Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

Tag: debit card prepaid

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.

January 8, 2015
Apple Pay No Slam Dunk

Apple is not big on subtlety. Its announcement party unveiling the new iPhone 6 and Apple Watch included a mini-concert by none other than U2, whose new album was also given away for free on iTunes, as part of the big rollout. The company’s introduction of Apple Pay, the new digital wallet that will be available to millions of iPhone users, while not quite as flashy, was also significant.

Apple Pay, which will use near field communication (NFC) to allow shoppers to utilize tap and pay technology to purchase items with their phones, was introduced with the news that American Express, Visa and MasterCard had all signed on in support, along with retailers representing 220,000 American stores. “Working with Apple, we’re excited to bring Apple Pay to tens of millions of Capital One customers,” said Frank LaPrade, the Capital One Chief Enterprise Services Officer, in the sort of enthusiastic vote of support that accompanied Apple Pay’s debut. “We are laser focused on the evolution of digital products and services.”

Even though Apple Pay received a big embrace from banks, credit card companies and many retailers, it faces plenty of hurdles before it becomes a mainstream payment option. For one thing, consumers who have been barraged with news about data breaches and thefts could very well be leery of a new payment choice – even if, as Apple points out, it is more secure than debit or credit cards. Retail consultant, Cathy Hotka, was quoted in a recent Forbes story asserting that adoption of Apple Pay would be slow, largely due to uncertainty around security. “A lot of consumers will have to be convinced that their data will remain protected,” she said. “With the choice between shaving off a few seconds and having a safer transaction, consumers will choose safety.”

Another issue is how quickly consumers will upgrade to Apple devices that are equipped with the NFC technology that allows Apple Pay to function. Larry Negrich, a vice president of marketing at nGage Labs was quoted in the Forbes article saying that he expects it to take four years for all iPhone users to have the technology required to utilize Apple Pay. Even when that happens, Negrich notes that will still only account for 50 percent of all consumers. “I think Apple has created a better total solution to the security issue. However what about the other 50 percent of consumer mobile transactions?” he said. “Retailers will surely be faced with supporting Apple Pay and multiple other mobile payment solutions all seamlessly-integrated into their years-old POS (Point of sale) software.”

Ultimately, though, even many of the skeptics about Apple Pay’s immediate adoption think it has great long-term potential. Tom Redd of SAP Global told Forbes that it’s easy to see why Apple will succeed. “Hey, the Millennials live by Apple, and if Apple says, ‘Do it,’ consider it done.”

September 18, 2014
Survey: Americans Need To Get More Financially Fit
It can often seem like there are a bewildering number of things to do in order to stay financially fit. Don’t borrow too much money. Create a budget and stick to it. Save for retirement. Squirrel away money for your children’s education.

Now add this to the list of to do’s required in order to be financially fit: Be clear on what your credit status is. It may seem like something that can be easily relegated to the bottom of your pressing financial concerns, but that notion is misleading. Having good credit, after all, is a prerequisite for qualifying for a mortgage or a car loan or even a credit card. Furthermore, lenders look at your credit – usually your credit score – to determine how risky it is for them to hand money over to you. If you’re deemed a big risk, you either won’t qualify at all or you’ll have to pay a sky-high interest rate.

Sadly, a new survey conducted by the financial services company Capital One found that when it comes to credit, Americans are not nearly as financially fit as they need to be. Indeed, the survey discovered that a great deal of education needs to take place for many of us to improve our financial IQ, at least as it relates to credit. Among Capital One’s findings were:
- About one-third of Americans surveyed believe that a credit score only matters when they need to buy a house. This misconception is particularly pervasive among young Americans. Almost half of those under 35 who were polled believed this to be true.
- The survey also pointed towards widespread confusion about the factors that go into determining a credit score. For example, over a quarter of respondents mistakenly believe that having one late payment on a bill will not damage their credit. Another 24 percent of those polled wrongly believe that age is a factor in a credit score, while 19 percent asserted that where they live is considered.
- Although it’s free and a very smart thing to do only 30 percent of respondents had requested a copy of their credit report in that past year. Doing so allows consumers to check for and correct any errors that may be harming their credit. By contrast, 66 percent of respondents had their car’s oil changed and over half had been to the dentist.
- Despite all of this, the survey also found that 81 percent of parents believed that their kids would have better credit than they do by the time they reach their age.
September 3, 2014
Insights Aplenty in Federal Reserve Payments Study
When most people think of the Federal Reserve – if they consider it at all – it’s when the Fed raises or lowers interest rates. But monetary policy is only one of the tasks the Fed engages in. It also conducts in-depth research in an effort to uncover trends and insights that can benefit consumers, industry and the economy as a whole.

Recently, the Fed released the 2013 Federal Reserve Payments Study Detailed Report, which examines the use of credit, debit, prepaid debit cards and other forms of alternative payment. Although the information in the report was collected in 2012, it still provides an interesting glimpse into consumer and business use of various forms of plastic, checks and mobile devices. Among the Federal Reserve Payment Study’s many findings are:
- For purchases, Americans favor debit cards. On average, Americans made 23 monthly payments using a debit card, with credit cards utilized 11 times and prepaid cards close behind at 10 per month.
- In total, Americans have 776 million general-purpose cards. Of that number, 334 million are credit cards, 283 million are debit cards and 159 million are prepaid cards.
- At 305 million versus 28 million, consumers hold far more credit cards than do businesses.
- ATMs were far more popular for getting cash than over the counter withdrawals. In total, there were 5.8 billion ATM withdrawals, compared to 2.1 billion over the counter.
- Prepaid cards for public transport and other transportation payments exceeded all other prepaid card payments. In total, there were 9.9 billion payments using prepaid cards for auto tolls and public transport.
- There were over 250 million mobile payments made utilizing mobile wallet applications.
- PIN debit and ATM transactions had lower fraud rates than transactions using signature debit or credit cards.
August 22, 2014
Prepaid Debit Cards that Allow you to Pay Bills (Like a Checking Account)

Prepaid Debit Cards that Allow you to Pay Bills

It’s an irresistible headline. “Why a guy making $100,000 a year can’t get a bank account,” was the provocative title to a recent intriguing story by Danielle Douglas in The Washington Post.

In it, Douglas describes how a Kansas City software engineer, Zikomo Fields, pulls in six figures annually yet has to rely on an American Express Bluebird card, a checking account alternative, to handle his finances. It’s not the well-paid tech professional’s first choice, either, but the checking account alternative is his best option after being turned down by credit unions and banks, including Bank of America.

According to Douglas, this odd situation of a well-heeled, seemingly desirable customer being forced to resort to a checking account alternative financial product usually associated with low-income Americans is the result of the screening process banks use to weed out risky consumers. In the case of Fields, it all comes down to his inclusion in a database called ChexSystems. “Thousands of banks and credit unions screen would-be customers through databases like ChexSystems that document repeated overdrafts, bounced checks, unpaid balances and other behavior that could signal fraud,” writes Douglas.

No Fee Visa Card that Has all the Benefits of a Checking Account:

Chime is a new Visa card that is amazingly free (unless you use the card outside of their large ATM network). This is best alternative to a prepaid card that we’ve seen in 5+ years and offers all of the benefits of traditional bank account.

It’s a real debit card, (not a prepaid debit card which usually have a lot more fees) and people with poor credit can apply too as there is no credit check. Chime can be managed entirely from your smartphone. No overdraft fees. No minimum balance. No monthly service fees. No transfer fees. Over 38,000 fee-free ATMs, plus 30,000+ cash-back locations.

And for a limited time, earn a Cash referral bonus of $50 when you tell your friends and family members about Chime and they sign up (and they’ll earn $50 too)- details within the app after you apply! Click for more info.- you can apply online in just 2 mins with no obligation. Start by simply entering your email address and clicking “Get Started”– over 3 million customers couldn’t be wrong. 🙂 (Ad Link)

To be sure, Fields admits that he has a blemished financial record. Working as a contractor in the past meant there was a time when Fields had to overdraw his US Bank account in order to pay bills. Although he eventually was able to pay off what he owed, Fields has discovered the hard way that his name is still very much on what amounts to a financial no-fly list. As is the case with dings to your credit report, it takes a full seven years for someone’s past financial black marks to be removed from databases like ChexSystems.

There are a few results of this blunt approach to assessing the potential risk of new customers. For banks, it means that they are potentially missing out on a customer who might use their services to buy a home or a car. Potentially more consequentially, it also may cause even more consumers to flee traditional banks. Already, low-fee non-traditional financial products like the Bluebird card and prepaid cards like Chase Liquid are making it easy for customers who can’t qualify for a credit or debit card to handle their financial transactions.

As banks turn away more perfectly good customers simply because their screening process is lazy, that trend will likely only continue.

June 25, 2014
U.S. Credit Card Security Outdated

Target has begun 2014 with a very bad hangover. As has been widely reported, as many as 40 million of the large retailer’s customers had financial and personal information stolen during the height of the holiday shopping season. The repercussions for Target have already been severe and seem only to get worse by the day. Besides seeing its all-important holiday shopping traffic decline, several states’ attorneys general are investigating Target and a number of class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company.

A recent story in The Los Angeles Times points out that backward technology long ago abandoned by much of the rest of the world may be more to blame for the data breach than anything Target did or didn’t do. The story by reporter Chris O’Brien says that while it’s still the norm for U.S. credit card holders to have plastic with a magnetic strip that holds their account information, most other countries have opted for so-called smart cards.

These smart cards earn that name, O’Brien writes, because they utilize embedded microchips to hold customer information rather than the magnetic strips that are found on 99 percent of all of the credit cards issued in the US. “The additional encryption on so-called smart cards has made the kind of brazen data thefts suffered by Target almost impossible to pull off in most other countries,” writes O’Brien.

Because around 80 countries have already embraced smart card technology, the more vulnerable U.S. has become the favorite target of identity thieves. Given that smart cards provide such superior security, the question is why the U.S. hasn’t embraced their use. According to O’Brien’s story, there has been no political pressure to force businesses and financial institutions to make the switch. Importantly, an upgrade to smart cards would be expensive.

Nevertheless, it does appear that the U.S. will soon become home to a lot more smart cards. According to O’Brien’s article, many credit card issuers have launched efforts to make the switch by October of 2015. To do that, credit card companies will change the rules about who is responsible whenever there are fraudulent purchases as a result of security breaches. “Under the new rules, the entity in the payment chain – merchant, credit card, banks – deemed to have the weakest security will be liable,” writes O’Brien. “Credit card companies can’t make anyone adopt the technology, but they’re giving them a hard nudge.”

January 8, 2014