Years ago I admired, from afar, the Visa Buxx card. I was preloaded Visa only available to US residents. I salivated at the doors it would open to me in Ireland, as at the time I only had an ATM card. The doors I refer to are those of online merchants, for at the time, and indeed still, the prices charged on the so-called high street are a rip-off.
Time has naturally moved on and now I have a Visa credit card and Laser debit card (Laser is an Irish brandname for Maestro) and am resonably happy, but it is interesting to see how things have moved on for the youth market, viz what online payment options do the young gadget hungry people of Ireland have available today.
Lets make a list
- EFT - electronic funds transfer. An ad hoc transfer is now available in AIBs internet banking. Some merchants will accept deposits directly into their bank accounts. But if they are outside the eurozone or are so large they don’t need your business then AIBs EUR 15 fee, and corporate autoresponders will render this useless.
- Permament TSB 3V prepaid visa vouche a concept similar to the Visa Buxx and looks wonderful at first glance and for online purchases the lack of a physical card can be overlooked, but one cannot avert ones gaze of examination from fee schedule: “For each voucher you purchase there will be a charge of €5″ and “There will be a €2.50 fee applied on redemption of any balance”. As a sidebar how did they secure a dispensation from the IE Domain Registry’s three character domain minimum?
- MBNA Gift Card at first glance it looks like a Visa Buxx, it has a physical card for flashing around, however the Visa brand is qualified with the dreaded suffix of “Electron” which is the debit brand so its online acceptance will be worse then the laser.
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