Prepaid Cards – Consumers Clear Choice Over Cash
Divya Sharma is the author and senior editor at Prepaid365 – the UK’s prepaid card comparison portal and an expert in the prepaid card industry. Visit http://www.prepaid365.com/clearcash-prepaid-card.html to review the ClearCash Prepaid Card at Prepaid365
With the concept of prepaid still not fully understood and in many cases underestimated within the public domain, the fledgling prepaid industry would struggle to find the perfect example of a prepaid card that defines the purpose, functionality and key benefits a Prepaid card can offer when trying to manage your budget and make the most of your money.
Some headway is being made especially with regards to the innovation and commitment to prepaid that is being offered by some prepaid card providers like ClearCash to provide a service that is an excellent alternative to a bank account.
Prepaid Cards Provide Control
Typically, these prepaid cards provide greater control on what goes in and what goes out of you pocket and with excellent tools such as the ClearCash BudgetMaster and Credit Repair or Credit Builder facilities, it is no wonder that the popularity of prepaid cards is starting to grow within various consumer segments that are aiming to manage their money sensibly and ensure they never overspend.
MasterCard prepaid cards are amongst the most popular as they are accepted in over 28 million locations worldwide, instore, online and over the phone, wherever the MasterCard sign is shown.
Prepaid proposition development has been a long and steady path to ensure the right formula was created for the consumer.
Certainly in the current economic climate, consumers need as much help as possible in understanding how they spend their money and where it all goes.It is just too easy for people to take on ever increasing debt and a signifcant amount at that by overusing and abusing their overdrafts and credit card facilities.Prepaid cards provide an excellent way of controlling spend and an altogether fresh perspective on managing finance.It offers a hands-on approach, enabling users to go back to basics and take a good look at areas of their life they are over or under budgeting in and work out how to live stress and debt free by getting it right.
Extra Features and the Monthly Fee
Prepaid cards are available as Pay As You Go or Pay monthly or even pay weekly cards. For the regular user, Pay Monthly cards are likely to provide the best returns and most Prepaid cards charge a small monthly fee of some sort. Some providers may charge a larger fee in order to provide greater added value services. With free budgeting tools like the BudgetMaster, free Purchase Protection offering cover to the value of GBP 1000, plus a dedicated cash back site to help clients save as many pennies as possible, one would typically expect to pay a monthly fee around GBP 10.00 for the extra value of prepaid card accounts.
Innovative providers like ClearCash not only prevent you from going overdrawn but also have a free email reminder facility to alert consumers if a payment is due to go out from your account and their account balance is low giving them ample opportunity to reload their account.
Budgeting with BudgetMaster
BudgetMaster allows you to plan a monthly budget, categorise your payments according and set your monthly budget. At any time, you are in a position to track how you are doing. If you see you are over or under spending in certain areas, you can re-arrange your budget to be more accurate, teaching yourself to be more aware of the accurate account of spending you carry out each month, rather than the current perception you may have.
A Genuine Alternative to a Bank Account
With a hands on ethical approach to helping clients save money and a safe and secure payment method to boot, prepaid cards are really like having all the benefits of your bank account without all the fees attached and the reason why such prepaid card providers are proving to be successful in offering clients a one stop shop for all their finance needs and a genuine alternative to current banking solution.
Most of the services reviewed by this website are available or may be accessed from Australia (see 