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Prepaid Debit Cards Are Popular But they do have some drawbacks

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Prepaid Debit Cards Are Popular However, they have their own drawbacks.

by Spencer Tierney Senior Writer | Certificates of deposit and ethical banking, as well as banking deposits Spencer Tierney is a consumer banking writer at NerdWallet. He has been writing about finances for individuals since the year 2013 with a focus on certificates of deposit and other banking-related subjects. He has had his work highlighted on The Washington Post, USA Today, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, among others. The location of his work is Berkeley, California.

Aug 10, 2016

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Visit an convenience store such as 7-Eleven or CVS Pharmacy and you’re likely to see some pre-paid debit cards hung on a rack.

And these payment cards, that are used to budget or as checking account replacements are becoming more sought-after. Card purchases made by the biggest prepaid issuers rose 15.7 percent in 2014 when compared to 2013 according to the Nilson Report, which analyzes the data of the payment industry.

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Despite their widespread use however, prepaid debit cards do have many issues. The last year, both experienced technical issues that led to cardholders being locked from their account for up to a week. At that point, any cash on these cards including income that had been directly deposited onto them, was unavailable. However, even in the absence of extreme events the prepaid debit cards come with several downsides.

Frequent charges

Prepaid debit cards tend to charge fees for features you take for granted in a checking account such as free ATM usage, customer service as well as mobile and online services. In contrast to checking accounts, prepay cards typically don’t have ways to waive their monthly charges.

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Janice Elliot-Howardis an author living in Atlanta initially had an prepaid card that would charge her a small fee every purchase. When she realized how much that was costing she promptly canceled the card and purchased a new one that didn’t charge purchase transaction fees.

She isn’t able to avoid all fees, though.

“The drawback is the ATM surcharge for cash withdrawals], but I rarely use ATMs,” she says.

One benefit of many debit cards that are prepaid is that they don’t permit overdrafts or charge overdraft fees. With a checking account you could be the equivalent of $30 or $35 if you spend more than the amount the amount you have available within your accounts. But a prepaid card’s frequent fees for transactions or ATM withdrawals may still be significant.

The card details may not always be clear

Elizabeth Avery bought a prepaid debit card at a drugstore to travel overseas however, she later discovered that the card was not able to be used overseas.

“I discover that the small prints are where I’m seeing problems,” says Avery, founder of travel website Solo Trekker 4 U and a private equity investment banker working in Washington, D.C. She had planned to use the card in ATMs across the world to get cash and had discovered no indication of the card’s outside packaging that it was intended to be used in the US.

And that’s not the only information that can be missing.

“The disclosure for prepaid credit cards sold at retail doesn’t need that all fees have to be mentioned on the outside packaging,” says Thaddeus King who is part of the consumer banking project at The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C.

The protections aren’t there yet

Prepaid debit cards, like debit and credit cards, belong to payment networks like Visa as well as MasterCard. As a result, you have fraud protections for card purchases , but they do not have the protections that you can get from a bank account.

“When it pertains to payment of bills or ATM transactions, those are not done on the Visa nor MasterCard networks,” King says.

Other payment providers have similar exclusions. For those transactions, King says you need to depend on the disclosures provided by your card that might not offer protections apart from those on purchases.

Prepaid debit cards also do not have for insurance by FDIC. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, which is how customers can get their money back if their bank or card issuer is insolvent. While many prepaid issuers provide protection on their own however, their agreements with cardholders may state that the conditions can be changed at any point.

Checking accounts, on the other hand, must have more fraud coverage because of a that protects both electronic as well as ATM transactions. They also have to be covered through the FDIC.

Good news for those who have prepaid debit cards may be in the works. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to announce later in the year that will extend protection against fraud for these cards to match those that cover debit and checking accounts.

“Prepaid debit card users should have the same protections afforded debit card holders,” says Christina Tetreault the lawyer at the office of Consumers Union in San Francisco.

About the author: Spencer Tierney is an expert on deposits and certificates at NerdWallet. He has had his work highlighted by USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.

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