Is a Prepaid Debit Card Really Cheaper and Better than a Bank Debit Card?
A few month ago, my husband received an unsolicited Visa Debit Card from NetSpend and I wrote about it here on Wise Bread. I admit that I did not know much about NetSpend at that time besides that they were sending out unsolicited cards. According to the comments many people received these unwelcomed cards, and some were even sent to to their pets, underaged kids, and ex-husband. What I found interesting was that several commenters defended prepaid debit cards like NetSpend and stated that it was cheaper than getting a bank account. In response to these comments, I decided to look into the fees and services of prepaid debit cards. First of all, I looked at the NetSpend fee schedule. There seems to be two types of customers: Pay-As-You-Go and Fee Advantage customers. The Pay-As-You-Go customers have to pay $2.00 for each PIN purchase, and $1.00 for each signature purchase. The Fee Advantage customers have to pay $9.95 as a monthly service fee and both types of customers need to pay $9.9
