NetSpend offers prepaid Visa and MasterCard debit cards. The cards are especially useful for people without bank accounts or with bad credit. Rather than being linked to a bank account, they are reloadable, meaning that customers can head to a local Safeway, Winn-Dixie, gas station, or other participating establishment to load cash onto the card.
Netspend gives people the ease and convenience of a credit card without the required bank account or paperwork. Card usage is not reported to credit bureaus, so users do not build credit history by using them. Customers have also experienced longer-than-expected holds on funds and arduous identity verification procedures–byproducts of the relative anonymity involved in the card–so it does come with a potential price.
Also, watch out for fees: The card costs $9.99 to purchase, and $4.95 to reload.
It’s a good deal if you:
a) Don’t have a bank account, or cannot get one
b) Are prepared for some registration delays and holds on your funds
c) Are willing to pay to reload your card
If you live week-to-week, or rely heavily on having your money instantly (and can’t afford blocks on your account), you may want to consider other options.
Why even post this?
Is this a tongue-in-cheek warning against it, or just raw marketing for a terrible product?
I’ve been with NetSpend for 5 years now….I am pleased with my service, I’ve never had funds held for long periods of time.I went with Netspend…. I like not having to worry about “overdraft fees” and my direct deposit is always a day or two early instead of late, as it was with wells fargo
I love it!!!!
Hello. I used to have a netspend all access card, but decided to change because of bad customer service. Now i have an accountnow card. This prepaid card offers more options and features. the fees are just about the same as netspend too. ya, so check out the AccountNow prepaid card
that’s all bullcrap!
I am member of Netspend i Think it Good service
You get your money four days before time.
This article is a misrepresentation of the netspend product. “longer than expected holds” are clearly defined and explained in the pamphlet you get with your card, not hidden in any small print or anything. You will see holds for a couple of different things: Hotels, which makes sense on a prepaid card because they need to ensure you’re going to have enough money on your card to pay your bill when you leave. 90% of the extra long holds from hotels are caused by the hotels opening a new transaction at checkout rather than collecting on the hold they already have out. Gas stations are another hold you may see, but again, it is clearly stated in the documentation you get with the card (again not in small print) that if you swipe your card at the gas pump, there will be a hold of at least 55 dollars on your card, to make sure you have enough funds to cover a typical gas transaction. If you spend 30 of that 55 on gas, you will get the other 25 back, when you get it back just depends on the gas station. You get the rest back when the gas station posts the transaction, which in some cases takes 3-5 days. But the documentation also explains that you can just go inside the gas station and tell them how much gas you want and the hold will be for that much, and the gas pump will turn off at that point.
It’s also bad to say that it costs 4.95 to load your card…it CAN cost that much if you purchase a reload pack, which are only available in a very small amount of markets. Most places charge $1 to reload your card, but no locations are more than $3, some places are even free. Plus, you can get direct deposit on the card and it’s free, plus you get your funds a day or two BEFORE payday. Netspend does not hold your direct deposit to collect interest off of it like 95% of banks do.
A lot of peoples complaints about netspend are their own misconception or just plain ignorance. There are no hidden fees, they clearly explain everything in a simple booklet you get with your card. People just don’t WANT to believe that it’s a good company, providing a good service for people who otherwise would have no chance at ever seeing a visa or mastercard. I’ve been using my netspend card for 3 years now and i don’t even need to. I have good credit, I have a bank account, I just choose to use Netspend because you will never see any weird fees pop up out of nowhere, if you have unauthorized transactions, they have a great dispute department that will help you get your money back.
I’ve used Netspend for years. They’re way too expensive and only makes sense for emergencies but they were clear from the beginning about the price. No suprises yet. Works well for my purposes.