Pre-paid?
There are many pre-paid “credit cards” available worldwide. At Ambrand Dot Com we have an unexplainable interest in banking, and are pleased to share our knowledge with you gratis. (wow, banking and gratis in the same sentence)
The idea is to get a card that is as similar to a real credit card as possible. Now one thing that cannot be replicated is the credit element, but ideally everything else should be the same, i.e. paper statement or online statement, and most importantly a physical plastic card.
USA 1 - Ireland 0
The ultimate pre-paid card in the world is the Visa Buxx, which as with so many other ultimates is available to US residents only. It is the ultimate because it provides the user with a physical card, and that card isin’t just good for wallet flash value it allows the user to pay in bricks and mortar stores.
Virtual?
This brings us to the competition known as “virtual” pre-paid cards. As their name suggests they do not provide the user with a physical plastic card. This creates many problems, such “cards” will not work
- in bricks and mortar stores
- here a card is required to collect a paid item from a vending machine (eg. cinema tickets)
- here a merchants asks for a fax of the front and back of a card to prove you have it in your possession (ie to prove its your card and not just a number you noted while you worked in a restaurant)
So ok, by process of elimation you can only use the card for online, mailorder and phone transactions. You can live with that right?
Why don’t you just a get a real “credit” card?
Well lets examine why anyone would want a pre-paid credit in the first instance, it will be because
- They are unemployed (eg. student) and cannot be granted “credit” by a bank
- They are employed, but have a history of defaulting on credit repayments.
- They are an immigrant and their impressive credit history abroad is not recognised by the Irish cartel of banks that use the faceless Irish Credit Bureau.
Laser pointless
The students in the first category can easily get a Laser card (the Irish brandname for the Maestro debit card) from AIB Bank, indeed this is now an automatic feature of the 3rd Level Student Plus Account. The other Banks are not worth approaching; Bank of Ireland are stuck in the 1990s and don’t even use 3D secure! Permanent TSB don’t even offer Chip and Pin debit cards! But returning to the point the Laser card is only good in Ireland.
The options
So if you must get a pre-paid “card” in Ireland what are your options. There are two contenders 3V and Wirecard.
3v?
At first glance 3v looks good. Its provided “in association with” Permanent TSB, which is one of the large Irish Banks, and it is a Visa number and not a common MasterCard number as most pre-paid numbers are. However there are too many problems with 3v
- EUR 5 immediate purchase fee (dead money, and in fairness there is no need for such a fee as Permanent TSB will make a profit every time the card is used from the percentage fee the merchant is obliged to pay)
- 60 day expiration
- A new card number every time your topup (this makes merchants think you are up to some scam, getting a new card every week, and many automatically freeze your account)
- EUR 2.50 redemption of unused credit fee (there would be no need for a redemption if the card number didn’t change)
- Its hard to topup, despite being offered “in association with” Permanent TSB who have an impressive nationwide branch network, you must visit a reseller such as a local newsagent or supermarket that has a terminal to buy a topup voucher (such shops are dropping 3v every day, and the list on the website is fantasy)
One user of boards.ie summed up how much 3v sucks in a succinct post
“Thats crap…”
and continued
“…so If you buy a €50 euro voucher, you have to pay a €5 fee and have to use that within 60 days, and if your balance goes to say €2.90, you have to pay €2.50 to get 40 cents back, and you cant top up on the €2.90…”
Wirecard
Wirecard is both the name of a German bank, and it’s flagship product. This explains the duplication in its URL https://www.wirecard.com/wirecard/
In the most learned and serene opinion of Ambrand Dot Com this is the best pre-paid virtual card available in Ireland today, of course it is still a virtual card, and we know the hinted physcal card option will never materialise for Irish customers thanks to the Irish Government stamp duty of EUR 40 on credit cards, which would make issuance uneconomic for Wirecard, but it has many positives
- 2 year validity
- Same card number
- A resonable EUR 1 topup fee
- denominated in Euro (Germany is in the Eurozone)
Topups are done by a credit transfer to wirecards dublin Bank of Ireland account (which can be done online, or if you so desire in a Bank of Ireland branch) or topups are done by an IBAN credit transfer to your own account in Wirecard bank! its nice that Wirecard Bank are more involved in their product the Permanent TSB who seem to view 3v as a contractual obligation to 3V Transaction Services Ltd.
Is there any actual plastic card on the market in Ireland at the moment?
no
Thank you.I have spoken to wirecard people and they told me that there could be one soon on the Irish market.There is a prepaid card “easykard” in UK that covers Ireland as well.There is a possibility to pay trough payzone so that the funds can reflect on the account in 24 hours.The only problem is that payzone is not so widespread in Ireland.
Can an Irish Resident obtain in Ireland a Prepaid Card for use both in Ireand and the rest of the world?
I just read this review and it is brilliant, thank you so much for the info!
I don’t understand why the UK and Ireland are so far behind this virtual card technology.
I am Portuguese and believe it or not we are so far ahead on this it´s not even funny! There is a service called mbnet. You associate your debit card to this service on a cash machine and online you can use the login details you get in the cash machine to set up a virtual credit card. This CC is active for 1 month and you determine the limit you want for that particular credit card.
I was thinking of getting one of these prepaid CC but I don’t think it is worth it! I’ll keep putting money in my portuguese account (on AIB you can transfer money in euro, by internet banking, free of charge) and will keep using mbnet to do all my online shopping!
Well, I just thought I’s share this with all of those who have the opportunity to use this instead of being ripped off by these prepaid CC companies!!!
Virgin UK have a proper prepaid “Mastercard”. I am not sure if it is available to UK residents only though?
thanks for info,
Was going to use 3v but have now regestered with wirecard. Why dont they advertise in Ireland more. It just shows how Irish consumers are getting ripped off by Irish companies
Re: Virgin prepay MasterCard
Without even reading the small print I can guarantee* that the Virgin card will not be available to residents of “Eire”. Even if its not de jure, it will be de facto impossible because it will want a postcode
(as they say in the simpsons this is not a guarantee)
Re: Wirecard advertising
This is the internet! You will not see adverts on a street corner in Dublin for wirecard but anyone who wants a prepay product will google it and find out about wirecard. What is funny however is 3V’s paucity of advertising.
Hi,
Good article but missing perfectcard.eu
Call them to order your card. works in normal shops as well as online.
Also, virgin prepaid can be used by irish residents as long as you know someone in the uk to sign p for you.
Thanks for the link to perfectcard.eu / .ie. I was excited as I clicked it, however just like the MBNA Ireland Gift Card its just a “please call back later” website. The product is not available, and I’ll wager (zero euro!) that it will never be.
With nall due respect. You clearly didn’t try very hard.
Its avialbale over the phone by email, by post and in Dundrum Shopping centre.
I know of 100s off people who use it.
I had a look at EasyKard. You can register with them with an Irish address and have a card designated in Euros, but… The fees are horrendous! They’ll charge you €20 euros to get the card, 9.99 of which is a fee, then they’ll also charge a whopping €70 euros for getting a ‘foreign’ card, and then there are all the transaction fees and monthly handling fees as well as a fee if you don’t use the card!
Definitely one to avoid. On a connected note, why aren’t PayPal more useful in Ireland? I had an account in the UK when I lived there and could link seamlessly with my bank account to transfer money up and down to the PayPal account. I wouldn’t need a virtual card if it was just as user friendly over here- but it isn’t as I can’t just add funds simply from my bank account.
Thanks for the info though.
Appreciated.
Very useful review. The 3V system is primitive, restrictive and expensive, now doubt they are exploring ways that every time you look to check your balance that will be another Euro.
There are other reasons why banks don’t give credit cards and that if you have an unorthodox lifestyle or income. Due to mix up I had my Bank of Ireland credit card account closed while abroad, they now claim it is because I did not pay stamp duty and that could affect my credit status; big dispute on here.
Their decision makers are all functionaries who follow the rules (they live and die by the rules)and if you make them think they get very angry and say NO!! So even though I have been good customer for years I am told to piss off and stop annoying them. They have reverted back to the banking philosophy of the 70s, i.e. the customer is the enemy, the PR is bullshit but perfect to throw in their faces
In the meantime I have checked out perfectcard.eu but all I get is perfectcard.ie with no info of how to become a customer. Ukash with their horrendous pink website looks equally suspicious while wirecard looks the business, very professional lay out, services that are reasonable and usable world wide, so that’s where I’m going now,
Long live anarchy!