go to askmrcreditcard.com home page
menu-nav menu-nav

Wired Plastic Prepaid Visa Card Review - How Does This Stack Up?

Picture of Item Reviewed

Editor's Rating:
Intro Purchase APR Regular APR Annual Fee Credit Needed
N.A. $5.95 Monthly Fee No Credit
PROS
  • Comes with a reward program
  • No fees for domestic signature based transaction
  • No fees on direct deposit and bank ACH transfer
CONS
  • Lags the better cards in terms of fees (monthly fees, transaction fees etc)
Executive Summary - A card that used to be the lowest cost in the prepaid world. Unfortunately, it has been overtaken by the likes of American Express Prepaid Card in terms of both fees and features. Having said that, it is one of the rare prepaid cards with a reward program.

Summary - The Wired PlasticTM Visa® Prepaid Card is one of the rare prepaid cards offers a free rewards program. You can earn 1 point for every $1 spent and redeem points for Prepaid Wireless Airtime, Music Downloads, and LD Calls. The rewards aren't really significant, so the key question is how does the fee and feature stack up against other cards. We'll soon find out.

Reward Points - You can earn one point for every dollar you spend on the card. These points can be redeemed for Prepaid Wireless Airtime, Music Downloads, and Long Distance Calls.

Cost and Fees - Like most similar cards, there is a one time activation fe of $9.95. Thereafter, there is a monthly fee of $5.95, which works out to $76 per year. This is reasonable and comparable to many checking account fees.

Aside from the monthly fee, what is more important is whether there are fees being charged for transactions. It turns out that for signature based transactions, there is no fee. But for PIN based transactions, there is a fee of $0.95. You have to make sure there is enough money in the card because a decline on a PIN based transaction will set you back $0.45.

Cash Loading Methods - You may add funds to your Card, called "value loading", at any time. You may add value or load your Card via direct deposit, bank ACH direct load, bank wire transfer, PayPal or through participating retail load partners. Loading via direct deposit, ACH transfers and PayPal transfers are free. The minimum amount of each value load is $10.00. The maximum amount of cash value that can be added to your Card Account is $2,500.00 per day. The maximum cumulative amount that may be withdrawn from an ATM or bank teller per day is $500.00. A daily spending limit of $2,500.00 per day is imposed on the Card.

Wired Plastic Compared With Other Cards

One of the first things I look for when comparing prepaid cards is to look at their fees. While the monthly fee of $5.95 is above average among its peers, there are cards that offer monthly fees as low as $3. An example would be the Walmart Money Card.

Another feature that I check on is whether there are any fees of transaction. In Wired Plastic case, there is no fee for signature based transaction, but there is one is it is a PIN based transaction. There are other cards like the Walmart Money Card that charges no transaction fee at all.

The Wired Plastic does not have any mechanism whereby you can get the monthly fee waived. Some cards like Upside Visa, Mango Card will waive your monthly fee if you load at least $500 a month.

Should You Get The Wired Plastic Card?

When the Wired Plastic was first introduced, it was the card with the lowest fees. But the market has moved on and now, cards like the Walmart Money Card, Upside Visa and the Mango Card have come up with more cost effective cards with lower fees. You should consider checking out these other cards as well. I suspect you will find these alternative a better bet.



Related Posts: