Business: The Hidden Price of Prepaid Debit - nytimes.com

Prepaid debit cards are among the fastest growing products in the banking industry. But there's a catch: many of these cards come with a laundry list of hidden fees.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• NYTimes.com
• The New York Times
• Business
• debit cards
• prepaid
• banking
• hidden fees

[buzter123]

Easy fix, as painfull as it might be, READ THE CARDMEMBER AGREEMENT BEFORE USING PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LITTLER0CKAR]

Man, VP Hodgdon looks like a SLEEZ BAG! Look at his teeth and jacked-up face. What a snake. Bastard.

[tweetantra]

I am a biz journo preparing for a second round of interview with a company. this vid helped mea lot to know about what prepaid debit card industry is all about.

[AccountNowPrepaid]

The problem here is that there is a lot of confusion and little information being provided to prepaid debit card users.

First off, prepaid debit cards incur fees, just like credit cards, checking accounts (for those unable to keep a minimum balance), and check cashing. A good card provider will and should have their fees easily accessible, if not, you should be suspicious.

Prepaid cards are mainly for people denied a bank account and need a way to shop and pay bills.

[iluvsameer]

sf

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[tiptiptapable]

Anyone who uses debit is a fool. A 1 percent cashback credit card is the way to go. People who can't manage their credit are fools and should use cash.

[eddiebruv]

These are available in the UK. Some have monthly fees, some don't. The fees for their use don't seem as high as the examples shown here. Someone's got to pay for it somewhere along the line,as long as the costs are not too high. The main problem is not telling people upfront what all the costs are going to be.

[tcuk]

Legalized thievery.

[yody94]

I'm up in Canada and I used to have one of these. If I put in $200 and gradually used that money over time about 10-30 of that is lost in fees. Complete rip-off.

[Geo408]

No consumer protection. Issues like this make aMERICA look bad.