Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

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  • Tips on How to Avoid Paid Credit Repair Scams

    Tips on How to Avoid Paid Credit Repair Scams

    If you’re like millions of other Americans, you likely began 2015 with a handful of resolutions to improve your physical or financial health. Unfortunately, there are all too many predatory companies and scam artists who want to turn your commitment to better yourself into a quick profit for themselves. And just as you should steer clear of anyone shilling for a diet that has you eating only foods of a particular color, so too should you know how to avoid credit repair scams.

    That is one of the New Year messages from Better Business Bureau (BBB) chapters from Illinois to Louisiana. As the BBB notes, the credit repair scams promise a quick-fix for the sort of credit woes that prevent people from either obtaining a mortgage or a car loan or instead compel them to pay a high interest rate for those loans. In exchange, these local and national companies vowing to provide a clean bill of credit health charge upfront fees as high as $250 – and sometimes follow those up with additional monthly charges as well.

    How to avoid credit repair scams

    As the BBB makes clear, these credit repair scams do nothing more than make already financially vulnerable people’s situations even worse. “No one can make bad credit scores simply disappear,” says a BBB statement. “After consumers pay these companies hundreds or even thousands of dollars in upfront fees, frequently these companies do nothing to improve your credit report and many simply vanish with your money.”

    In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lists the many signs of a credit repair scam that consumers should watch out for. At the top of the list is a request by so-called credit repair companies that you pay them before they will do any work on your behalf. This is illegal. Other signs of a credit repair scam include being told not to directly contact the credit reporting companies – including Experian, TransUnion and Equifax – that maintain credit reports and calculate credit scores. The FTC also advises avoiding any company that urges you to dispute information included in your credit report that you know is correct or tells you to provide false information on a credit application.

    BBB Advises how to avoid credit repair scams.

    Things to Watch out for: Free Things You Can Do to Improve Your Credit:
    •  Company asks you to pay up front before any work is done
    • Being told not to directly contact the credit reporting companies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax
    • Urges you to dispute information in your credit report
    • Tells you to provide false information on a credit application
    • Create a personal debt repayment plan and stick to it
    • Take advantage of the legal right to access and check your credit report for free once per year – go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228 – you can get a copy of your report from each of the three reporting companies
    • Dispute any errors you find on your credit report

    Truth is, improving credit doesn’t happen in a hurry. Instead, the BBB suggests devising a personal debt repayment plan and sticking to it and taking advantage of the legal right to access and check your credit report for free once every year. If you come across errors that are harming your credit, take the time to dispute them. “If your credit is less than golden, there are steps you can take to repair it on your own, at no cost,” says the FTC. “Only time and a personal debt repayment plan will improve your credit.”

  • Walmart Card Cash Offers Home For Unwanted Gift Cards

    Walmart Card Cash Offers Home For Unwanted Gift Cards

    We all know that even Santa Claus misfires from time to time. And the rest of us well-intentioned gift givers are even worse, known for holiday faux-pas such as presenting caffeine averse friends and relatives with a $50 Starbucks gift card. As of Christmas day, though, a program called Walmart Card Cash gives holders of unwanted gift cards from over 200 retailers a chance to exchange them for a Walmart e-gift card that can be used both in stores and online.

    Here’s how it works. Visitors to the Walmart Card Cash website can view a list of the cards that the world’s biggest retailer is willing to swap for one of its own gift cards. It includes a who’s-who of the nation’s best known brands, such as airlines like Jet Blue, American and Southwest as well as restaurants like Taco Bell and Olive Garden and even other large retailers like Target. After you select the type of gift card and enter the card’s balance, you receive an instant offer of how much store credit Walmart will give to exchange the card.

    Although the site boasts that consumers can get up to 97 percent of the face value of the card, most exchange offers are not that generous. For instance, a $200 Home Depot gift card will fetch $172.20 while a Target card of the same amount brings in $193.20.

    Walmart Card Cash is a partnership with the discount gift card marketplace CardCash.com and is in a test phase, meaning that it will be available for the first few weeks of 2015, and possibly longer if the response is strong. According to an article in Kiplinger, the payout rate offered by Walmart Card Cash is more generous than other gift card exchange sites like GiftcardZen.com and Cardpool.com, though those sites offer cash to people redeeming their unwanted cards while Walmart provides store credit.

    Still, for those who want to salvage that holiday present that is more a token of goodwill than it is useful may find Walmart Card Cash to be a gift in and of itself.

     

  • 6 reasons to buy the teacher a prepaid gift card

    6 reasons to buy the teacher a prepaid gift card

    By Donna Freedman

    Teachers get a lot of gifts in December. Some are formulaic: “No. 1 Teacher” coffee mugs, say, or plaques shaped like apples. Some are heartfelt: photos, handmade crafts, cookies decorated by sticky young hands.

    Trouble is, teachers have way too many mugs, plaques, scarves/neckties, candles, pencil jars and picture frames. See, they’re teaching 20 or more kids per year and such gifts add up – or, rather, they pile up until teacher donates them to the charity thrift shop.

    One thing many educators say they’d love to get is a letter from a student (or his parents) thanking him or her for making a difference. This costs nothing but time, and it’s a lovely gesture.  A holiday gift is a nice gesture, too. But in the current mindset of “Experiences, Not Stuff,” why not give a prepaid gift card? Here’s why.

    1. It’s payback. Chances are your child’s teacher is spending his or her own money on the classroom. According to a 2013 survey from the National School Supply and Equipment Association, teachers shell out an average of $485 per year on stuff for their students – and 10 percent of them spent $1,000 or more. Yikes!

    2. It’s flexible. Sure, you could buy a specific gift card to a bookstore or educational supply shop – but a prepaid card gives the teacher a lot of leeway. She can use it at the hardware store to buy items for the science fair displays, or at the supermarket to buy ingredients for punch and cookies on Valentine’s Day.

    Technically she could use it on something for herself. Don’t count on it, though: The Curse of the Teacher leads many instructors to view all gifts in terms of how they might benefit the classroom. (See “$485 a year,” above.)

    3. It’s non-offensive. That candle and holder you bought at a friend’s home party is pretty, but the teacher may have limited room for tchotchkes. (She may also dislike candles.) A gift certificate to The Body Shop might never get used because strong fragrances trigger her asthma. Or suppose you offer a mani-pedi gift certificate only to realize later that you have never, ever seen this teacher wear nail polish; for all you know, she took it as a criticism of her appearance.

    4. It’s non-caloric. Teachers get a lot of homemade treats as well as gift cards to the doughnut shop or the frozen yogurt place. But you don’t know whether he or she is is on a diet, or has health issues that preclude treats.

    5. It’s non-caffeinated. Starbucks cards have become the coin of the realm lately. I even know a dentist who hands them out to patients kept waiting too long. However, not everyone drinks coffee or even tea.
    Besides, your child’s teacher may have one of those diet/health issues and the card wouldn’t be a good fit.

    6. It’s not a coffee mug! Teachers don’t need more of these. Really. Please.

     
    Guest Author Donna Freedman contributed this article. Donna Freedman writes about personal finance for Money Talks News and other websites and magazines, and blogs at DonnaFreedman.com. This article was revised and jointly written by Curtis Arnold and posted on the Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/curtis-arnold/low-fee-prepaid-gift-cards_b_6336082.html

  • Capital One Wish For Others Launches

    Capital One Wish For Others Launches

    Some wishes are practical, like an infusion of cash to help a 17-year-old entrepreneur grow her candle business and save for college. Others are more emotional, such as a wish someone makes for her “very hardworking best friends” to be able to give their two-year-old an “amazing” Christmas. Each of these wishes, and many more, are entries in Capital One’s #WishForOthers initiative which launched on November 24.

    Launched in advance of the increasingly popular Giving Tuesday this past December 2, #WishForOthers is an opportunity to continue that holiday generosity through December 23, the closing date for entries. In total, Capital One will help grant 275 wishes to individuals, organizations and even entire communities. The entries will be evaluated by an independent judging organization and winners will be selected on criteria that includes originality and creativity, adherence to the mission of making the holidays brighter for others and feasibility (so best to skip anything including unicorns).

    Here’s how it works. Being the digital age, submissions to #WishForOthers must be publicly submitted via Twitter, Instagram or the Capital One or Capital One 360 Facebook pages. Submissions should include the hashtag #WishForOthers and tag @capitalone. People who live in Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco can stop by a Capital One Café and make their wishes at a dedicated booth.

    Capital One says that no wishes are off-limits, though basic common sense and decency should be your guide if you plan to enter. That said, there will be a premium placed on creativity, so Capital One encourages wishers use compelling videos and photos to make their case. This being the season of giving, Capital One barely limits opportunities to spread good cheer: You can enter a wish once per day per platform, meaning one Tweet, one Instagram, one Facebook entry per day.

     

  • AmEx and Walmart Double Savings Catcher Rewards

    AmEx and Walmart Double Savings Catcher Rewards

    The rush to attract holiday shoppers and their dollars started before trick-or-treaters donned their costumes and headed out into the night. On Oct. 27, the checking account alternative card, Bluebird by American Express, announced the launch of a “Get 2X” promotion meant to entice Walmart shoppers with even bigger savings.

    Here’s how the promotion works. Walmart customers can already take advantage of the company’s Savings Catcher tool, which allows shoppers to compare the price of items they intend to buy at Walmart with the advertised prices of other national retailers. If Walmart’s Savings Catcher identifies a lower price at a rival store, Walmart customers then receive the price difference on either a Walmart Reward eGift Card or in a Bluebird account. Customers can spend the money at a Walmart store or at Walmart.com.

    The new promotion works the same way, although it gives double the benefits to Bluebird cardholders. To take advantage of the deal, which lasts through Feb. 28 of next year, customers can either go online to the Savings Catcher website or use the Walmart app and scan their Walmart receipt.



    The Savings Catcher tool works as it normally does and searches for a lower advertised price offered by competitors. If it finds a better price, Bluebird cardholders can click on “Redeem to Bluebird,” which will automatically trigger a deposit of double the savings into their account.






    The “Get 2X” promotion is a way to give Bluebird cardholders even more bang for their bucks, says Daniel Eckert, a senior vice president of Walmart Services. “Millions of customers are using Savings Catcher to ensure they are getting the best price on their everyday purchases. Now thanks to American Express, they can get even more back when using their Bluebird Card,” he says. “Bluebird is known for saving people money and now coupled with Savings Catcher, it’s going to put real money in customers’ pockets.”

Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc