Hi everyone. I have a couple of questions on prepaid credit cards, not gift card but re-fillable credit cards. Can they be used to reserve hotel rooms, airline tickets or rental cars? Is so would there be a minimum balance requirement on the card? How's all that work? Thanks
Hi parent, No, definitely not a "dumb" question! You can use prepaid cards as you would a credit card as long as the prepaid card is branded as a Visa or MasterCard, such as are many of the prepaid/debit cards we feature on Creditnet. Prepaid Debit Cards Most of these cards do not have a minimum balance requirement; however, please keep in mind account maintenance fees may apply. You can also read more about prepaid debit cards in our Library FAQ section.
There aren't really Prepaid 'Credit' Cards. Essentially, the PCC's are DC's just like a Visa or MC 'Check' Card... Also, you want to make sure that the card you select is refillable, and compare the 'service' fee which is required when you get it, and when you re-fill it...
Thanks everyone. They are refillable and are issues by Visa or MC. The rates are around $9 dollars for the set-up and $4 when you refill. The question I am really curious about is can you use them to reserve a hotel room, rent a car, airline tickets, etc. I pay cash for these and still plan to but can you do that without having a balance on the card that is great enough to cover the room, ticket, or rental car deposit? Thanks
It depends on how the merchant pre-authorizes. More than likely, the merchant will either pre-authorize the entire amount (like with hotel stays), or the amount of the deposit (car rentals). My sister and I had to cut a vacation short, because thanks to the hotel pre-authorizing the hotel; then RE-AUTHORIZING it again (instead of using the prior-authorization). So the hotel room was charged twice until after the pre-authorization fell off of the account.
Thanks Jam. Can I assume that means then that in most cases I would need to have enough of a balance on the card to pay for whatever it is, hotel, ticket, car rental, etc.
