Worth applying for even if you have bad credit.

You can rebuild your credit history with this card.

UK Prepaid Mastercard & Visa Credit / Debit Cards

If you need prepaid Mastercard / Visa debit cards for your company or organisation then visit our business prepaid debit card page for details.

If you have read our UK poor / bad credit history unsecured credit card page then you will know that if you have some form of bad credit and cannot obtain any of the poor credit history unsecured UK credit cards that we tell you about then there are 2 alternative solutions open to you, secured offshore / non-UK credit cards and prepaid debit / credit cards.

As we point out, if you live in the US there are plenty of (sometimes very expensive) secured credit cards and if you live in the UK there are some offshore and European secured credit card accounts open to you if you have the required deposit.

However, many people do not have access to such funds and others are unwilling to risk such money in offshore banks or non-UK banking institutions, even though many are extremely stable and secure.

The only solution left for people with bad credit is the prepaid credit / debit card. This is simply a credit / debit card with the usual Mastercard or Visa logo that is prepaid, either when you buy it or when you load or reload it with your own funds.

These reloadable prepaid credit / debit cards allow you to add credit, usually with very small minimum amounts so you just load what you need to spend. There are no large security deposits to surrender.

In this respect, they are not credit cards but stored value debit cards, in so much as you cannot go into debt with them. Also, as no credit is involved, prepaid credit / debit cards do not generally report to the credit reference agencies.

A consequence of this is that prepaid credit / debit cards are perfect as low risk, private and confidential second credit cards for use on the Internet etc.

Once again, if you live in the US or have a verifiable US address then there are dozens of prepaid credit / debit cards to choose from. Some of these prepaid credit / debit cards are reloadable, some are not. The ones that aren't are generally called gift prepaid credit / debit cards which come with a fixed amount which has to be used by a certain date. Some gift prepaid credit / debit cards are reloadable, though.

You can even buy some of these prepaid gift credit cards in retail outlets.

A good example of a US ONLY prepaid Mastercard stored value credit card that can be obtained from a retail outlet in the US is this prepaid Mastercard. You can see a list of US ONLY prepaid and secured debit cards that are available to US customers on our US debit card page.

As a result of the Patriot Act 2001, US prepaid credit cards are not available to those with an international billing address and/or those without a US SS number.

Up until recently, in the UK all this was unheard of. In so many ways we were miles behind the US when it came to prepaid and secured credit card products. One of the reasons for this was that the UK was not as electronically connected as the US so that prepaid cards, which do not allow you to actually borrow on them, could be misused by some people at places that do not connect to the bank's computers to check for sufficient funds.

The prepaid credit / debit card solutions open to UK (and many worldwide) residents with or without bad credit are more limited but have improved markedly in recent times. Now you can actually get a reliable prepaid Visa or Mastercard!

Although there are no banking institutions in the UK who offer secured Mastercard / Visa cards (although Capital One used to) there are now an increasing number of prepaid Mastercard & Visa debit cards available.

However, there are still relatively few places for anyone in the UK and Europe to go for prepaid credit cards.

Listed below are some of the prepaid (stored value) Mastercard & Visa credit / debit and ATM / Maestro cash cards that are available to those in the UK and International (worldwide) irrespective of whether you have any bad credit or not.

We present this prepaid credit / debit card list (in no particular order) for informational purposes only. We make no claims about any of the prepaid credit / debit card accounts presented. It is up to you to make all necessary enquiries should you wish to apply for any of these prepaid credit / debit cards.

Be wary of prepaid credit / debit card issuers who are offering anonymous prepaid reloadable credit / debit cards with unlimited load amounts without any ID checks. We would be very suspicious of organisations making claims about such prepaid credit / debit cards. Unless otherwise stated, all of the prepaid credit / debit cards we list require some form of ID check and have limits on the amount that can be loaded onto their prepaid credit / debit cards.

       The UK And International Prepaid Mastercard / Visa Credit And Debit Card List 1:

       More than 50 listed (on this and the other prepaid page) (prepaid debit / credit card

       information last checked & updated 10th May 2008)

        (Press Control-D To Bookmark This Page Now So You Can Easily Check For Regular

        UK Prepaid Debit / Credit Card Updates)

        Companies which are no longer supplying prepaid credit cards or ATM prepaid

        debit cards to either UK or International customers include:

       Vista Global, Ekasse (never any prepaid cards), Fransabank, WSR, Caribpay,

       Harvest Capital (no prepaid cards delivered), Afripay, Direct Pay International,

       World2Call, Freecashcards/Netpay, IPC Shopping, Prima Verkauf, DiscreetCard,

       Gold2Cash, Cambist, WMCards, GoldNow, Privy-Pay, LGE, Eurochamber, The PV

       Card, PoolOfGold, Deep Thought Sovereign prepaid Mastercard, GoldenDebitCard,

       GlobalXChange, SoloPay, ZeroCards, Gold ATM, Internet Currency Corp,

       Incremental Gold, MasterVirtualCard, TheGoldShop, Giftcard Online, ExactPay,

       Ecaid, Uniclear, VisaElectronCard, XL Card, Dukascopy, Freedom-Cards,

       GoldToCard, Festiva Prepaid Card, GoldAfrica, MygCard, E-Fidex, Panama IBC,

       e-Ls & Nonamecard (prepaid debit card never received). Also never received

       Can Card prepaid Mastercard.

       More prepaid credit and debit card accounts on our other prepaid debit / credit card page.

       All personal and business bank account premium information packs also come with details

       of the UK prepaid Mastercard card below:

If you are a company / organisation and wish to provide prepaid Mastercard / Visa cards to your employees or members please visit our business prepaid debit card page for details.

* The cashplus prepaid MasterCard is issued by APS Financial Ltd (AFL) pursuant to license by

MasterCard International Incorporated. AFL is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. (www.fsa.gov.uk/register) Registered in England no. 06029941. Your card will be serviced by Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd (APS) which is a registered agent of AFL for this purpose. Registered in England no. 04947027. cashplus is a registered trademark of APS.

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