Why People Are Turning to Prepaid Debit Cards
Author: weissheiss
People aren’t feeling very hopeful nowadays. Many of us have felt the sting of our adjustable rate mortgages rising sharply, or the ache of our credit card interest soaring. Our economic climate is shaky at best and it’s hard to feel optimistic when so much seems to be out of our control.
We’re all searching for ways to regain that control over our financial lives, and one way that more and more people are finding makes sense is the use of prepaid debit cards.
Prepaid debit cards are an alternative to regular credit cards. You can acquire a debit card usually without either having a bank account or any established credit. All you have to do is purchase the card and load it up with some amount of cash. Then you can use that card wherever any credit cards are accepted.
These “stored-value” cards look much like any MasterCard or Visa credit card. Plus, they have most of the same benefits that credit cards have, but without some of the drawbacks.
For instance, prepaid debit cards have a fixed spending limit (because you prepay them), so it’s very difficult to overspend. They don’t carry minimum payments so you don’t find yourself in a never ending payment cycle that goes on for years. And they don’t carry interest, so you never find yourself in a position where the bank doubles your debt virtually overnight if you’ve missed a payment.
Prepaid cards do force you to adjust your spending habits. You can no longer overextend yourself with poor planning or impulse buys. No, you have to think ahead more. But that’s really a good thing because with a little bit of planning and saving, you can make purchases that actually cost you less in the long-run. For instance, by simply removing the “interest component” from your purchases, you lower the cost. That means you’ll have more money for things later on.
Prepaid debit card usage is on the rise. As people have become more familiar with what these products offer, they’ve been embracing them more and more. I have one and I’ve been using it all the time. In fact, I’ll bet that I’ve only used a true credit card two or three times in the last 6 months.
In today’s world most of us need to exert more, not less control over our finances. Perhaps it’s a lesson we lost over the last several years but it’s a lesson we can’t afford to ignore right now. So take a closer look at prepaid debit cards and see if they can help you manage your finances better. I think you’ll find it’s a positive step in a positive direction.
Posted in Debit Cards | 
Tags: Ache, Credit Cards, Minimum Payments, Money, People Cards, Prepaid Cards, Prepaid Debit Card, Visa Credit Card