Today I want to talk about pre-paid credit cards. A lot of retailers are choosing to send these pre-paid credit cards for rebates and rewards instead of sending straight checks. Essentially, it’s a gift card that you can use anywhere. [Errr anywhere that type of credit card is accepted; check the logo 
]
The thing is, most people don’t understand how to use these cards. For some reason, they’re generally read by machines as debit cards, so you’ve got to be aware of this and make it known to your cashier that you’re using a pre-paid card and that it needs to be run as credit. Often I’ve had to explain this to customers and wonder if they’ve run into problems with not being able to use the money they were given simply because they don’t know how to use it.
Secondly, if you’ve got a $50 pre-paid card and your purchase is $67, it’s going to decline your card. You have to let your cashier know the amount you have on the card so that they can manually input that amount to go towards your purchase. This is why it’s important to keep up with the remaining balance on your card. Too many people leave a balance on those cards and never use them because they don’t know that they can. If you’ve only got $7.27 left and you want to use it, just tell your cashier! We type in that amount before choosing the tender and that’s it! You’re clear!
One final thing to remember is that even when you’ve cleared the balance on your card, you should take it back and destroy it yourself. For the most part, these cards aren’t tied to you in any way, but there are companies that send cards out that, in the right hands, can be traced back to your account, and thus could open you to someone gaining information you wouldn’t want them to. Being traceable back to you is a rarity, but there are instances where it’s possible, so better safe than sorry. Take it home with you and destroy it as you would any other credit card.
So now when you go out and buy a new television, LCD tv mount, and whole entertainment package and end up with a huge rebate coming your way, just remember that all it takes is a little thought to make sure you get to utilize that entire rebate.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:27 am
I’m glad you wrote about this because I think a lot of us who are more “in touch” with technology forget that there are still a lot of people out there who don’t understand how some of this, as my Grandpa would say, “newfangled” stuff works.
The government coupon for the converter boxes was the first thing to come to mind for me. When my mom and my Grandma got their cards I had to go to the store with them to show them how to use them. I tried explaining it, but neither of them could quite seem to understand how it worked.
Then again I should have known they weren’t going to understand. I was going to buy my Grandparent’s a gift certificate to one of their favorite restaurants for their anniversary, but I couldn’t decide which one, so I bought them a $50 Visa Gift Card. I could have saved myself a trip to the store to pickup the gift card because I had to go to dinner with them to show them how to use it. :Þ
July 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I know what you mean, Jenn! I’ve run into many situations before where, once I explain it to the customer, they’d tell me how much trouble they’ve run into and how glad they are to finally be able to use it.
I really wish when they sent these things out they’d send out a little bit of detail on them—so many of them are set as debit cards but they don’t send any sort of pin number and that just really throws people off.
But I guess the world didn’t learn how to use debit cards overnight either.