Pre-paid cards for flight payments

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concorde
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Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby concorde » Sun Jan 03, 2010 5:14 pm

I know we've had this topic before but I am curious to know why MoneySaving Expert's site is now recommending FairFX card, when before it was CaxtonFx.

These are both issued by the Newcastle Building Society and the only difference I can see is that by using Money site you don't pay the £9.95p start fee. There is a £10 fee for Caxton but that is refunded when you first load their card.

Also Caxton has a flat £1.50 transaction fee whereas Fairfax has a 1.5% charge.

Probably swings and roundabouts depending on flight costs, no. of people booking on each transaction etc.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby pigs-might-fly » Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:56 am

I managed to get a Neteller virtual pre-paid card AND a Neteller actual plastic card, with chip & pin, prepaid card.
They were more relaxed about issuing to a non-UK resident, although I had to provide .jpg images of passport & utility bill by email.
I received my plastic card before Xmas and the PIN was waiting for me when we got back yesterday.
I have loaded & used the virtual card for a modest purchase from Amazon, just to make sure it worked.
Result - OK!
You get a small application for your desktop to use the facility and it will even recognise merchants web pages which require a credit card input.
Now I know it works I will probably use it for web purchases, as a one-off randomly generated card number is much more secure for Internet shopping.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby Mowser » Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:37 pm

I saw this on another forum:-
My name is John and I am the Marketing Manager for Escape Prepaid Cards.

I hope that you'll be pleased to hear that at the beginning of March we are launching a new prepaid card specifically aimed at international owners and travellers. This card can be loaded with sterling, euros or dollars and there are no usage fees when abroad, cash withdrawal and card transactions are free when overseas.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby Campo Steve » Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:21 pm

http://www.escape-prepaid-card.com/

Escape Prepaid Card is part of E Z Pay Ltd, part of the Phones 4u Group but the cards are issued by Newcasle Building Society. According to the terms and conditions on the escape-prepaid web site you need to be eligible to live in UK but doesn't say you have to be actually resident in UK.

However, on the registration page the option to change the country for your address is greyed out, can't change it from UK.

Some other web sites that talk about these cards say you do have to be resident in UK.

I've emailed them for info on this and, if I remember, will post their reply when I get one.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby marios » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:19 pm

Mowser wrote:I saw this on another forum:-
My name is John and I am the Marketing Manager for Escape Prepaid Cards.

I hope that you'll be pleased to hear that at the beginning of March we are launching a new prepaid card specifically aimed at international owners and travellers. This card can be loaded with sterling, euros or dollars and there are no usage fees when abroad, cash withdrawal and card transactions are free when overseas.
Yes but what rate do you get when they convert your £ to Euro's.

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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:40 pm

Their website is quoting 1.079 against the official (HiFX quoted) rate of 1.111, so that looks like around 3% charge to me
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby Mowser » Sun Jan 10, 2010 7:15 pm

Yes but what rate do you get when they convert your £ to Euro's.
I wouldn't use that card to convert pounds to euros. The blurb says "This card can be loaded with sterling, euros or dollars." I'd hope to load it using my Spanish euro account. I'd only use the card for booking flights.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby Campo Steve » Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:47 pm

Reference the escape prepaid card. Here is the reply I got from them.

Please be advised that in order to apply for a Escape Prepaid MasterCard® personalised card, you need to provide us with your UK contact number and address with a copy of photo ID in your name and a proof of address along with a registration pack fee of £9.99. Also, be informed that the card will only be delivered at the U.K. mailing address.

So, as a resident of Spain with no UK address, I can't get one.I could give a UK address but not one with associated documents in my name.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby concorde » Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:44 am

How very strange that yet another pre-paid card is issued by the Newcastle Building Society, they seem to have a bit of a monopoly on these.

FairFX say this:

'Currently we are only accepting payments in Pounds Sterling from UK residents. We will be open to international customers shortly.'

They also didn't ask for photo ID when I applied.

There must be someone who issues pre-paid cards in Spain :!:

What about Santander?
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:01 pm

CajAstur do a prepaid Mastercard gift card. I've emailed them for more info, but the reply says I need to go into a branch. Will call in the one in Velez Malaga next time I'm down
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby annfoto » Tue Jan 12, 2010 6:12 pm

"There must be someone who issues pre-paid cards in Spain"

Banesto issue pre-paid Visa cards, but I think you might have to have a savings account with them.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:19 pm

I think Ryanair will only use Mastercard for free, not Visa
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby pigs-might-fly » Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:40 pm

We'll be buying Ryanair flights in the next few hours using our virtual Mastercard.
I'll post the result!
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby pigs-might-fly » Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:54 pm

Just bought our flights with Uncle Mick's dontcareair.
Their system wouldn't accept our virtual card, but did accept the plastic pre-paid one, so we saved 40 euros there, less the loading fee of 1.75%.
Only drawback - we-ve been off-line with Telefonica's awful ADSL, since Thursday and the cost of the flights has increased by 100 euros. :(
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby wendyakemp » Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:18 pm

Just an update on the FairFx card, used for an 8 euro flight it charged £7.90 plus 11p commission
For a £20 sterling round trip for two £20 plus 30p commission, can't be bad but alas the flights are not for me but friends of friends who have heard that I have this card.

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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:27 pm

I've just been into CajAstur in Velez Malaga to ask about their prepaid Mastercard. At first the girl said they didn't do one, but when I said I had seen it on the internet, she had a look and found it. The charge is 3 euros for the card plus 1% of what is spent. You have to wait a week for it as the recipient's name is printed on. But, from the docmentation she gave me, it appears that it can't be reloaded. The documentation also says that the buyer has to be a customer of CajAstur, but she said that wasn't the case. Looks like good value if you need a euro card (flights starting from Spain). Will call in later and try to buy one
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:07 pm

Finally I'm sorted. Didn't use CajAstur in the end. Tried Neteller (someone had recommended it here) but they need current proof of address and won't accept PO boxes. Eventually I'm using Banesto. The card is totally free and you don't need to be a customer. It's a Sevilla FC loyalty card, which you can apply for over the internet on the Banesto site. It asks you for the bank account you want to load it from, and from which branch you want to collect it. A week later it was waiting for me in Velez Malaga. I tried reloading it in the Cajamar cash point but didn't manage it (there is a charge of about 3-4 euros for doing this), so I drew the money out, went into Banesto and put 100 euros cash on it. And this didn't cost anything. So all in all, a totally free prepaid euro mastercard. Off to book flights now
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby karandjon » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:12 pm

thanks for the info alison. However, i´ve gone on the banesto site and filled in the form for them to contact me re this card...and is telling me i have put in an incorrect postal code!

Did you go to a page where you could order the card automatically? If so, could you direct me to it please...I can´t find one!

Thanks

Karen x
vino, sol y aire, y seras rico como nadie

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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby alisonb » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:59 pm

http://www.banesto.es/servlet/ContentServer?
pagename=Banesto/Portales/ParCol/Producto&c=PBProducto&cid=1180425215777

When I''ve previewed this, it's split onto 2 lines, so you'll have to copy and paste. This link opens up a new window

https://extranet.banesto.es/ESCSOLICITU ... rfilado=KO

This is then where you enter details, but if that's where you got, and it didn't like your postcode, not sure what to do - maybe try a Banesto branch.
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Re: Pre-paid cards for flight payments

Postby karandjon » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:08 pm

Thanks Alison. Thats a completely different screen than i got up previously!

Cheers

Karen x
vino, sol y aire, y seras rico como nadie


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