Credit Cards, and Prepaid Credit Cards

Those were good tips about the credit cards. But here are some other things to consider about those Prepaid Credit Cards. For those that don't know what a prepaid credit card is, these are cards that you "load" Money onto. What ever money you deposit on them is what you have to spend. Once the money is loaded onto them, they work just like a regular credit card. You can't spend more than whats on them.

Prepaid credit cards are nice because you don't usually have to have a good credit score to get one. Just make sure you read the fine print before you apply for the card. Some cards have whats called a maintenance fee. Its a charge for them taking care of your account, usually a dollar or two. They can charge once a year and some charge once a month. Beware of this when applying for one. I said earlier you can't spend over the limit you load onto your card. Its true you can't spend more than whats on the card. But they can go over because of the maintenance charge. If you have nothing on your card when a maintenance charge occurs, this will make your card go over the limit. So anytime before you load money onto your card, check the balance on it to make sure you don't have a negative amount on the card. Also, when applying for a card, find out if there is a minimum limit before you can load money onto a card. Some require a minimum of $30.00 before they will allow you to load money onto the card. That's why I said earlier to check the balance on the card before you go load money onto the card. This way you don't go load money onto the card, only to find out you haven't put enough on it, then have to run out again and pay another $30.00 just to put $2.00 more on to have what you need. Also when going to load money, find out if there is a fee for loading money onto the card. Some cards charge as much as $3.00 or $4.00 just to load the, money onto the card. So as an example, to load $30.00 onto your card, it could cost $33.00 to load the money onto the card. That's the $30.00 you wanted on the card in the first place, plus the $3.00 fee for the service. Beware of all these fees when applying for one of these cards. These prepaid credit cards are nice for when you can't get a regular credit card because of your credit rating. They are nice for when you want to purchase something on the internet or pay a bill over the phone. But beware of the hidden fees associated with these cards.