The prepaid card provides an alternative for people who cannot apply for a physical credit card. A lot of online stores accept credit cards. Without a credit card, you would not be able to buy from them. One way to solve this problem is to use a prepaid card.
A prepaid card is just like a virtual card – it has a 16 digit code that is generated for one-time use only. The only difference is that it is not linked to your physical card. Since it is not linked to your physical card, you don’t have to worry about your banking information get exposed to hackers.
The prepaid card allows you to transfer a specific amount of money through your credit card or online money transfer service before making a transaction. It is important to have enough funds on your card to make payment for a purchase. You need to check the price of the item you want to buy and you may want to also load slightly more funds than necessary to ensure you can cover the cost of the item and shipping fee. There may be a minimum balance requirement that you need to meet before opening a virtual account.
There is an expiration date on the card. You have to use up all the money on the card before the expiration date otherwise they will be forfeited. The issuer usually does not allow you to transfer the balance back to your bank account. Therefore, it is recommended that you plan your online purchases before buying the virtual card.
The prepaid card will be delivered to your email address after you place the order. The issuer will set a maximum balance which is the maximum amount of funds you can load into your card. The activation fee becomes more expensive when you load a higher amount into the card. If you want to keep the card active, you may have to pay monthly fee charges.
There are two types of prepaid cards including reloadable virtual cards and single-use cards. A reloadable card allows you to reload some money for future expenses. You should ask about the reload limit from the start. A reloadable card is suitable for people who want to make a purchase that requires regular payments, for example, software subscriptions. You must pay attention to the fee for the reloadable card. The fee is usually higher than the fee for single-use cards.
A single-use card is suitable for making a purchase that requires a small amount of money. It cannot be used to make a monthly fee for a subscription. It has no transaction statement since you only use it to make a purchase one time. The number of single-use cards you can own depends on the issuer. You can ask the issuer beforehand about how many cards you can own.
Both Mastercard and Visa offer prepaid virtual credit cards. For Mastercard virtual prepaid card, you need to first register for a virtual account at the Mastercard site. You will get charged a monthly fee following the first year. Mastercard allows you to make payments in foreign currencies other than USD. Visa virtual card can be used for making automatic payments and payments in other currencies. There is no monthly fee and minimum balance for the virtual prepaid card. You can also read the reviews on the top virtual prepaid cards providers you can trust: prices and features.
