Travelling and Keeping Your Cash Safe With a Prepaid Credit Card

If you are sometimes concerned about the safety of your holiday spending money, then you may want to consider a prepaid credit card.

Cash in hand

For most of us, going away on holiday whether at summer or any other time of the year, is something we look forward to with eager anticipation. Stashing a little cash away each month for holiday spending money and watching it grow, is all part of the preparation.

When the time actually comes, it is sometimes nice to have your holiday spending money kept apart from your general day-to-day finances. After all, bills at home may still have to be paid.

Traditionally, you may just have taken cash and if you were going abroad, you may have bought the currency you needed before you went, trusting to fortune a little bit that it did not get lost or stolen.

These days, a prepaid credit card may help you better manage your holiday cash and keep it safer into the bargain.

So how do they work?

For a start, a prepaid credit card is not really a credit card. These cards can also be called prepaid or prepay debit cards or cash cards.

They are basically a plastic card onto which you load cash. You can then use the card to pay for things in shops, restaurants and in ATMs to withdraw cash.

So, although you have all the convenience of plastic, you have none of the temptation to overspend, as you can only spend what you have loaded on to the card.

Some cards carry a logo like MasterCard and all you have to do is to make sure that the logo is accepted by merchant or machine that you want to use. As with most cards these days, prepaid cards are typically PIN protected.

If a card carries a logo like MasterCard, then you can be sure that it will typically be accepted in many locations both at home and abroad.

Who provides them?

You may typically find providers of prepaid cards online. The application process is typically fairly straightforward and cards may be available in a couple of weeks.

Because there is no credit involved, you may find that a cash card application will not include a credit check.

Typically the card will be posted out to you and in line with standard security practice the PIN may be sent separately.

Once you receive it, all you have to do is to load it with cash at one of the numerous PayPoint outlets and it is ready to use.

Not a credit card

You may need to bear in mind that these cards are not credit cards.

So in circumstances where a credit card may typically be needed, to guarantee a car hire for example, cash cards may not be accepted. Even if your prepay card has more than enough money loaded to it to pay for your rental, the car hire company may insist on an actual credit card.

The last thing you want when you are recharging you batteries on holiday is to be worrying about carrying large amount of cash around. A prepaid credit card may help keep your hard earned cash just that bit safer.