A Look at the Terms of Five Prepaid Debit Cards

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(10-03) 21:01 PDT , (AP) --
The prepaid card industry is relatively young, and the fees issuers can charge are unregulated. As a result consumers will find that terms and prices vary greatly.
Unlike gift cards, it's possible to register a prepaid card and have one issued bearing an individual's name. They can also be used wherever credit or debit cards are accepted.
Prepaid cards are typically used by people who don't have, or can't get, a credit or debit card. The cards are sold in drugstores and marketed online.
Here's a look at three cards and some of the fees associated with each. The ATM withdrawal fees do not include the fees charged by the ATM operator.

Baby Phat Rush Card Visa Debit 

Get a BabyPhat RUSHCARD Now! NO over draft or interest cashing fees

    * Card to card transfers between RushCard members

    * Free Prescription Discount Card from RushCard - save up to 85% on prescriptions

    * Free customer service 24/7

    * No monthly fees and no hidden fees

    * This is a debit card, not a credit card;                   

Opening Min

            $1.00

App Fee

            N/A

Annual Fee

            N/A

Atm Fee

            $1.95

Credit Reporting

            None

Bank Account to Card Reload

            Free

One-time Activation Fee

            $19.95

Direct Deposit Reload

            Free

Purchase at Merchant (The $1.00 retail purchase fee and the $1.00 online purchase fee are capped at $10.00 per month for any combination of the two.)

            $1.00

Purchase Online (The $1.00 retail purchase fee and the $1.00 online purchase fee are capped at $10.00 per month for any combination of the two.)

            $1.00

Telephone Purchase

            $1.00

ATM Withdrawal

            $1.95

ATM Balance Inquiry

            $0.50

Point Of Sale Withdrawal

           

Live Teller Withdrawal

           

Online Balance Inquiry

            Free

Customer Service Live Call

            Free

Paper Statements per request

            $1.00

Cancel Card

           

Replacement Card

            $9.95

Monthly Maintenance Fee

            None

Account Now Visa Debit Card

Get Your Account Now Prepaid Debit Visa Today at: www.AccountNow.com

* $25 cash bonus when you use direct deposit

    * 100% guaranteed approval*

    * Free credit builder and bill pay

    * $0 Activation Fee

    * This is a debit card, not a credit card;

Opening Min

            $0

App Fee

            $0

Annual Fee

            N/A

Atm Fee

            $2.50

Credit Reporting

            None

Card Activation Fee

            $0

Online Bill Pay

            Free

Direct Deposit Reload

            Free

Signature Purchase

            Free

PIN Purchase - Premium Plan

            Free

PIN Purchase - Classic Plan

            $1.00

ATM Withdrawal

            One free per month - $2.50 each thereafter

Point of Sale Withdrawal

            Free

Live Teller Withdrawal

            $4.95

ATM Balance Inquiry

            $1.00

Online Inquiry

            Free

Automated Telephone Inquiry

            Up to $0.50

Customer Service Live Call

            One free per month - $2.00 each thereafter

Online Customer Service

            Free

Paper Statements per request

            $2.95

Replace Card

            $10.00

Cancel Card

            Free

Inactive Account Monthly Maintenance Fee

            $4.95

 Silver Prepaid Mastercard Debit Card

Get your Silver Prepaid Master Debit Card Today at: www.silvercardmc.com 

* Get your government/benefits check faster w/ free direct deposit

    * Guaranteed approval w/ no credit check!

    * Free unlimited purchase transactions

    * No overdraft fees or minimum balances, perfect bank alternative!

    * This is a debit card, not a credit card;                 

 Opening Min

            $0

App Fee

            $0

Annual Fee

            $0

Atm Fee

            $1.95

Credit Reporting

            None

Activation Fee (One-time)

            $0 with mail in rebate

Signature Transaction Fee

            Free

Automated Voice Response Fee

            Free

Purchase Online

            Free

SMS Email Alerts

            Free

ATM Balance Inquiry Fee

            $0.95

Online Monthly Statement

            Free

Online Account Maintenance

            Free

Live Agent Service Fee

            $1.95

Load Convenience Fee with Direct Deposit

            Free

Load Convenience Fee (retail)

            $0.95

Monthly Maintenance Fee

            $3.95

NetSpend Silver Mastercard Debit Card

Get Your NetSpend Silver Card Today at: www.netspend.com 

Pay-As-You-Go Customers (Best Option) Signature Purchase Convenience Fee $1.00 PIN Purchase Convenience Fee $2.00 Card Fulfillment (Shipping & Handling) FREE Fee Advantage Customers If you use your card more than 10 times a month) Monthly Service Fee $9.95, billed on cardholder's cycle date Signature Purchase Convenience Fee FREE PIN Purchase Convenience Fee FREE Card Fulfillment (Shipping & Handling) FREE Other Fees Adding or withdrawing funds to your account at local distributors Convenience fee determined by distributor Account-to-Account Transfer — Via Internet FREE Account-to-Account Transfer — Via Toll Free Number $1.00 Account-to-Account Transfer — Via Live Agent $4.95 Non-Monetary Transactions -- Via Internet FREE Non-Monetary Transactions -- Via Toll Free Number Up to $0.50 Non-Monetary Transactions -- at ATM Up to $0.50 Account Maintenance (waived if account has debit or credit transaction and/or balance inquiry within 90 days) $5.95 per month Check or Additional Statement Mailing Fee $5.95 Domestic ATM Cash Withdrawal / Cash Withdrawal at Distributor Up to $2.50 per withdrawal, plus ATM owner fees, if any ATM Transaction Decline Fee $1.00 International ATM Cash Withdrawal $4.95 per withdrawal plus ATM owner fees, if any Lost or Stolen Card Replacement Fee Up to $9.95
Vision Premier Visa Debit Card
Get Your Vision Premier Visa Debit Card Today at: www.securecardsignup.com
* Need your cash fast w/ our free direct deposit get paid faster     * No credit check, no debit, no interest     * Free customer service, that includes live agent and automated service!     * Free unlimited signature and PIN transactions     * This is a debit card, not a credit card;             Opening Min             $0 App Fee             $0 Annual Fee             $0 Atm Fee             $1.95 Credit Reporting             None Activation Fee (One-time)             $9.95 Signature Transaction Fee             Free Automated Voice Response Fee             Free Purchase Online             Free SMS Email Alerts             Free ATM Balance Inquiry Fee             $0.95 Online Monthly Statement             Free Online Account Maintenance             Free Live Agent Service Fee             $1.95 Load Convenience Fee with Direct Deposit             Free Load Convenience Fee (PreCash or PayPal)             Free Weekly Maintenance Fee w/ Direct Deposit             Free Weekly Maint. Fee w/ 15 or More Transactions a Month             Free Weekly Maint. Fee without Direct Deposit or more than 15 Trans.             $0.95

Vision Premier Prepaid Visa Commercial

Get a Prepaid Visa Card - No credit check. Quick approval. Shop online, pay bills, use ATMs

Living Without A Bank Account

There's a troubling trend in this nation: People are giving up their banks.

Exactly how many people are going "bank-less" is hard to track, but in the late 1990s, the number bandied about in newspaper articles was approximately 10 million Americans, and the FDIC estimated that 13% of all American households were without a bank account.

Now that number has risen to nearly 17 million, although, because of population growth, the percentage of American households that are "un-banked" has decreased to 7.7%.
But those are only the people on the extreme end of the bank-less trend. If we also include those who are "under-banked" -- people who may have a checking account but depend on payday loans and pawn shops to help them get by -- then we're talking approximately 75 million Americans, or 25% of the population who are under-banked or un-banked.

Whether somebody has a bank account or not may not seem like such a big deal, but it costs a lot of money to live without a bank. Candice Choi, a personal finance writer with the Associated Press, recently did an experiment, living for a month without her bank account, just to get a sense of the life of an un-banked person. Then, like any good journalist, she wrote about the experience.

I spoke to Choi on the phone about her un-banked experiment. She says she came up with the idea simply because in the past two years, ever since the recession started causing Americans to spend money in ways they hadn't previously imagined, she'd been writing a lot about public anger with banks and payday loans and realized that plenty of people were living a life unlike hers and the majority of Americans. It just kind of hit her that she should see what that life was like.

So for one month, Choi went about her life as usual -- minus her bank account. She took her paycheck to a check-cashing service and used prepaid cards, and in the process, she spent $93 in fees, which, added up, works out to be about $1,110 a year.

That's a lot, but Choi admits, "It probably wasn't as much as others would incur. I didn't put this in the article -- it just added a layer of complexity that took away from the point I was trying to make -- but I'm married, and my husband handles a lot of the bill paying. But I handle the rent, so I did pay that, but if I had to pay all the other bills, I would have spent more than $93."

Given the high cost of not having a bank, why would anyone choose to live month after month, year after year, like Choi briefly did? There are several reasons, none of them necessarily good, but all of them understandable.

Fear. It's not that poor people don't understand how banks work and thus are intimidated by them. In fact, they understand all too well how banks work, and because of that, they're rattled.

Ben Mangan is the CEO and co-founder of EARN, a California-based nonprofit that has made it one of its missions to help the un-banked come into the banking mainstream, and has been studying the un-banked for some time. In fact, Earn.org was instrumental in helping 50,000 San Francisco residents join a bank in the past several years, and the White House took notice. The Obama administration recently allocated $50 million for the 2011 fiscal year budget to help make it possible for other cities to adopt the San Francisco program.

Mangan says that in all the data it has mined, the company has found that many people felt that "bank fees were too complicated and that the system was designed to trick them into paying fees."

It isn't that the un-banked want free checking. They're happy to pay small fees if the bank rules are transparent, says Mangan. What they don't want is to suddenly, unexpectedly make a mistake that leads to a series of charges and then find themselves paying $235 in overdraft fees.

When you look at it that way, $93 a month is a bargain.

Geography matters. "It's all well and good to have these programs for the un-banked," says Richard Barrington, a spokesman and personal finance expert for MoneyRates.com, a comparison site with the best bank rates. "But they don't matter much if the banks don't have branches and ATMs in neighborhood." That said, Barrington notes that even among the poor, Internet connectivity is better than it once was, so he has high hopes that mobile banking will be able to help bring the un-banked to the banking system.

Cycle of poverty. Parents who don't have bank accounts aren't likely to teach their children how to open up a bank account, but they may just show them how to cash a check at a payday loan store.

And while that may be one of the main reasons the poor are among the un-banked, there are others as well. As Choi writes in her article, "Language barriers intimidate some would-be customers, or they simply feel banks aren't welcoming. For others, literally handling their own money offers a sense of control at a time of financial anxiety."

But what's even scarier is to imagine the United States' financial picture if, say, 10 or 20 years from now, 30% or 40% of our population is un-banked or under-banked. Take a look.

The classes will be even more separated. "Not having a bank account drives a wedge between the haves and have-nots," says Barrington. "It's not a healthy thing. I think it's in everybody's self-interest not to have a society where there's an underclass, where people feel alienated and outside the system. We're a capitalist society, and, yes, there are always going to be people doing better than others, but the ones who are totally on the outside, who have no stake in society, are going to tend to be destructive to society rather than constructive. It's better for society if you're actively participating."

Fewer people will live their retirement years in anything resembling luxury. Having a large percentage of the population un-banked will also mean that as a country, we aren't going to be a nation of savers or even spenders, but a nation of people who barely live paycheck to paycheck. Mangan says that one reason Earn.org is trying to bring the un-banked into the banking system is that if you don't have a checking account, you aren't likely to have a savings account. So instead of your money going toward your old age, it's funding the cash checking, prepaid card and payday loan industries.

The clueless shall lead the clueless. And what might be even more unsettling is how few people seem to understand how these un-banking financial tools even work. It's perfectly reasonable if a new customer doesn't know the finer points of these products, but shouldn't the people behind the counter understand how to use them?

Choi told me that reloading her prepaid card, something she had never done until working on this story, was surreal. "I needed help," said Choi, "and I was asking the cashiers, and they were confused about it. And the manager wasn't sure how to do it. It became a half-hour ordeal."

Geoff Williams is a frequent contributor to WalletPop. He is also the co-author of the book Living Well with Bad Credit.

Account Now Prepaid Visa Debit Card Commercial

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