Pre Paid M/C CC

[Cossie]

I had my woolies m/c cc skimmed on my last trip, probably in Spain, but possibly Dubai as well. What was interesting was that I only used it to cover incidentals at hotels as my accommodation in Spain and Dubai was paid up front when I booked, though the QANTAS site actually. I used cash or travel money cards for most expenses to try and avoid foreign exchange charges etc.

As I'm sure you all know, cancelling a credit card is a pain, so I'm thinking about getting a prepaid card as on display in woolies and using this when hotels want a credit card to cover themselves.

Has anyone done this? Can anyone recommend a card to get, any pitfalls to avoid?

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

P.S., if this is in the wrong place could a mod move it to the correct location, please?

 

[markis10]

Just use the Qantas Cash or Velocity cards.

 

[wmetz]

Why not just get a Qantas cash card or Virgin one. Both prepaid and you earn Freq Fly points as well.

 

[Cossie]

Thanks Markis10 and Wmetz, I thought the fees with a qantas cash card were quite high.

 

[markis10]

Thanks Markis10 and Wmetz, I thought the fees with a qantas cash card were quite high.

The reloads cost $10 to buy and have similar fees.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

The problem with using pre-paid cards for hotels and rental cars is that the 'hold' on your funds takes a lot longer to release so you often need a secondary card to use until the funds on the pre-paid card become available again.

 

[Quickstatus]

All prepaid cards are "expensive" one way or another. You pay for the "amenity" of the card.

Costs:

Load or reload fee
Exit fee
exchange rates which are generally not as good as full credit cards. They advertise no conversion fee but the fee its built into the exchange rate. And the exchange rate is worse when you want to take money out.
ATM fees
no customer service - or customer service will cost a fee
opportunity cost of having to load the card before use instead of paying for it after your usual "50 days".
No interest paid.
some have monthly inactivity fees
All also rely on the fact that there is a small credit on all these cards and the cardholder could not be bothered to take the cash out when it expires and they forget about the card...
Most do not have points rewards

I have gone away from prepaid cards, but will use the qantas card in an emergency. My daughter has one when travelling OS as she is too young to qualify for CC.

Most rental car companies will not accept debit or prepaid cards.

I have an Amex and a citibank as these two have proven to have excellent service in case of lost/stolen cards while overseas. These companies have a global presence and there is usually a branch near you.

Citibank is excellent in fraud prevention. They will ring me as soon as i make an international currency transaction. So now i ring them in advance when im travelling and also ring them when im about to make a ovesseas transaction (virginmoney is operated by citibank)