Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

Tag: Debit card

  • Charity Prepaid Cards aka NonProfit Affinity Debit Cards – Expert Reviews

    Charity Prepaid Cards aka NonProfit Affinity Debit Cards – Expert Reviews

    Welcome to our site! Our editors have been covering the credit and debit card space for a total of 30+ years and we are proud to have been featured by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc. Your input is invaluable and we’d love to have your opinion as to whether a charity debit card that makes automatic donations is a good deal (see below) – this site is powered by you!

    Please Note this article was originally published in 2015 and updated in 2018 and is only kept for historical purposes. Please see link below for our current prepaid debit card reviews and other info.

    For some, swiping a debit card in a checkout line is more than just a way to pay for something. It’s an act of personal expression and a way to show the world (or at least the cashier) what’s most important to them.

    So-called “affinity debit cards” are issued by a company or bank and customized to fit a wide variety of consumer interests. They display logos and pictures of everything from sports teams to teddy bears and are marketed as a way for users to associate with something they care about.

    Card.com, a mobile alternative to traditional branch banking, provides thousands of options for consumers interested in affinity prepaid debit cards. Recent additions include Sesame Street, Walking Dead, Garfield, Care Bears, Star Trek and the National Autism Association. Consumers can choose cards they identify with, load money onto the cards, and use them anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted.

    New No Fee Visa Card that Can Help you Make More Charity Donations by Saving you Fees:

    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)

    “Card.com has figured out a way to make financial services accessible and fun using affinity cards,” said Ben Katz, CEO and co-founder of the website. “Each card becomes a personalized way of banking for our card members.”

     

    Card Benefits for Charities        

    Many of these affinity cards also reap benefits for charities and nonprofits. For example, Card.com has several autism-related card designs and makes a monthly donation to the National Autism Association for every active card. According to Wendy Fournier with the National Autism Association, these proceeds help provide therapy grants for families,provide safety toolkits for children at risk for wandering, and provide iPads with communication software for minimally verbal individuals.

    Another recent nonprofit campaign that joined Card.com was associated with the Paralyzed Veterans of America. The company donated money to benefit paralyzed veterans for every new card sign up during the month of November. They used Popeye, Olive Oyl and Beetle Bailey cards to promote the campaign.

    From February 2012 to May 2015, Bank of America is guaranteeing to Susan G. Komen® $1.0 million in conjunction with its Pink Ribbon Banking credit card and checking program (includes a branded debit card). Susan G. Komen has received more than $5.0 million from Bank of America from the credit card and checking account programs since 2009.

    Higher Fees and Other Considerations:

    A large number of other companies also produce affinity cards, along with many banks, including Arvest and Bank of America. These bank-issued cards, though, are usually tied to a consumer’s bank account, as opposed to the prepaid reloadable products from Card.com. For many, the upside of using prepaid cards is that there is usually no credit check, no overdraft fees and more design options.

    However, prepaid cards often have higher fees, including monthly maintenance fees, ATM cash withdrawal and balance inquiry charges, and fees for obtaining paper statements. Card.com charges a monthly maintenance fee of $5.95, but the fee is waived when you load at least $800 onto the card in the prior thirty (30) days via direct deposit.

    Linda Sherry, Director of National Priorities for Consumer-Action.org, said that she generally recommends that people use a traditional debit card linked to a bank account. However, she understands there are certain instances and certain people for whom a prepaid card is the best option. Some people, she explained, are locked out of the banking system due to past credit issues.

    For them, a prepaid card could be the solution. Others, she said, may consider prepaid cards because they don’t want to travel with cards linked to their bank account or because they want cards they can use to teach their kids good financial habits.

    Charity Prepaid Cards aka NonProfit Affinity Debit Cards- Summary

    The bottom line, she said, is that people should not be fooled into getting a card “just because it has a puppy on it” (or any other customized design). “That has nothing to do with a card, if a card is good or not,” she said. “If you find [a card] that you’re attracted to, I would look closely at the fee schedule.” She recommended finding a prepaid card that could utilize direct deposit from an employer, which would help avoid large money-loading fees.

    Only after closely examining a fee schedule should a consumer decide if the potential drawbacks of an affinity prepaid debit card are worth a nice design or benefits to a favored charity. The upside of using a prepaid card is that you won’t rack up credit card debt while supporting a charity like you can with an affinity credit card program (not surprisingly, credit card programs do tend to give higher rebates to charities than debit card programs). 🙂

     

    Curtis Arnold is a credit expert and co-founder of BestPrepaidDebitCards.com

    Originally posted on huffingtonpost.com

  • Credit Card Breach Doesn’t Compel Action

    Credit Card Breach Doesn’t Compel Action

    The past year has seen an unprecedented level of attention devoted to the many problems that result from data theft. Countless news articles and opinion pieces have followed in the wake of the high profile theft of customer information at big name retailers such as Target, Neiman Marcus and, more recently, Home Depot. So what is the response to a credit card breach on the individual level? Much of the time it is simply this: just hope for the best.

    That’s one of the main findings from a recent CardRatings.com survey of 2,000 Americans aged 25 and older. Among the Americans who were surveyed, only 25 percent believed they had fallen prey to a data breach. Of those who reported being a victim of data theft, the response was hardly uniform and often not the proper steps to take in order to protect their credit and finances. Here are the actions people took:

    • 51 percent checked their credit card statement
    • 45 percent checked their credit report
    • 54 percent checked their bank account
    • 38 percent stopped using their credit card
    • 33 percent stopped using their debit card
    • 24 percent signed up for credit monitoring
    • 24 percent put a credit freeze in place

    Actually reviewing one’s credit report – an essential step after a data breach – not only occurred less than half the time among survey respondents, younger and older people were least likely to do it. Only one-third of those between the ages of 25 and 34 and just 40 percent of those 65 and older checked their credit report.

    The survey also revealed widespread ignorance of card security basics. Just over half of respondents could correctly identify that a credit card is safer to use than a debit card. Furthermore, only 20 percent of those asked could say with certainty whether or not an EMV chip, a technology that boosts card protection significantly, currently protected their payment card. Although not asked in the survey, it’s unlikely many respondents would have been able to note that prepaid debit cards offer more protection than credit or debit cards in the event of a data breach – identity thieves can only steal the amount of money that has been loaded onto the card.

    “Given how widespread data breaches have become, every consumer in America is likely to be affected at some point. We simply can’t afford to stick our necks in the sand and hope the problem will go away,” says Curtis Arnold, editor-in-chief of CardRatings.com and founder of this site. “The bottom line is that we all need to get more involved and educated.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Survey: Americans Need To Get More Financially Fit

    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.
  • CFPB To Police Prepaid Debit Cards

    CFPB To Police Prepaid Debit Cards

    In yet another sign of the mainstreaming of prepaid debit cards, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced this week that it would begin accepting complaints from Americans encountering problems with these increasingly popular financial products. Although the market for prepaid debit cards has been steadily expanding and attracting big name financial players like American Express, consumer advocates have expressed concern about a lack of regulatory oversight.

    The CFPB is in the midst of developing proposed regulations targeted at prepaid debit cards, which should be released in the coming months. In the meantime, the CFPB, the federal government’s consumer watchdog for all manner of financial matters, is urging Americans who have run into problems with prepaid cards to get in touch. “By accepting consumer complaints about prepaid products and certain other services we will be giving people a greater voice in these markets and a place to turn to when they encounter problems,” says CFPB director, Richard Cordray.

    In its statement announcing the move, the CFPB outlined the specific issues consumers should alert it to, including:

    • Trouble managing, opening or closing an account
    • Incorrect or unexpected fees
    • Overdraft issues
    • Frauds, scams or unauthorized transactions
    • Advertising, disclosures and marketing practices
    • Adding money and savings and rewards features

    The CFPB already accepts consumer complaints about a wide range of financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, consumer loans and bank accounts. The CFPB complaint process works like this: After receiving a complaint, the CFPB expects companies to respond within 15 days and outline the steps they plan to take to address the problem. The CFPB also expects some sort of resolution to all complaints within 60 days. Consumers who do submit a complaint receive a tracking number and can follow the process on the CFPB website.

    Complaints about prepaid cards can be submitted through the CFPB website. In the same announcement about accepting prepaid debit card complaints, the CFPB also said that it would begin to address problems with debt settlement and credit repair companies as well as pawn and title loans suppliers.

  • Green Dot Fights Scammers

    Green Dot Fights Scammers

    It seemed like a genuine family emergency. When an 81-year-old Cincinnati resident named Roger answered his phone last December he thought he was talking to his grandson, who told the elderly man that he was in big trouble. The caller told Roger that he had been arrested for speeding and drug possession and needed $7,000 so he could post bail. Being a devoted grandfather, Roger quickly put the money on a prepaid debit card and gave the account number to someone he thought was a police officer.

    The only problem: Roger reached his real grandson on his cell phone and realized that he had been swindled. Roger’s tale (he insisted on anonymity for fear of being targeted by other criminals) was one of the stories’ victims of so-called “grandparent scams” told to members of the US Senate’s Special Committee on Aging on July 16. By no means is Roger alone. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Americans were cheated out of $73 million by imposter scams, a number the government believes is far below the actual cost of all of this type of crime.

    Although the hearing was designed to highlight the impact these crimes have on the elderly, it also resulted in some genuine action. In its own written testimony before the committee, Green Dot Corporation, one of the leading suppliers of prepaid debit cards, announced that it would eliminate the MoneyPak PIN, which allowed money to be added to an account to take place via phone. Instead, Green Dot, which issues the Walmart MoneyCard, will now only allow cardholders to reload their accounts with cash in person – a method known as “swipe reloading.”

    It’s a change Green Dot insists will make it harder for criminals to commit fraud. “Without the MoneyPak PIN, the scammer will have no method of instructing a senior to buy a product and no method of redeeming any associated PIN number,” Green Dot said in its testimony. The company says the MoneyPak PIN has already been removed from all Walmarts and it expects it will be eliminated from all retailers by early 2015.

     

     

     

     

Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc