(I wasn’t sure where exactly this should go, so I’m hedging my bets MPSIMS is the place for it.)
I have an idea, for anyone willing to hear it. There are pre-paid telephone cards. So why not pre-paid credit cards? It would only be for a certain amount, and like money orders, it would be secure because it would only be in one person’s name, to be specified at time of sale.
To me it sounds like such a good reason, I wonder why no one else has thought about. People, please give me some feedback on this idea. I’d love to hear it .
Sorry, the basic idea has been done. I believe they’re called secured credit cards. You get a line of credit for however much you deposit in an account.
No, these are different. What Jim B. is thinking of is pretty much like those gift cards you can get for different stores, but these are Visa or Amex cards that can be used anywhere that takes Visa or Amex. You can also put more money on the card like any other gift card.
Yeah. I know people who use these for online purchasing and for vacation spending money, since apparently Amex traveler’s cheques aren’t as universal as they used to be.
They’re called Tarjetas Monedero in Spain. Monedero means coin purse, Tarjeta is card. Instead of being linked to your bank accounts (like most cc’s and cash cards in Spain are), these need to have money put in them; you can then use them in appropiate card readers. They’re rechargeable. If one is stolen, all you lose is however much money was in them; the maximum amount is usually limited.
One of the places using them is Pamplona, for example: many cities sell both individual tickets and reusable-10-times ones; Pamplona’s bus company decided to go one step ahead and just use these cards. You can load them in any ATM, in any local bank branch or in outside-of-town branches of the local savings bank (partially town-owned). They can also be used to pay in city hall offices and in most businesses, including any taking servired (the network of atms and paying sistems used by Spanish saving banks).
Tales of a Walgreens cashier: The folks in our low-income neighborhood never understand that it’s not an “instant” credit card, that Visa or Mastercard will mail you the actual card in about a week or so. I’ve started automatically warning every prospective purchaser, “Now, yanno, they mail ya the card, takes about a week”.
And then they go, “Hanh? It’s not, like, a credit card?” And they flap the little cardboard thingie with the magnet strip on it at me.
“No,” I explain. “That thing there is just the thing you buy, it’s not the credit card. They mail you the actual card, takes about a week.”
At which point they generally fling it down on the counter and stomp off, pouting. “Well, I don’t want it, then…”
We also had to remove the cardboard thingies with the magnet strips from the display and keep them behind the counter, because apparently people were stealing them, and then calling Visa or Mastercard and claiming they lost their PIN number.
Which is stupid, because if the card isn’t swiped at the register during the sale, then it’s not activated, and it’s just a piece of cardboard with a magnet strip on it.
But we were going through a lot of cards, so we pulled them. “Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.”–Schiller, I believe.
We use a similar card at my office for incentives. I have a pre-paid mastercard through a company called Cardex that bonuses are put on every month. (well, every month that I earn the incentive that is!) It works well for the employees, but the fees incurred by the company are really high.
Badkittypriestess and I use the pre-paid Visa for vacations. Safeway has a big ol’ rack of 'em, most are preloaded with $50 or $100, but you can get one for slightly more that can be loaded with up to $500. Nearly functional right out of the store, certainly aren’t mailed by Visa in a week or so, but they all need activated online or by phone. Sometimes you get funny looks because instead of your name they say “All-Access Customer” or some such, but not very often.
Mrs. Duckster received a $100 VISA gift card as a gift. Every time she used it there was a fifty cent charge. It didn’t matter that there was a $15.00 upfront charge to purchase the prepaid card by the friend who gave it to her, but every time it was used another fifty cents was deducted from the actual value of the card itself.
Because if no one uses them then I don’t get people calling about them, which makes my life easier.
No, seriously, they’re a rip-off. Hidden charges for everything. Charges per transaction. Charges for checking your balance. Charges for calling to ask about your charages. It’s ridiculous. It may not be so bad if it’s a one-time thing, but people are starting to rely on them as a primary means of transaction and they’re getting ripped. I’m frankly shocked at some of the fees they get away with charging.
I don’t know how Spanish credit card law works, but that sounds strictly worse than my actual credit card, where if I lose it I am out $50 maximum, by law.
Add in the extra fees that are tacked on at every turn, and I can’t imagine wanting one of these over a real credit card. The only use I can see for these is giving someone too young for a credit card a way of purchasing something online and knowing that they can’t run it up any more than a set value.
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