.

All prepaid cards are different and may charge varying fees, from a charge for each time you use the card to make a purchase to a fee for using it to withdraw cash from an ATM. These fees can add up quickly, eating away at the balance of money you've loaded onto the card. It's important to read the fine print to find the best deal. Look for information on the card, inside the card package or at the card issuer's website

Under the new rules, fees must be disclosed on the outside of card packaging. Consumers who report lost or stolen cards within two days will be only liable for up to $50 of their losses. Issuers must provide free and easy access to prepaid cardholders' account information, and those issuers who do give prepaid-card consumers the option of spending more money than they have deposited in the account must give protections similar to those on credit cards.

The advantages and disadvantages of prepaid-card use varies widely by card. Following are some issues to consider when purchasing a prepaid card; not all cards have all the pros nor all the cons listed below.

If you lose cash, it's limited. If your credit card is stolen, the thief could rack up substantial charges. If you lose your debit card or checkbook, a thief could drain your account. But if you lose a prepaid card, your loss is limited to the amount on the card. Also, some prepaid cards offer protections against loss or theft.

There are many reasons. A lot of people like to use them as a stopgap for spending. Maybe they want to limit how much they are spending, so they put a certain amount on a prepaid card, say $100. When the hundred dollars goes to groceries, they're on a set budget, as opposed to writing a check, where it's easy to spend more than they intended, and then they possibly face overdraft fees.

Prepaid cards are also popular with those who have soiled credit and have difficulty getting banking in the conventional sense, as well as parents sending kids off to college for the first time who feel more at ease equipping them with prepaid cards with finite amounts of cash.

And some individuals just feel safer with prepaid cards in their wallets rather than cash or debit or credit cards. They feel that the loss or theft of the prepaid card is better than getting their checking account wiped out or having the credit card abused by a thief.

Also, people my father (80) always carried cash. I carry debit and credit cards, and many millennials seem to favor these prepaid cards. They don't have to deal with banks, there's no hassle, they're easy to reload and there's some generational aspect to it as well.

The fees are all over the place. A prepaid-card user might face an initiation fee for turning the card on, a fee for each transaction, a monthly maintenance fee and so on. Consumers really need to stay on top of this and know what they are getting into.

Another issue is the lack of customer service. If you have a problem, it's not like you can walk into your bank branch and someone there will take care of it for you. With a prepaid card, you might be calling a 1-800 number and be lucky to get a live person. I think that's a big disadvantage, especially when you're dealing with access and security. It's really comfortable to be able to talk to an actual person in your bank to get a problem resolved.

My first recommendation is to purchase prepaid cards from a bank or a known, reputable institution and not from "ABC Company." Be savvy and know what you're doing. Look for and read all the accompanying information to avoid getting ambushed by hidden fees. Right now there are no mandatory, uniform disclosure rules, so it is up to the consumer to stay educated.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (Credit CARD) Act provides several protections for consumers who purchase certain types of gift cards, including store and restaurant (also known as merchant) gift cards. These cards can only be redeemed at the stores and restaurants that sell them. Bank gift cards, which carry the logo of a payment card network (e.g., Visa, MasterCard), are also subject to Credit CARD Act protections and can be used wherever the brand is accepted.

A lot has changed in the world of checking/debit alternatives like Bluebird, as well as prepaid/reloadable cards in the past year, so I asked TPG Contributor Jason Steele to write up some updated strategies on turning these products into points-earning powerhouses.

Among travel rewards enthusiasts, prepaid cards and checking/debit alternatives have long been used to maximize the points and miles earned from their credit cards. Prepaid debit cards come in two kinds. One kind is the disposable, non-reloadable prepaid cards that are often sold as "gift cards" and are part of the Visa, MasterCard, or American Express payment networks. 041b061a72