Now you are contradicting yourself. i thought you said above the benefit was that the card had the info stored locally, so the vendor didn't have to have an agrement with the card issuer. Unless I misunderstood you.
That's the definition of a smart card. They are used all over in Europe and have been for some time. The US hasn't picked up on it yet b/c banks have to invest into new infrastructure (like the card readers etc.)
At least there IS some consumer protection with a credit/debit card. What is there with a pre-paid card? Zelch, Nada. Lost or stolen tough love. The banks love this. It is all about positioning themselves to make the most of fees, interest and money disappearing into unused, stolen and lost cards.
There may be protection if the card that is lost or stolen is reported, I don't know. As the system evolves, there will no doubt be some that offer protection, and others that don't. What happens when a pre-paid calling card is lost or stolen, or a cell phone with pre-paid minutes?
Some may have the information stored locally, don't know. The pre-paid gift cards that work with Shift4 are as I described.
If I remember correctly, this is the company that was running the ads on CNBC http://ripoffreport.com/results.asp...&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=1&submit2=Search!
Could you give the benefits that you see with prepaid cards again. It is a little unclear to me. Here are my observations as to the benefits: possibly every retail location could be a place to make a deposit if you do not want a bank account and want to be anonymous you can still have plastic companies can manage expense accounts easier merchants benefit from no chargebacks. Debit cards all of the above except for deposits and anonominity. Credit cards all of the above except for float, disputes and deposits/payments and anonominity. Now if the card has a local chip in it which I believe American Express does....not sure though....then online transactions will require hardware and loss of card is all on the consumer. Does this about wrap it up? Michael B.
I like the Hilton HHonors American Express card. You can earn miles and points for each stay at one of the many hilton brands. Also you get 3 points per $ spent. In 1 1/2 years I've already saved enough points to stay in any Hilton hotel throughout the world for 12 days. You can also use your points for cruises, airplane tickets, merchandise, car rentals, etc and it's a great way to get upgraded at many hotels. Some hotels are $600 a night. There are literally hundreds of ways to earn additional hilton points. I found that you get an average .03 - .06 per dollar spent if you use your points for the very expensive hotels. I checked out the GM card but there is a limit on how much you can spend on each car. You can only apply $1,750 tops on most cars. So you can earn all you want but you can only apply $1,750 per car. Not that great a deal. Kev