Prepaid Credit Cards allow you to own a credit card but without the normal line of credit you’d have associated with it. This means that you can still use the card to buy items online, or go shopping but you need to add credit to it before you can use it.

This kind of situation may be perfect for someone who is looking for a bad credit credit card or even if you just need a credit facility to purchase something on the net.

So how does it work?

There’s a few companies in Australia that offer Prepaid Credit Cards. The main issuer is Bopo. They offer a prepaid visa that is very easy to obtain, the card costs $9.95 to purchase online & does not require any identity checks.

It can, however, become costly to run. With transaction fees clocking in at $0.25 per transaction & $1.85 to withdraw the money from an ATM. You can keep a maximum balance on the card of up to $1,000 without an identity check, but you’ll need at least 100 points of identity to load any more than that on it.

In many cases these types of cards offer no more value than a typical Visa Debit Card, which, is linked directly to your bank account & doesn’t have all the nasty fees associated with it.