A guide to prepaid cards by MasterCard

How prepaid cards work – without the technical bits

You can use a prepaid card in the same way that you would use a debit or credit card. It’s easy to use your card. To buy something, this is all you need to do:

At the shops
Simply hand your card to the salesperson at the till.

Telephone shopping
Read out the card details over the phone.

Mail order shopping
Complete the order form, including the card details.

Internet shopping
Input the card details at the ‘check-out’ step of your Internet purchase.

When you use a prepaid card, the money is immediately taken from the amount loaded onto the card - not from a line of credit or a bank account. As long as you have enough money available, you can continue to use your prepaid card to buy what you need.

When the amount remaining on your card is low or at zero, you may be able to reload (or ‘top up’) your card in a number of ways, such as:

- cash top-up at post offices or convenience stores,
- funds transfer from a bank account,
- on-line through an Internet account.

Please check with your card provider for details.

What you need to get a card

You may need to provide proof of your identity and your address when applying for a prepaid card - but that’s all. There are no credit checks or any other information that you need to provide. Once you have been given or sent your prepaid card, you will need to activate the card by following the instructions from your card provider.

When you buy a ‘prepaid gift card’, you don’t usually need to provide address or identity details. These cards may be given to family and friends, who can then use the card like a gift voucher, until the money loaded onto the card has been spent. This type of card cannot be re-loaded.