prepaid credit card?

[wolverine2]

Has anyone ever heard of prepaid credit cards or have any experience using one? I'm intrigued by the idea, not because I have bad credit, but because I do have some credit card debt we're trying to get out of, and I'd rather not use our current credit cards at all. The debit card has been a lifesaver, but I can't use that online, and want credit card protection when I rent a car, etc.

Thanks,

[BabyMine]

The only ones I know off that might give you the protection are secured credit cards. Although they do have a high interest rate. I don't think the Visa gift cards would give you protection.

[truly scrumptious]

Someone gave DH a prepaid Visa gift card for his birthday and I thought it was a neat idea as it didn't limit us like a store gift card would. Until we tried to use it.
We tried using it at a restaurant and it was denied (embarrassing! :bag). Apparently it has to do with having no way of checking the balance available on the card.
We tried using it on Amazon and found out that although Amazon would accept it, they wouldn't let us combine it with any other form of payment. So we either had to find something for exactly $25 or under, which meant we'd basically end up wasting some of the cash on the card (for example, if we bought something for $21.50 including shipping, what were the odds we'd find something the next time for exactly $3.50) We couldn't buy anything over $25 because we couldn't combine payment methods, so no way to pay the balance :irked:
Anyway, all in all, we found ourselves wishing the gifter had just stuck with a safe store-brand gift card!

[spunkybaby]

Watch out for hidden fees--they can add up on the prepaid credit cards. There was an article in the NY Times today about fees on prepaid credit cards:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/your-money/06prepay.html?hp