Reloadable Prepaid VISA or Mastercard?

[lil_miss_understood]

Experiences, opinions? Does anyone know anything about fees and such?

I'm considering getting one to pay some overdue bills. We only have one bank account and can't open another one and DH is concerned that if we write checks to the creditor on it they will continue to pull payments when we don't have money since that has happened before with a different creditor and we ended up $200 overdrawn after all the fees and stuff.

[Drummer's Wife]

We've used the walmart money card (visa - I think?) to pay bills and were happy with it. I can't recall the fees, but it was something like $3 to load, and maybe another $3 a month. Your DH can cash his paycheck and have it put on the card for free, I believe.

Definitely don't pay creditors out of your bank account - I would either use the prepaid debit card, or get money orders. We have had ours garnished and wiped out, but they can do it with a court order even if you don't pay them from it (not as likely, but it does happen) - so don't let it get to that point. They just need to place a judgement and hire a laywer to find out your banking info.

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by Drummer's Wife

We've used the walmart money card (visa - I think?) to pay bills and were happy with it. I can't recall the fees, but it was something like $3 to load, and maybe another $3 a month. Your DH can cash his paycheck and have it put on the card for free, I believe.

Definitely don't pay creditors out of your bank account - I would either use the prepaid debit card, or get money orders. We have had ours garnished and wiped out, but they can do it with a court order even if you don't pay them from it (not as likely, but it does happen) - so don't let it get to that point. They just need to place a judgement and hire a laywer to find out your banking info.

Yes, I'm aware of garnishment orders and I'm trying to prevent it getting to that point. The previous incident was NOT a garnishment order- the company just decided that since they had our banking information, they would continue to pull payments without authorization. We informed the bank after it happened that they did NOT have pre-authorization for payments and it hasn't happened since, but once burnt, twice shy, iykwim.

[Tradd]

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

Experiences, opinions? Does anyone know anything about fees and such?

I'm considering getting one to pay some overdue bills. We only have one bank account and can't open another one and DH is concerned that if we write checks to the creditor on it they will continue to pull payments when we don't have money since that has happened before with a different creditor and we ended up $200 overdrawn after all the fees and stuff.

Why not just use cheap money orders from Walmart or the grocery store?