Pre-paid Debit Card – savings / investment options

[walace]

I occasionally get a pre-paid debit card but they are quite low value, usually £20-£100. I find using them in shops and online for purchases frustrating as I have to spend an exact amount to use them to their full potential.

Ideally I’d like to put the funds in a savings or investment account (or even buy Avios – but again I have the problem of spending an exact amount). However I’ve found some providers won’t allow payments as they see the card as either prepaid or an overseas card and refuse to accept it. Any ideas on savings/investment providers who would support use of this?

[WillPS]

You don’t need to spend the exact value in a shop. Just go to a manned till and say ‘I need to put £x on this card, and I’ll pay the rest with another card’.

It can be done on self checkouts too if you get a member of staff to help you (and they know what they’re doing), but it’s very standard on a manned till.

You’re in cat and mouse territory on the ‘recycling’ approach. People who know tend to keep it to themselves.

[TooPoorToBeHere]

Try unfronted curve.

[Alex G]

Monzo.me
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Cambridge BS

[Misty]

Alex G wrote:

Monzo.me
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Cambridge BS

ISA’s ?

[walace]

WillPS wrote:

You don’t need to spend the exact value in a shop. Just go to a manned till and say ‘I need to put £x on this card, and I’ll pay the rest with another card’.

It can be done on self checkouts too if you get a member of staff to help you (and they know what they’re doing), but it’s very standard on a manned till.

You’re in cat and mouse territory on the ‘recycling’ approach. People who know tend to keep it to themselves.

Sorry, should have also said they’re sometimes virtual cards so in store isn’t always an option.

[Reney]

Take the debit card and buy an amazon gift card online and spend it there?

Or John lew gift card for waitrose and john lewis. You can buy probably buy most supermarket giftcards online. that will deal with your online and exact amount problem.

BTW if it is a one4all they have an app you can add your card and they have an apple pay version which allow instore spending,

[Reney]

Misty wrote:

Alex G wrote:

Monzo.me
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Cambridge BS

ISA’s ?

I think Monzo needs fronted. Someone sent me a link to contribute to leaving gift. I got charged fronted fee when paid with curve.

[BBbetter]

Reney wrote:

Misty wrote:

Alex G wrote:

Monzo.me
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Cambridge BS

ISA’s ?

I think Monzo needs fronted. Someone sent me a link to contribute to leaving gift. I got charged fronted fee when paid with curve.

Fronted depends on the underlying card, not on curve card. If using debit card (I assume prepaid will fall under this category) as underlying, it wouldn’t be a fronted payment.

[Toaster]

You cannot add a prepay card such as Vanilla MasterCard to Curve.

[Alex G]

Monzo.me works for moving cash out of your Curve Cash account (cash back / rewards) and it’s instantly available. Works with most debit cards that I have tried.

[BBbetter]

Toaster wrote:

You cannot add a prepay card such as Vanilla MasterCard to Curve.

I have added a prepaid Mastercard issued by an employer for perks. Though it’s technically a reloadable card.

[walace]

Alex G wrote:

Monzo.me
Skipton BS
Yorkshire BS
Cambridge BS

I can see Skipton allows deposits by debit card. Have you had any success using a prepaid virtual debit card to make a deposit?

[walace]

BBbetter wrote:

Toaster wrote:

You cannot add a prepay card such as Vanilla MasterCard to Curve.

I have added a prepaid Mastercard issued by an employer for perks. Though it’s technically a reloadable card.

I don’t believe any of the cards I get are reloadable. I do have Curve still – although I just noticed it’s been so long since I’ve used it my card has expired!

[The Urbanite]

This thread takes me back to MSing 10 years ago. These kind of routes have all but dried up!

[zapato1060]

The Urbanite wrote:

This thread takes me back to MSing 10 years ago. These kind of routes have all but dried up!

😉 One of my options is closing end of this month though 🙁

Yeah if you require to get money out you can use

Skipton bs savings account then transfer to normal bank account
Revolut (mostly use this but I keep it to 2.5k per month as they get a bit funny) then you can do another 2.5k with p2
NS&I savings account

[mark2]

You do not mention the amounts involved.
As well as these saving routes, I used to use pre-paid cards to pay things which allowed partial payment e.g. council tax, utlities either online or through PayPoint etc. You can also top up Amazon and maybe PayPal.
As the Urbanite says, some of us used to buy hundreds or even thousands of prepaid cards especially 3V from Tesco and get 7.2 Avios per £. Ah the good old days!

[walace]

So Skipton isn’t an option, it just rejects the payment. I’ve been having this same issue with most providers. I might have to top up my Amazon account as I think I’m running out of easy options, at least I don’t have to worry about over/underspending as the funds stay on my account.