There’s nothing like the ease and convenience of having a credit card. It’s often needed for things like booking a hotel and renting a car. Luckily these days, you don’t need to have a checking account in order to have a credit card. In recent years, prepaid debit cards have risen in popularity, but the fees for these types of cards can be too high for many to make them an affordable choice.
The Simple Dollar — a personal finance blog that rates a number of consumer financial products–recently released their ratings for the 9 best prepaid cards for 2018. They rated the cards based on a number of characteristics including monthly fees, retail and online connections, how widely the cards were accepted, card loading convenience and the ability to send money to others online or by smartphones.
Below is a brief look at their ratings.
| Activation Fee | Max Monthly Fee | ATM Fees | Foreign Currency Fee | Max Balance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24k Prepaid Visa® RushCard | $0 | $0 | $2.50 with out-of-network ATMs | 3% | $10,000 |
| AccountNow® Gold Visa® Prepaid Card | $0 | $9.95 | $2.50 | 3% | $10,000 |
| PayPal™ Prepaid MasterCard® | $0 | $4.95 | $1.95 | 2.5% | $15,000 |
| Fifth Third Access 360° Reloadable Prepaid Card | $0 | $4 | $0 with in-network ATMs | 3% | $25,000 |
| MOVO Virtual Prepaid Visa Card | $0 | $0 | $0 with in-network ATMs | 3% | $10,000 |
| Western Union® NetSpend® Prepaid MasterCard® | $0 | $9.95 | $2.50 | 3.5% | $5,000 |
| NetSpend® Visa® Prepaid Card | $0 | $9.95 | $2.50 | 3.5% | $15,000 |
| American Express Serve® (currently unavailable) | $0 | $1 | $0 at MoneyPass ATMs | 2.7% | $5,000 |
| READYdebit® Visa Prepaid Card (Select) (currently unavailable) | $0 | $9.95 | $2.50 | 3% | $10,000 |
You can get the full review of these prepaid cards at thesimpledollar.com