- More Information
- Prepaid credit cards
- Link
Prepaid Credit Cards compared
Your guide to all Prepaid Cards
Prepaid Cards are suitable for people with any type of credit score and are useful in times when you need a debit card but you do not have a bank account.
Being accountable: Can prepaid credit cards really help consumers with a bad credit rating keep an eye on their finances?
Statistics on Internet usage in the UK in 2006 speak for themselves – usage is very high and access is easy. Now, in 2009, with plans by the Government to launch nationwide broadband, Internet access is easier to obtain than ever before.
This boom in the Internet, 17 years after its conception, has helped the prepaid credit card market along. Consumers with bad credit have flocked to companies that offer such services in their thousands to ensure they can keep a closer eye on their credit. However, research for this article shows that keeping an eye on expenditure is not as easy as it can appear.
Most, if not all prepaid credit card services are handled online after a few letters to take the consumer through the identity confirmation process. Eventually, customers of these services are given a login to access their account details online. After this, the paper trail stops.
Consumers currently do not get paper statements which details credit card usage and most do not have the opportunity to opt for such statements. This could be because instigating such a system could be a lot more costly which could result in the fees incurred from such a move being passed onto consumers. In the current economic climate, which Britons watching their pennies a lot more carefully, this may not be viable.
Monthly statements which outline account activity over the month are not even available online with some prepaid card services, which is not an ideal move for the thousands of people who are trying to be a lot more careful with how they treat their money.
Usually, online accounts for prepaid credit cards here in the UK only give information on the user’s current balance and a history of completed transactions which can be printed off should the user request to do so.
For a development in consumer credit that is so significant, it could be said that the developments on how customers stay up-to-date on their finances have been limited.
As the Obama administration in the US looks to add security to prepaid cards by having them regulated, there are fears that a lack of regulation here combined with the long-winded steps involved to check statements could result in a very lax approach to identity fraud as a whole.