Prepaid CC`s for online purchase,,Question

[mart]

I am curious if anyone here uses the prepaid CC`s ?  Your experience with them ?  Best ones to use ?

[waywardangler]

I am not familiar with prepaid credit cards.  Is this a card that is issued with a set limit depending on how much is on deposit or a regular credit card that was taken out with some collateral backing it?

[talesofthesevenseas]

They did a piece on NPR on these about two weeks ago. The Kardashian sisters pulled thier endorsement on them because the fees are so bad on them and they are completely unregulated and being aimed at the "unbanked" youth market:

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/12/131989938/prepaid-debit-cards-more-plastic-more-problems

[mart]

I am talking about the ones you get at Walmart and other stores. They cost three bucks and you can put whatever amount you want on them. I just do not like using my personal CC online.  Using one would speed purchases and be a bit less of a hassle. I have money in my paypal account but I have the same problem with them. I had been selling ten years on ebay with perfect feedback and prompt payment record, and when they went to the no money order, paypal only and I had to put a bank number or CC # down, I quit selling. So now I have money in pay pal ( I tried three small sales shortly after the conversion) but I can`t use it unless I give that info> I have a real problem being blackmailed into giving personal info.  Yes, I have talked till I am blue in the face to both paypal and ebay. Basically they said either give the info or else.

[waywardangler]

I would go a bank and get a totally separate account that is not linked to any of your other accounts (maybe a different bank or credit union) and use that account to transfer your PayPal money to.  I would also get a totally separate credit card with a low limit on it and use that for online,eBay, and PayPal.  The prepaid cards seem to have high fees attached to them.

I am not aware that you cannot accept checks or money orders on eBay.  If payment is made by another method other than PayPal, you must manually enter that the item has been paid for.  People that have local pickup and pay in cash do not use PayPal either and that payment must be recorded manually also.

[mart]

They have perhaps relaxed the paypal only rule.  However I did attempt to list one item a couple of weeks ago and  couldn`t complete it without linking to paypal for fees charged by ebay. And again I couldn`t do that without bank or CC number.  I really do not even want money to go into my bank. All I want to do is be able to access it for online purchases.  Thats all !!  Thats why I was asking about the CC`s, I know some do use them for the same reason. 

[Oceans64]

My Dad has the same concerns and I do as well altho I gave in.  He called his CC company and they issued him a card with a strict limit of $300 for online purchases.  Good option for him. 

I am selling stuff on eBay now and saving for some other stuff I want.  What I did was opened as separate (free) Bank Account and got a debit Card with a Visa (I think) logo. Different Bank than my norm.  I connected PP to that account and use the debit card as the CC#.  Now I can keep my proceeds separate.  It works.  I also use this "slush" fund for auctions when they want a CC and it's been no problem.  If it's a matter of personal info there is probably no way around that.  If it's a concern of someone breaking in a stealing $$, this may be a good option since you can control the balance.

[mart]

I have heard a few scary stories regarding paypal and personal accounts.  They made an error on one sellers account, froze half his funds and took 4 months to get it straightened out. My thinking is that since I do not want money in the bank, only use it for purchases, I possibly could use the prepaid CC. As I understand it, paypal takes theirs off the top, then ebay can draw seller fees. I think they said you could use either one, bank or CC.
We are retired and my hubby is not in the best of health,,at least it would give me something to do in the winter. Summer isn`t so bad with 6 horses and two gardens but winter is boring. I can spend a lot of time at the flea market.

[CuriousCollector]

We got a Visa gift card for Christmas.   I noticed two things that could be a detriment to using them regularly for transactions.

1 -- There was a $4.95 fee for activating the card.  This was a $50 gift card, so that amounts to a nearly 10% surcharge straight off the bat.

2 -- You cannot use it for a transaction that is greater than the amount remaining on the card, unless you have a clerk who knows how to run a split transaction (paid partially by credit card, and partially by another form of payment).  This is not very likely with automated eBay processing.  If you use my $50 gift card for nothing but eBaying, this means the most you can spend -- after the activation fee -- is $45.05 including shipping.

The headache of managing the intricacies of a prepaid card might be too much trouble.  But I don't see any harm in trying -- other than that pesky 10% off the top for activating the card!  ARGH! -- that's just bad!  ....very very bad!

[mart]

Thats interesting, I never thought about a gift card but for what I want it for, I think this one will work. All its really for is to guarantee the fees. In case there is not enough in  paypal I think. I am going to give it a shot anyway. 

[talesofthesevenseas]

I got a couple of Ebay gift cards and they worked quite smoothly. Same with the Amazon gift cards I got. The one that has been a headache is the Sears card. Their Web site is very slow and clunky and it locks up while images are downloading. I found this so annoying that I was thinking I would see if I could find someone wanting to trade for an Ebay card.

Have any of you tried the gift card buying/selling sites like http://www.cardpool.com? From what I have been hearing these are a good way to get gift cards that you want, get rid of those you don't and to purchase cards with more $$$ on them than the initial price you pay.

[Oceans64]

Tales - I've never used the site but it was getting good press up here too.