Reply To: The British Airways Prepaid Mastercard thread

[Londonsteve]

Alex G wrote:

I haven’t been charged a fee yet, but I will be happy to pay £5 to get 1300 Avios from this card every month.

I have sometimes had problems with OTA codes not coming through. I never top up with more than £300 so if things go badly wrong I can withdraw the balance as cash.

That makes sense and I’ve not had a problem taking money out of an ATM (usually after the transaction attempt has gone pear shaped like my experience with buying a BA flight recounted above!). Problem is some transactions you might want to do, like buying a long haul flight or booking pre-pay accommodation might significantly exceed £300. If you can’t pay with the prepaid card, anything over £300 is then stuck until you can spend it elsewhere or withdraw in £300 chunks spread over however many months. It’s vast hassle for a handful of Avios. I’d rather sign up to an Avios subscription if I wanted to earn Avios in this magnitude monthly, it’s hassle free and guaranteed. The fact is the card should work at the point of sale, whether in person or for an online transaction and it just doesn’t.