A prepaid Mastercard® is essentially a prepaid card which is Mastercard branded and has the Mastercard brand on it. In today’s world with Credit and Debit cards flying around, you are more than likely to have seen this Mastercard Symbol and just as likely to have used a Mastercard prepaid, debit or credit card.
A prepaid card is basically a card on which you need to put money on before you can spend that money. So unlike credit cards which are essentiall “buy now, pay later” and debit cards which are “buy now, pay now”, prepaid cards arre essentially a form of “pay before, buy later” cards which provide a safe and secure payment mechanism that is not linked to you bank account.
The majority of prepaid cards in the market today are prepaid Mastercard cards but the guys from Visa are catching up pretty fast. American Express is used in America and in South Asia and Maestro continues to be quite popular in the UK and some parts of Europe.
Some of the UK’s top Mastercard prepaid cards
Kalixa
- Monthly Fee £0.00
- UK POS £0.00
- UK ATM £1.75
- FX FEE 0%
- INTL POS £0.00
- INTL ATM 2.25%
- LOAD Free via Barclays, Wage Transfer, £1.95% via Credit/Debit card
Cashplus
- Monthly Fee £0.00
- UK POS £0.99
- UK ATM £2.00
- FX FEE 2.99%
- INTL POS £0.00
- INTL ATM £3.00
- LOAD Free at Post Office or via bank transfer or wage transfer
OrangeCash
- Monthly Fee £0.00
- UK POS £0.00
- UK ATM 2.95%
- FX FEE 2.75%
- INTL POS £0.00*
- INTL ATM 2.95%*
- LOAD Debit card loads are FREE, £1.50 via Post Office.
Net+
- Monthly Fee £0.00
- UK POS £0.00
- UK ATM £3.00
- FX FEE 2.95%
- INTL POS £0.00
- INTL ATM £3.00
- LOAD 1.75% via Debit or Credit card, Free via Bank Transfer
Advantages of a Prepaid MasterCard:
- High Acceptance - Over 33 million worldwide locations.
- Most recognised brand payment brand in the world, so you should face no acceptance problems.
- MasterCard have recently launched the rePower scheme which will allow you to load your MasterCard prepaid card through MasterCard terminals which means more loading locations as well.
Disadvantages of a Prepaid MasterCard:
- MasterCard is more attractive to fraudsters than other brands so more likely to be targeted by fraudsters. However, since it is not linked to your bank account, you are well protected anyway.
Other MasterCard Prepaid Cards to consider
There are a number of Prepaid MasterCard cards other than the four listed above which are available in the UK market. Read more about some of the others- ICE Cash card - An excellent fun travel card.
- Lycamoney Prepaid Card - Award winning prepaid card for Moneyshare.
- Caxton Prepaid Card - Perfect for travel abroad with free ATM.