Welcome to the world of prepaid cards...

This leaflet has been prepared to help you find out more about prepaid payment cards and how you can use them best.

Although they’re relatively new, prepaid cards are becoming more and more popular. Many stores offer ‘prepaid gift cards’ - you may have already used one! But prepaid payment cards aren’t just limited to gift cards. There are prepaid cards for everything, from sending money to family and friends, to managing travel funds, to shopping over the Internet.

Independent research tells us that, by 2010, people across Europe will collectively have around 360 million prepaid payment cards in their pockets at any one time.

With so many cards likely to be around in the future, the prepaid payment cards team at MasterCard Europe want to ensure that as many people as possible know what to look for when choosing a prepaid card that’s right for them.

This leaflet underlines our desire to help all consumers make an informed choice. We hope that you find it both reassuring and useful.

Prepaid cards - an introduction to what they are

A prepaid card is a payment card that can be loaded with money by you or someone else.

A prepaid card looks just like a normal credit or debit card, with a card number, signature strip and company branding. But prepaid cards are unlike credit cards, which provide you with a line of credit. They are also very different from debit cards that are linked to a bank account with an overdraft facility. This is because you can’t borrow money with a prepaid card - you can only spend the money you have loaded onto it.

As your prepaid card is a MasterCard or Maestro card, you can use it anywhere in the world that accepts MasterCard and/or Maestro.