What are Prepaid Credit Cards?

These are credit cards whose credit limit equals the amount that you “load” on it.  They can be used anywhere Visa and /or Mastercard are accepted.

Pre paid credit cards generally don’t require credit checks so they are great for people with no credit or trying to rebuild credit.  Not all pre-paid credit cards offer credit builder, but on this sit if there is a credit builder option to the service I will notate it in red.

How do prepaid credit cards differ from secured credit cards?

Secured credit cards are similar to prepaid credit cards in that the credit limit equals the amount you deposit on the card, some of them will help you build credit & re-establish credit and some won’t .  The main difference is that with a secured credit card they will use your deposit as collateral on your credit limit.   You can spend up to your credit limit monthly but you are expected to send them a check at the end of the month to pay on that debt, just as if it was a regular unsecured credit card.  If you don’t pay, that’s when they will close your account and use your security deposit to pay off the amount that you owe.

With a prepaid credit card your limit is also the amount that you deposit on it, but as you use the card the money is taken directly out of your account.  You can use the card until the money you loaded onto it runs out.  At that point you can transfer more money onto the card and continue to use it.

On the next few pages you will find pre paid credit cards, pre-paid mastercards, merchandise credit cards, secured credit cards ? and even a few unsecured cards for you to choose from.