Archive for the 'unbanked' Category

A review of Pre-paid “credit” cards in Ireland

Published August 10th, 2007 in 3v review, virtual credit cards, polish ireland credit card, wirecard review, prepaid credit cards, 3v, unbanked and ambrand. 51 Comments

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.

A credit card for the under 18s

Published December 14th, 2006 in unbanked, poor credit history, mbna, credit card, 3v, debit card and uncategorized. 2 Comments

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.

Continue reading ‘A credit card for the under 18s’

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