Example of using a prepaid card

Sharon Waters gets paid $750 every two weeks. Until recently she received a paycheck that she cashed at a local check-cashing store and paid her bills from there through a combination of bill payment services and money orders. She paid roughly $42 per month in total check-cashing and bill payment fees.

Last month, she got a payroll card from her employer. This prepaid debit card operates with a PIN and she can use in any ATM, supermarket, drugstore and many retail stores. Over the last month, Sharon has made:

Sharon also receives child support payments periodically. She asked her employer and found out that the payroll card allows her to load cash onto her card. However, she is charged $4.95 every time she put money onto the card.

In this first month of using her card, Sharon has paid $18.95 in fees. This is more than $23 less than she paid at the check-casher.

Now that she has become familiar with using this card, Sharon is going to start looking around for other prepaid cards with more features, including: