|
In Place of a Credit Card |
A lot of internet sites require you to have a credit card when it comes to the financial side of things. Sites such as paypal, EBay and Amazon or sites that require a membership fee before you can use them are usually those places where a credit card is a must have. Usually, a site will accept check payments but the process is too slow. You can safely say that with internet finance, the credit card is a must.
There are ways to go around that. Visa has come up with the Visa Electron debit card. The debit card functions like a wallet. Because it is pre-funded, most businesses are more than happy to accept the debit card as payment.
The debit card is linked to your bank account. You cannot issue a payment if the money remaining in your account is less than the amount necessary for covering the payment price.
If you are somewhat leery of having a card linked directly to your account, another solution is to use temporary credit cards. These are much the same as a debit card with one big difference. Your bank account is not affected by it.
What you do is you buy the card at a certain amount. Some handling and service fees will be subtracted form the amount and what remains will be money to spend. The card is pre-funded like the debit card, but it does not touch your bank account. When all the money in it is used up, buy another card.
If you plan on using this to establish a line of credit though, it will not work. The debit card or a long-term card will help you accomplish that.
Whatever you decide to use, remember always to read the whole contract and the fine print that comes with it. Buying a plastic card for $300.00 and finding out that half of it is gone before you could even use it is a very sad state of affairs. |
