The federal government have finally imposed regulations on prepaid credit card companies.
Under the new regulations, prepaid cards must fully disclose any fees and conditions at activation, must not expire and eliminate any unused balance, they also can’t have maintenance fees for at least one year after card activation.
For more information, check the government’s press release here.
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Yeah!!! 🙂
It’s about time. People are sick of being screwed.
Reading between the lines-there is very little change here. Still activation fees & maintenance fees. They may state the cards cannot expire but if maintenance fees have eaten up the balance on the card then you just have a “valid” card with $0.00 balance. None of these cards is re-loadable.
I agree with Tina. I wish they would have done away with the maintenance fees entirely. But at least people have a full year before they get screwed.
It should also be noted that the bill hasn’t passed yet. It will pass with a majority government, but there is a process that it has to go through before it’s an official law.
I hate those maintenance fees too. I got a prepaid Visa for my birthday one year and left a balance of $6 sitting on it for a few months. Next time I went to use the card, the balance was $0 – the card company had been charging me $3/month to ‘maintain’ my account. They never even knew my name or address so why would I have an account that needs maintaining??
I’m surprised this nonsense even exists! Who in the normal state of mind would inconvenience their friends and relatives with such a gift?! They have more pain than good in them, yet people use them. Why?? I won a couple of this and found it a real pain to get rid of them timely.
Some people buy prepaid credit cards because they don’t have an actual credit card or dont feel comfortable using their real one online – its only credit cards not store gift cards