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Prepaid Debit Cards - The Perfect Gift Anytime
By DailyWorth Team Tuesday February 16, 2010|
($) dailyworth sponsored post
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Wracking your brain to come up with a smart gift for someone in your life? Here’s a little secret: You can give something that’s easy for you and them. A prepaid debit card. Load it up with as much you want, and voilà! They can spend it pretty much wherever they want – until it runs out. Even better, it’s more flexible than a gift card and safer than cash. So who’s on your list for a prepaid debit card?
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Start with a skeptic like Grandma. She’ll love the idea of risk-free online shopping with prepaid debit card. It's insured by the FDIC, so even if her card number is lost or stolen, she’s not responsible for any spending other than her own. |
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The same goes for your sister the shopper. But there’s an added bonus: A prepaid debit card will help her get her swipe-and-sign impulses under control. Once she’s blown the amount on the card, that’s it. And no interest or finance charges (although some fees do apply). |
It makes a great present and it’s super convenient—a prepaid debit card can be used any place that accepts Visa. But unlike a regular debit card, it's not connected to a checking account, so she'll have to budget.
You can even give the Pink debit card to a friend, and a portion of what she spends will go to breast cancer research.
Get a prepaid debit card from ACE Cash Express and discover just how smart and easy gift-giving can be.
Brought to you by ACE Cash Express 2010.
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Written by Amanda Steinberg (DailyWorth founder), February 22, 2010
Joey -- I respond to you not because ACE is a DailyWorth sponsor, but because I have to ask you for the sake of argument - isn't a minimal fee on a prepaid card better than the option to rack up debt and pay interest? All cards have to make SOME money for the provider otherwise they can't provide the service. What's great about prepaid is that debt really isn't an option. For someone prone to debt, $4.99 a month in fees (or whatever) is far better than $200 a month in interest. No? Look forward to your response.
I used to work at a large national restaurant chain and our card was pretty bad. But, from what I hear, it was typical because most cards either have a monthly fee or pretty limited as to the free items. I have worked at Starbucks for about 7 months now and they allow us to have a card called the Money Manager Card. The choice was pretty simple because there are no monthly fees, I can use it on their network (allpoint atms) free at all times, never any fees to buy things (signing or using my PIN and getting cash back if I want…all without a fee or surcharge), no overdraft. Let’s just say I haven’t paid a fee in the entire time I’ve had the card. It’s pretty simple to use it at no charge and I really don’t have to tip-toe around any limited free items like most other cards I have seen have.
Oh, and don’t lose most payroll cards! If you do, it’ll cost you $$ even to get the replacement sent by the post office. My new card give free replacements when delivered by the post office all of the time. Or, if I want, I can get it delivered by Fedex for $10. Pretty reasonable as I sent something by Fedex a month ago and paid $14!
My point is, if an employer is set on offering its employees a Paycard, it should do both the company and its employees and offer a Paycard that truly costs $0 to use. When I say $0, I mean $0. Not just $0 if you jump through certain hoops, etc.
I should state that Walmart has something that is similar sounding to Money Manager Card. I think it is the Money Card or something like that. That card is definitely not the same.
I did a quick Google search on Money Card when investigating the Starbucks offering and mistakenly clicked on a link to a Money Card “problem” page where people complained about it. Then, I realized that “Money Card” is not “Money Manager Card”.
Thought I would let you know so you don’t make the same mistake and get yourself a card that will end up costing you $$$$.