Guaranteed Credit Cards Are Not As Good As They Claim to Be

You can’t turn on the television or read a newspaper or blog without reading credit card offers. When you’re shopping for a new card or applying for a loan, you can’t afford to stop and look at all the offers out there. The sad fact is that most people with traditional (not designer) cards are not using them as much as they should. Confusing terms like “reward program” and “low introductory interest rate” keep consumers from realizing how fantastic their new card really is.

If you’re like me, you’re sick and tired of paying more money in interest every month. There’s no reason to continue throwing money away when there are ways to minimize credit card costs. The simple solution for many is a prepaid card. Here’s how it works.

Prepaid cards are the best way to avoid paying interest. The only difference between a regular charge card and a prepaid card is that the latter is loaded with your own money. To top it all off, every purchase you make with the prepaid card is taken directly from your prepaid balance. These cards can be bought at any retail location: Walgreens, C bash Shops, and Target.

These amazing plastic cards come with a wide variety of flexibility and quality features. You can load them up with money and use them anywhere the Visa or MasterCard logo is accepted. This means you can shop at your favorite mall, or use an online site to buy gas or groceries. You can also use it at any ATM machine for free.

I love the flexibility that these cards provide. You always know how much money you’ve loaded onto your card. I’ve been able to enjoy the convenience and ease of not having to carry cash while shopping at my local grocery store. I don’t have to worry about being robbed or my money is lost. I also like the lowest established risk of card theft. You’re 100% safe.

You’ve probably seen lots of TV commercials touting prepaid cards and their low marveling fees. Most of these commercials air at night, when they’re obviously the most attractive offer, you’re seeing. (ONASA Coordinating your entire life for cheaper credit is not an inspiration advert)

My only problem with the best of these offers is that they’re over the top in their claims. While a card might be loaded with cash when you use it at a retail location, you still need a merchant’s ID and signature. That’s a lot to swallow when you’re looking at guaranteed credit cards. This is the most common complaint I’ve heard from disappointed customers.

If you think about it, the steps used to make these cards work is simple:

• You buy the card from the vendor, who will then attempt to sell it to you.
• You put $ charged onto the card
• You agree to pay a monthly fee to the card vendor. This is conveniently printed on the fine print.

The card vendor then processes the card payment and sends you your card. From there, you use the card to make purchases.

If an agreement like this were truly legal, though, the payment would fall under the law of a 2005 federal law called the Fair Credit Billing Act, which states that consumers can request a refund for any charges agreeable to them within a certain time period. The only stipulation is that you can’t want or need the money.

The good news is that the refunds are time-sensitive. Any money that you pay to a card provider within an acceptable amount of time is automatically credited back to your account. In fact, many vendors simply report the payment amount to the credit reporting bureaus each month.

So, while it may sound like it’s all a bit convoluted, factoring through all of it in a very short amount of time actually works out to be quite a quick and painless process.

For nearly everyone, prepaid cards will likely be the preferred option. I’ve witnessed more people successfully using these cards than any other payment method. If you plan on buying one, I highly suggest you set it up with a vendor before you go shopping. That way you’ll be able to give the vendor your card information to confirm it and it will be ready to use on any retailer that your card provider indicates.