It seems there's no shortage
of banks issuing prepaid credit cards in 2013,Add depth and style to your home
with these large format polished
tiles. and no shortage of customers -- and celebrities -- willing to give
them a chance.
This hybrid of credit and debit cards (you pre-load the refillable card with cash and then use it like you would a credit card) is rapidly grabbing market share from its plastic predecessors. It began in 2011 when a new law limited how much banks could charge merchants for debit card transactions (known as swipe fees). Banks scrambled to find a way to replace the profits they were losing -- a whopping $40 billion a year in revenue.
For a while it seemed that gift cards would fill the void, especially since the Credit CARD Act of 2009 nixed many of the more predatory practices associated with those cards, including inactivity fees, dormancy fees, and service fees. But the limitations of gift cards left the door open for another solution.
Current teen heartthrob Justin Bieber made news recently when he announced his new card, and promised to make videos about the importance of financial literacy.
In a move aimed at adults, financial guru Suze Orman launched her branded card last year with a goal of increasing transparency in the prepaid market in 2011.
But endorsement deals can backfire, particularly when it comes to this product that is not currently subject to many of the regulations governing gift cards and credit/debit cards.
"As fast as celebrity endorsers enter the fray, many of them leave just as quickly,All our plastic moulds are vacuum formed using food safe plastic." says RushCard's Rosenblatt. He knows too well how such endorsement deals can create negative press: The Russell Simmons RushCard has come under fire for its high fees.
Crazy fees were also the downfall of the Kardashian card, which was on the market for just a few short weeks before it was pulled due to complaints about its exorbitant hidden fees.
Regardless of whose face graces a prepaid card, the real value of the product comes down to fees and benefits. How much will it cost to use this card, to reload it, to withdraw cash, to replace a card, or to maintain monthly fees? What benefits, online apps, and financial tools are available?
I just had lunch with Anna Almendrala, the 27-year-old associate editor of Huffington Post's Los Angeles page. She ended our meal by ordering a cup of coffee to go, and whipped out a plastic card to pay for it. I think the coffee cost $2.75.
It dawned on me: Anna is part of the generation that doesn't carry cash. Never, as in Not Ever. I find this kind of fascinating because if I didn't have a wad of cash in my wallet, my inclination would be to drop what I was doing and rush to the nearest ATM.Panasonic ventilation system fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. The thing with carrying cash? It's a generational thing.Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects.
Anna uses a debit or credit card for everything, including parking meters. She uses plastic to fill up her gas tank, pay for her restaurant meals, make her in-store and online purchases. There is not so much as a single fat nickel in her slim wallet, just her credit and debit cards and her driver's license for ID.
She feels liberated. The mother in me wanted to press a ten-spot into her palm.
No, it's not just Anna.The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. I asked for a show of hands in the Los Angeles newsroom of who regularly carries cash and the only one that shot up was the hand of a 58-year-old guy. Nobody else regularly carries cash. It's also not just an L.A. thing. I asked a bunch of 20-something New Yorkers whether they carry cash. "No," "not much of it" and "not often" were the responses. They use pre-paid transit cards for the subway and even taxis nowadays take debit cards.
I was raised to carry not only enough cash to cover every possible contingency, but to carry it in multiple places on my person as a safety precaution. When I was a teenager dating, there would always be a few dollars stuck in my shoe. We had a little signal, Mom and me; she'd look meaningfully at my feet as I left the house on a date, and I would give her a short affirmative nod as I blew a kiss good night. It was Mother-Daughter code for keeping you safe back in the '60s.
Having cash on you, I was taught, was protection against the unknown. It was your "just in case" armor. No one ever said what "just in case" could possibly be, and like all good imaginations run amok, my "just in case" mental reel was filled with blood and guts and my body being dumped in the woods on the outside of town -- all presumably because I didn't have money on me to call for help. Carrying cash, even to this day, makes me feel more secure.
This hybrid of credit and debit cards (you pre-load the refillable card with cash and then use it like you would a credit card) is rapidly grabbing market share from its plastic predecessors. It began in 2011 when a new law limited how much banks could charge merchants for debit card transactions (known as swipe fees). Banks scrambled to find a way to replace the profits they were losing -- a whopping $40 billion a year in revenue.
For a while it seemed that gift cards would fill the void, especially since the Credit CARD Act of 2009 nixed many of the more predatory practices associated with those cards, including inactivity fees, dormancy fees, and service fees. But the limitations of gift cards left the door open for another solution.
Current teen heartthrob Justin Bieber made news recently when he announced his new card, and promised to make videos about the importance of financial literacy.
In a move aimed at adults, financial guru Suze Orman launched her branded card last year with a goal of increasing transparency in the prepaid market in 2011.
But endorsement deals can backfire, particularly when it comes to this product that is not currently subject to many of the regulations governing gift cards and credit/debit cards.
"As fast as celebrity endorsers enter the fray, many of them leave just as quickly,All our plastic moulds are vacuum formed using food safe plastic." says RushCard's Rosenblatt. He knows too well how such endorsement deals can create negative press: The Russell Simmons RushCard has come under fire for its high fees.
Crazy fees were also the downfall of the Kardashian card, which was on the market for just a few short weeks before it was pulled due to complaints about its exorbitant hidden fees.
Regardless of whose face graces a prepaid card, the real value of the product comes down to fees and benefits. How much will it cost to use this card, to reload it, to withdraw cash, to replace a card, or to maintain monthly fees? What benefits, online apps, and financial tools are available?
I just had lunch with Anna Almendrala, the 27-year-old associate editor of Huffington Post's Los Angeles page. She ended our meal by ordering a cup of coffee to go, and whipped out a plastic card to pay for it. I think the coffee cost $2.75.
It dawned on me: Anna is part of the generation that doesn't carry cash. Never, as in Not Ever. I find this kind of fascinating because if I didn't have a wad of cash in my wallet, my inclination would be to drop what I was doing and rush to the nearest ATM.Panasonic ventilation system fans are energy efficient and whisper quiet. The thing with carrying cash? It's a generational thing.Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects.
Anna uses a debit or credit card for everything, including parking meters. She uses plastic to fill up her gas tank, pay for her restaurant meals, make her in-store and online purchases. There is not so much as a single fat nickel in her slim wallet, just her credit and debit cards and her driver's license for ID.
She feels liberated. The mother in me wanted to press a ten-spot into her palm.
No, it's not just Anna.The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. I asked for a show of hands in the Los Angeles newsroom of who regularly carries cash and the only one that shot up was the hand of a 58-year-old guy. Nobody else regularly carries cash. It's also not just an L.A. thing. I asked a bunch of 20-something New Yorkers whether they carry cash. "No," "not much of it" and "not often" were the responses. They use pre-paid transit cards for the subway and even taxis nowadays take debit cards.
I was raised to carry not only enough cash to cover every possible contingency, but to carry it in multiple places on my person as a safety precaution. When I was a teenager dating, there would always be a few dollars stuck in my shoe. We had a little signal, Mom and me; she'd look meaningfully at my feet as I left the house on a date, and I would give her a short affirmative nod as I blew a kiss good night. It was Mother-Daughter code for keeping you safe back in the '60s.
Having cash on you, I was taught, was protection against the unknown. It was your "just in case" armor. No one ever said what "just in case" could possibly be, and like all good imaginations run amok, my "just in case" mental reel was filled with blood and guts and my body being dumped in the woods on the outside of town -- all presumably because I didn't have money on me to call for help. Carrying cash, even to this day, makes me feel more secure.
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