Prepaid Visa Debit Card

[saversaba08]

Hello everyone,

DH received a mail in rebate from Compusa recently in the form of a prepaid Visa Debit card. It came with the usual fine print agreement and has apparently been issued by Ecount, a Citibank company. We have been asked to register the card at myecount.com

I am not sure if there is a catch but the fine print does say there will be a $3.00 per month account maintenance fee, six months into the account opening. This fee will be waived if the account balance is zero.

The other funny thing is that though it is a debit card, we are being asked to select "credit" when making purchases.

Any thoughts? Should we use it or stay clear?

Thanks in advance

saversaba

[irmanator]

I think that when you purchase something you have to select credit because it is routed thru the visa instead of a bank. I would use it, and before the 6 mo.

[safari]

Of course, use it, why not? If you don't use it, you will lose that rebate. Try to spend it within the first six month before they start deducting $3 every month.

[disneysteve]

I agree. It is as good as cash. Use it for the full value and then destroy it. We've gotten those a couple of times as rebates from AT&T on cell phone purchases.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Yeah, I think it's okay to use the card.

However, I think that if the rebate offer did not mention before your purchase that there would be a $3 per month loss of your money, that the company offering the rebate should pay any "maintenance fees."

Did they say "$80 mail in rebate,"$80 mail in Visa debit card rebate," or "$80 mail in Visa debit card rebate (fine print: $3/month subtracted after 30 days)"?

We should always be given the terms when there is an rebate inducement to buy.

[Slug]

Yup. Use it.

[disneysteve]

I get annoyed by the whole Visa card rebate thing. AT&T does that for their rebates and the salesman told me I could just bring the card in and apply it as a credit on my account. Great. Why not just save everyone the trouble and issue the rebate as a credit on my account?

[atomicrc11]

Also check your state, I know that in CA and CT it is illegal to deduct money from a gift card or prepaid card for inactivity. They all must be good for life.

[saversaba08]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My concern was that if the transaction was not exactly in the amt on the card then either we would be hit with the $15 overlimit charge or run the risk of incurring maintenance fees after six months because the fine print is quite clear on this. I guess we will make sure that we use this card in conjunction with some other payment method so that we can charge exactly $20.00 on it.

And no Joan.of.the.Arch, Compusa made no mention of the mail-in rebate being in the form of a prepaid card.

Thanks once again.

[disneysteve]

My concern was that if the transaction was not exactly in the amt on the card then either we would be hit with the $15 overlimit charge or run the risk of incurring maintenance fees after six months because the fine print is quite clear on this. I guess we will make sure that we use this card in conjunction with some other payment method so that we can charge exactly $20.00 on it.

Not a problem. When you use the card, just tell the cashier how much is on the card. They will deduct that amount from the card and then you can use another payment method to pay the remainder of the bill. We've done it plenty of times and it isn't a problem.

[Hypersion]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My concern was that if the transaction was not exactly in the amt on the card then either we would be hit with the $15 overlimit charge or run the risk of incurring maintenance fees after six months because the fine print is quite clear on this. I guess we will make sure that we use this card in conjunction with some other payment method so that we can charge exactly $20.00 on it.

And no Joan.of.the.Arch, Compusa made no mention of the mail-in rebate being in the form of a prepaid card.

Thanks once again.

Over the limit charge? For a gift card? I think you are mistaken.

Anyways I would use the card to pay for a cable bill or cell phone bill since they usually take credit card with out charging any fees.