Spaargids.be With a credit card you can in principle pay and withdraw money anywhere in the world. Very easy when you travel. An important footnote: the settlement will only follow a few weeks later… So it can be a bit of a shock if you used your credit card more often than planned while traveling. Isn’t that why you’re better off with a prepaid alternative? Spaargids.be analyzes the plus and minus points.
By Tom Dejonghe, in collaboration with Spaargids.be 01-10-23, 09:10 Source: Spaargids.be
What is a prepaid payment card?
Well, the name says it all: a card on which you put a certain amount of money and then spend it. You can then use it to pay and withdraw money worldwide, but never more than the amount you have deposited. The maximum allowed balance is usually five thousand euros. In principle, you always confirm a payment with your secret code.
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What are the pros and cons?
With a prepaid payment card you can pay in many more places than with your debit card, but not just everywhere you can go with a regular credit card. The amount of your payment must be verifiable online. And so you may not be able to pay a fee in France with your prepaid payment card, you may not be able to pay for a ticket at a machine in a public car park and you may not be able to rent a car. The beneficiary cannot ‘reserve’ an amount on the card. He does not know how much you will ultimately spend and whether the amount on the card will be sufficient.
In addition, prepaid payment cards do not offer insurance, like credit cards. While there are certainly – often – costs associated with a prepaid payment card. To start with, in most cases you pay an annual fee to use the card.
Loading or unloading money on the card usually costs nothing, unless you top up with cash, for example. Payments within and outside the eurozone are also free. Cash withdrawals within and outside the eurozone, on the other hand, are charged in the vast majority of cases.
With certain cards you also pay a monthly fee if you do not use the card for a while. And as soon as a foreign currency is involved, you also pay an exchange rate commission.
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Interesting in certain situations
Ultimately, such a prepaid payment card is usually no more interesting than a regular debit card with a Maestro function. Except when you are an adult traveling to a country outside the Eurozone, where your regular debit card will not work.
Or, for example, if your son or daughter goes abroad and you want to give him or her a budget on a card. You can then quickly deposit an additional amount onto the card to cover additional or unforeseen costs.
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Do you want to take out a prepaid card?
A few years ago, almost all major banks offered such prepaid payment cards, but that is no longer the case today. Today you can still find prepaid cards from Belfius, KBC and bpost (without bank account). It is advantageous that anyone can apply for such a card, without having to meet financial conditions. After all, you do not enter into a credit contract.
Looking for a (free) prepaid payment card? Or rather a traditional credit card? You can quickly and easily compare different formulas using the Spaargids.be comparator.
Read more on Spaargids.be:
Six in ten Belgians go to the bank at most once a year
Customer of BNP Paribas Fortis or bpost bank? This important decision awaits you
Eleven-year-olds applied for twice as many bank cards before the start of the secondary school year
This article was brought to you by our partner Spaargids.be.
Spaargids.be is an independent comparator of bank products and looks for competitive prices and better interest rates.
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2023-10-01 07:10:00
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