Money Reload Packs and You

Filed Under Prepaid Debit Cards

Prepaid debit cards are great little financial tools (see 4 Great Reasons to use a Prepaid Debit Card). They help you budget and keep on track with your spending by never letting you overspend. That’s something credit cards don’t do very well.

But one of the strengths of prepaid cards can also be one of their weaknesses. That of course is the fact that they’re reloadable in the first place – you can add money to them at almost any time. It’s a strength in that it compels you to think about your spending more before you do it and thus make decisions based on value and not impulse. But it’s a weakness to in that you need to take the time to add your cash to the card which can be inconvenient. But there are ways to minimize the inconvenience.

The primary way most prepaid debit cards are reloaded is through money reload packs. These are two-step operations. Money packs are usually bar-coded cardboard cards that retailers sell. It’s a simple matter to find them in your local store because they’re located right in the same area that all of the prepaid cards and gift cards are located. There should be a set that corresponds to the brand of prepaid card you own.

They usually come in no particular denominations. That means you can load them up with just about any amount you choose to, subject of course to the load limits set by your particular card company. To load them up you merely take the reload pack up to the store cashier and tell them how much you’re loading. The cashier in turn scans the pack and enters the amount. You hand over that amount in cash plus a small amount as a reloading fee and you’re finished at the store.

The second step of the process requires you to link that load to your card either via a phone call or an online entry. Most card companies have intelligent phone systems that you can call to process your card load. They also have a website page to do the same thing. It only takes about two minutes and when you’re done, your card is reloaded.

For some this is a very convenient process. That’s because there are lots of people who use reloadable cards who also work in jobs that pay them cash. So they’re used to carrying a lot of cash around with them already. Many of these people also have limited relationships with banks (i.e. they’re “Underbanked“) so they have nowhere to deposit their money. For them the prepaid card acts much like a checking account. It opens up a lot of purchasing opportunities for them while at the same time helping them off-load their cash into a safer place.

For others, using reload packs isn’t very convenient at all. These are people who generally don’t carry cash around with them in the first place so it’s perhaps a little troublesome for them to go get the cash and then go to the store to load it. For these people there are other options, namely direct deposit and ACH transfers from their bank.

The direct deposit is just what you think it is, a pre-arranged deposit from a paycheck or government check that gets fed directly into your prepaid card account. By far this is the most convenient way to load your card because, after the initial setup, you don’t have anything to do. Plus there’s usually no charge for this kind of load and the funds are available immediately on your card as soon as the deposit hits.

ACH transfers are a little less convenient and you can only do them if your bank has the ability to transfer funds through this process. If your bank does, you can go online to their website and load any amount you want. There may be a fee on your bank’s side but the prepaid card company probably won’t have one. These kinds of card loads also usually take a few days to complete.

No matter how you have to add cash to your reloadable debit card it’s still a great money tool. You can get very comfortable with money reload packs pretty quickly or you can set up a direct deposit or ACH deposit if that’s more to your liking. In any case, your money is safe, secure, and easy to track. If you haven’t thought about getting yourself a prepaid card, you should check one out.