PREPAID CREDIT CARDS

Prepaid credit cards have hit Australia and look like they are going to stay. It is part of a growing worldwide trend in personal money management and where people are looking at alternatives to high street banks. Experts in the US expects the prepaid credit card by the middle of the next decade to be a trillion US dollar market where consumers will be using their card for transactions each year.

One of the first prepaid credit cards has already Been launched by Bill Express, called bopo, and is essentially a stand-alone Visa card. It is not linked to any other account which differentiates itself from a debit card. “This makes it significantly more secure for internet purchases as you are not exposing any links to your bank account or a credit card,” .

Bopo prepaid card

The prepaid credit card can be purchased online through the bopo website (ww.bopo.com.au) and will cost $9.95. You can load money to the bopo card at more than 3000 Bill Express outlets across Australia. You can keep a maximum balance of $1000 on the card and load a maximum of $2000 worth of deposits within any 30 day period, without completing a standard 100-point identity check.

If you want to exceed the balance or transaction limits you will have to go through the 100-point process. Unrestricted : Maximum balance of $25,000 and $75,000 loaded per annum; and a maximum of $9,000 loaded per day. Direct Online Transfer and B P AY available for loading your card. NOTE: You need to complete a 100 Point Check (fee of $4.95 applies).

The 100 Point System - You have that to present documents that add 100 points - the number of points for each type of document is shown in the table below:

You can also have several bopo cards linked so parents can link a card to thier children or and funds can be transferred between the linked cards via SMS for loveones or family members aboard.

If the card is lost or stolen all you have to do is let bopo know and the card will be stopped and a new one sent out. This can be done via SMS to bopo, so it can be instantaneous from the moment you realise you have lost your card – or you can ring thier 24 / 7 customer service centre. Funds will be transferred to the new card account.

Visa's executive vice-president for Australia and New Zealand, Bruce Mansfield, expects a strong take-up of prepaid cards in general. “Australians are pretty savvy money managers and a prepaid card is a perfect money management tool,” he says. “Australians have lapped up prepaid and disposable mobile phone cards and I expect similar long-term results in Visa prepaid.”

Over the next year Australia and New Zealand are likely to see more more prepaid credit cards available with diversity in the prepaid market such as gift cards and organisations using the prepaid platform to distribute payroll, insurance and benefits. Over the next 2 years this will over take the store card and voucher market as consumers will not be limited to one store chain or deparment chain.

Listed through our site are some of the prepaid Visa & Mastercard credit / debit and Maestro cash cards that are available to those in Ireland, the UK and US and (worldwide) irrespective of whether you have any bad credit or not.

Be wary of prepaycredit / debit card issuers who are offering anonymous prepaid reloadable credit / debit cards with unlimited load amounts without any ID checks. We would be very suspicious of organisations making claims about such prepaid credit / debit cards. Unless otherwise stated, all of the prepay credit / debit cards we list require some form of ID check and have limits on the amount that can be loaded onto their prepay credit / debit cards. If you are unsure about a prepay credit / debit card issuer send us an email with their details and we will check them out and verify the company. email us