Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc

Tag: justin bieber

  • TD Go Prepaid Visa Card Review (Independent)

    TD Go Prepaid Visa Card Review (Independent)

    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, among other publications But your input is invaluable and we’d love to have your opinion on the TD Bank Go Visa prepaid debit card (see below- this site is powered by you)!

    Please note that this 2018 review is outdated and is only kept for historical reasons. Please read our updated review of the TD Bank Go Visa Card here (that is in a better visual format).

    If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to teach your teenager how to better manage money, TD Bank wants to help. A few years back, TD Bank, one of the ten largest banks in the U.S., announced the release of the Visa TD Go Card a few years back (when we first reviewed this card offer), its first foray into the prepaid debit card market.

    TD Bank’s new prepaid card is aimed at helping parents teach their teenagers how to spend money wisely, albeit in a way that offers a sturdy safety net.

    “The development of smart spending habits is a journey and many parents want to offer teens a gradual path to increasing fiscal freedom,” says Tami Farrow, Senior Vice President and head of retail deposit payments for TD Bank. “With the launch of the TD Go Card, TD Bank is offering parents a convenient and safe environment to get money to their teens and an easy way to monitor spending.”

    New Popular No Fee Visa Debit Card (works like the TD prepaid card but with less fees):

    Chime is a new type of bank account designed to help people lead healthier financial lives and automate their savings (people with poor credit can apply too as there is no credit check). With Chime, you get a free Chime Visa Debit Card (a real debit card, not a prepaid debit card which usually have a lot more fees).

    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)

    Here’s how the TD Bank prepaid card works. Parents can purchase the TD Bank Go Card online and fund it initially with a minimum of $20 and a maximum of $1,000.

    Once the card is activated, which is partnered with Visa Buxx, parents have the ability to monitor how their child uses the card online and can also receive text and email alerts account balances, transactions and so-called “adult-oriented” purchases.

    The TD Bank Go Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card (aka TD Teen Card) is by no means the first to market itself as a learning tool. Companies like SpendSmart offer prepaid cards designed with many of the same features as TD Bank’s new prepaid card. More infamously, celebrities like Justin Beiber have attached their names to prepaid debit cards meant to attract teens.

    One thing parents and teens who opt to get a TD Go Card might learn is that using a prepaid debit card can sometimes be pricey. Depending on how a teen uses the card, the fees it charges can add up.

    There is a $4.95 charge for purchasing the card initially and there’s a $1.00 charge to load it using either a debit or credit card (direct deposit is free).

    Withdrawals from a TD Bank ATM are free, although taking money out of a non-TD Bank ATM costs $3.00, as does a balance inquiry at a non-TD ATM.

    Requesting a paper account statement runs $5.00  and there is a $2.50 charge if the card EACH MONTH if not used for 12 months.

    Go Visa Card Features:

    24/7 access lets you easily spend, load and track your money
    Set up transaction alerts, check your balance, reload your card on the go, and more with the TD Alerts app
    Helps you budget – you can only spend what you put on your card.

    How to Load Funds:

    Load funds online* 24/7 using your TD Bank Debit or Credit Card
    Direct deposit any amount from your paycheck
    Deposit cash or checks or transfer funds from your TD Bank checking or savings account at any TD Bank

    How to Open:

    Bring $25 cash – no TD Bank account needed – or transfer $25 from your TD Bank checking or savings account
    Bring your Social Security number and a valid ID (driver’s license, passport or state-issued)

    Monthly fee is $5.99*

    Per purchase $0

    ATM cash withdrawals:

    $0 in-network
    $3.00 out-of-network

    Reload Fee: $0

    Is the TD Go Prepaid Card Good? (Summary):

    Please note that this 2018 review is outdated and is only kept for historical reasons. Please read our updated review of the TD Bank Go Visa Card here (that is in a better visual format).

    The TD Go Card is a good card if you are an existing customer- the fees are definitely low. It’s also a good option if you are looking for a teen card for allowances. But the TD Go Card is not a great option for a general prepaid card.

    Click here to search for the prepaid debit cards with different benefits than the TD Card (and at least in one case, lower fees) – read reviews and apply online in mins.

    One lower fee card option than the TD Bank Go reloadable card is the new No Fee Chime Visa Debit Card, (Ad Link) which can managed entirely from your smartphone and charges no overdraft fees, no monthly service fees and no transfer fees. No minimum balance is required and Chime features over 38,000 fee-free MoneyPass® and Visa Plus Alliance ATMs (there is a map of all fee-free ATM’s in the app).

    This is the best and cheapest alternative to prepaid cards we have seen since we started reviewing prepaid cards over 5 years ago. 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 and clicking Get Started– over 3 million customers couldn’t be wrong. 🙂

    Finally, be sure to read customer reviews (complaints and praises) of the TD Bank Go Visa Card below and post your negative or positive review!

    Related Prepaid Card to Consider:

    The TD  Connect reloadable prepaid visa card is  offering (for adults- not teens). Read our full TD Prepaid Connet Card Review by clicking here. Please note that anyone can apply for this card – no TD Bank account needed.

    Editorial Note!:
    “The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, including this review and the reviews written by actual cardholders below.”

  • Suze Orman Prepaid Card Discontinued June 30

    Suze Orman Prepaid Card Discontinued June 30

    Celebrity financial advisor, Suze Orman, has urged countless people seeking her money guidance to get a grip and not make a purchase when they could not afford it. It’s the kind of tough love advice that makes for good entertainment, but it’s also not what holders of the Suze Orman prepaid card are being advised to do right now. Instead, customers in possession of the Suze Orman prepaid card are being told to spend, spend, spend.That’s because Orman’s Approved Card, a partnership with Bancorp Bank that was released in early 2012, is suspending operations on July 1. According to a story in The New York Times, holders of the Approved Card recently received a letter from Bancorp Bank urging them to spend whatever money remained in their accounts – anything not spent would be refunded to them.

    The disappearance of the Suze Orman prepaid card, which she reportedly launched with $1 million of her own money, is not an isolated case in the once bustling celebrity prepaid card market. Basketball superstar Magic Johnson’s prepaid card will also suspend operations on June 30. Prepaid debit cards backed by the Kardashian sisters, singer Justin Bieber and comedian George Lopez have either been discontinued or are no longer prominently marketing their celebrity backing.

    The suspension of Orman’s Approved Card is especially illustrative in understanding why the stampede of celebrity prepaid cards seems to be at an end. Unlike the cards offered by the Kardashians – which charged a whopping $100 to just buy the card, along with a host of other big fees – Orman’s Approved Card charged relatively modest fees, including a $3 account maintenance charge. But even with a more consumer-friendly offering, the economics of Orman’s card clearly didn’t pencil out. “You’re dealing with a lot of customers who have a lot of things go wrong, and they need their money to put milk and bread on the table,” industry consultant Rob Rosenblatt told The New York Times. “Three dollars is a really tough baseline from which to serve customers who are going to be calling a lot.”

    Another factor driving celebrity prepaid cards out of the market is competition. Large financial services companies like American Express have unveiled ultra low-fee products like Bluebird and Serve. Bluebird, for instance, charges no activation fee and has no monthly account maintenance charge. Fans of Suze Orman, Justin Bieber and Magic Johnson would have to be unusually devoted to pay unnecessary fees.

  • Celebrity Prepaid Debit Card Smackdown 2013

    Celebrity Prepaid Debit Card Smackdown 2013

    Nobody would argue that hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons is anything but cool. After all, the guy was one of the forces behind Def Jam, the record label that brought us the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J. These days, Simmons is a business magnate whose net worth is estimated to be north of $300 million. And Simmons is looking to add to that sizable fortune by lending his name to a celebrity prepaid debit card called the RushCard. In doing so, Simmons joins personal finance guru Suze Orman and the increasingly notorious singer Justin Bieber in endorsing and promoting celebrity prepaid cards.

    An examination of the fees associated with these three celebrity prepaid cards by BestPrepaidDebitCards.com reveals that it can be a pricey proposition to use star-powered plastic, albeit not always more expensive than average prepaid debit card fees. For instance, while Orman and Bieber charge $3.00 and $3.95, respectively, in standard monthly fees, the tab for Simmons’ celebrity prepaid card is $9.95 – an amount that is more than $5.00 higher than the average monthly fee. To be fair, there are other Rush card offerings with lower monthly fees and may be found in free monthly fees for the Pay As You Go Plan to $5.95 or $7.95 on the Rush Unlimited Plan depending on your direct deposit status.

    In other areas, the fees charged on the celeb-backed cards are comparable, including similar charges for ATM transactions or for putting money into the account (known as loading fees). Consumers should note, however, that although an issuer may not charge a fee to load cash on their card, they may have to utilize third party services which do charge, such as Green Dot MoneyPak or MoneyGram, and fees can range from $3.74 to $4.95.

    An alternative product is Bluebird by American Express, which does not offer star-power, but it does offer great features and very low fees. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that there’s a premium to be paid for associating yourself with a celebrity card. In a hypothetical tally of fees from a month of modest usage of our sample RushCard plan, BestPrepaidDebitCards.com calculated that it would cost a cardholder around $12 per month. Is using a celebrity prepaid card really that cool?

    For More Information:

    For prepaid card and personal finance news, reviews, commentary and more – check out the Prepaid Debit Cards main page.

    For the latest unbiased ratings and reviews – check out our Prepaid Debit Cards reviews.

    An Alternative to Traditional Checking Accounts: Bluebird by American Express

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    Download the easy to print single page PDF.

    Celebrity Prepaid Debit Cards Infographic 2013

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  • SpendSmart Names Justin Bieber as Brand Ambassador

    SpendSmart Names Justin Bieber as Brand Ambassador

    Bieber Promotes Debit Card via Videos, Social Media

    Would Justin Beiber's ebdorsement make you want a branded prepaid debit card?  SpendSmart Payments is hoping so.  Its new card features Bieber, its brand ambassador, in a video series called “Real Talk,” that is aimed at helping teens and families develop responsible spending habits.  In the first video, Bieber talks about his upbringing and how he learned to make a budget and save for things he wanted.

    Critics say the card may not be a good deal for young consumers, saying there are better and less expensive ways to educate teens.  Fox News says parents may want to think twice before giving their teen the card.

    The fees associated with the card include:

    • Monthly fee: $3.95
    • Loading charge: One free deposit per month from savings or checking account, $0.75; $2.95 from a credit or debit card
    • ATM charge: $1.50 per withdrawal plus any third party fees; $0.50 per balance inquiry (though balance inquiries online are free)
    • Inactivity fee: $3 if the card is not used for 90 days
    • Replacement fee: $7.95 if the card is lost

    In its brief history, SpendSmart has worked with a couple of different celebrities and has yet to report a profitable quarter since it went public in 2008.  The San Diego-based company won’t comment on the specifics of its deal with Bieber, but sources say it includes a $3.75 million endorsement deal and the option to buy 2 million shares.

    Celebrity endorsements don't guarantee success.  The Usher Prepaid MasterCard and the Kardashian Kard are proof of that.  SpendSmart’s strategy includes appealing to Bieber’s vast social media following, which includes 37.7 million Twitter followers, 2 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and more than 52 million Facebook fans.  With a following this big, Bieber has a wider reach than some television networks.

    For more from this author visit:  Tameka Riley's Author Page

Prepaid Debit Card Reviews, Complaints, Etc