Vision Prepaid Card Review - Gas Card For Bad Credit?

The Vision Premier® Visa® Prepaid Card - Simple And Fair is one of the very rare prepaid cards that actually lets you earn cash rebates on gasoline purchases. They even provide roadside assistance! Other nice features include features like free bill pay and direct deposit. Overall, this card has some neat features which will really appeal to certain folks, but not to others. Read on to find out more about this card.

1% Cash Back On Gasoline Purchases - The Vision Card is one of the rare prepaid cards that actually has a reward program. Cardholders will get 1% cash back for every dollar that is spent on gasoline purchases. On their website, it is stated that you should get your rebates within 60 days on your gasoline purchases. But you must have earn at least three dollars in rebates.

Free Roadside Assistance - Yes, I couldn't believe it when I read it myself at first. But this card really does give free roadside assistance. The only requirement is that you load your card at least once a month (which means you actually use your card). This feature will really appeal to folks who are cash strapped and do not want to pay for membership in AAA.

Decent Interest Rate With BankCorp - When you load your money into this card, the money actually resides with BankCorp. And based on the interest rate printed on Vision's website (subject to change off course), it is pretty good considering the paltry rates we get today for traditional savings account.

Free Direct Deposit and Bill Pay - Like most prepaid cards, direct deposit is free if you choose this method of loading your card. But more importantly, paying your bills online or over the phone is free as well, unlike some other prepaid cards.

Other Methods of Loading Up the Card - Aside from Direct Deposit, there are numerous other ways you can load your card. For example, you can load them at locations with PreCash®, Visa ReadyLink, Western Union®, MoneyGram® ExpressPayment® and PayXone^TM locations, and through the Green Dot MoneyPak at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS etc. There are fees you have to pay if you wish to load your card this way.

Fees - There are two tiers of fees. And they differ based on whether you choose to use direct deposit or not. If you choose to load your card via direct deposit, then there are only three fees you have to pay. There is a $9.95 activation fee, and $7.95 monthly fee and a $2.50 ATM fee if you choose to withdraw cash from ATMs. Without direct deposit, there are no fees for any customer service calls (unlike other cards that actually charge you for that).

If however, you do not choose direct deposit, then there are extra fees. The monthly fee will be higher at $9.95. And you only get free customer calls for the first 30 days. After that, it is $1.95 per call!

I normally like to compare cards with their peers when I do a review. But in this case, there are enough unique features that I think I can skip that and go straight to the pros and cons of this card.

Firstly, let's get the negatives out of the way. The $7.95 or $9.95 monthly fee (depending on whether you use direct deposit) is a little high compared to other cards. There are cards whose fees are as low as $3 and some even waive them if you deposit a certain amount into your card each month.

But the card makes up for it in many other ways. For example, they offer you 1% cash back when you use it to buy gasoline. This feature is almost unheard of in the prepaid card world. You also get to earn a decent interest rate with the money you have loaded into your card. And you get free roadside assistance if you load your card at least once a month.

Furthermore, paying your bills (either online or on the phone) requires no fee and if you use direct deposit, any customer calls has no charge at all.

Verdict - If you drive, buy gasoline with a credit card, would like to pay your bills with your prepaid card and value free customer service calls, then the Vision Premier® Visa® Prepaid Card - Simple and Fair is taylor made for you. The monthly fee may be slightly higher than other cards, but the rewards and features make up for it for the right person.

But if you are concerned about the monthly processing fee, then you should check out the American Express® Prepaid Card as it has hardly any fees (no activation, monthly or transaction fees) and also comes with perks like roadside assistance. It does not have the 1% cash back on gas that this card has, but you'll probably save more from not paying the fees (which adds up to over a hundred dollars a year).