by whoami-now
I received one of these as a gift for $50. I activated it today only to find out that it is a checking account, and because so, I am required to enter personal information (by law) for the checking account. There is no other way to access the funds. Upon activation, I was notified of a monthly $7.95 fee that would start tomorrow. What?!
I decided I needed to spend the money ASAP and try and get out of the fee. I bought some items at the store and planned to burn the remainder filling up my gas tank. I expected to be able to put $18.96 worth of gas in the car. The pump started slowing down around the $10 mark, and I’m thinking “wow, this is gonna take a few minutes to get another 9 dollars.” Then the pump stopped at $11.01. That was weird. Did the math in my head, and the remaining balance was $7.95. The exact amount of the fee that was supposed to come out tomorrow…
I go home and check the transactions on the account, and sure enough, the fee was charged after my first purchase. I call customer support and wait for 30 minutes. They give me the round-around and don’t revert the fee in any way, even though I pointed out that they straight up lied. But, I’m just glad to at least have gotten the $42.05 out of it. I asked them to close the account, and I couldn’t even get anything other than verbal confirmation that it’s closed.
TLDR:
This is a product that disguises itself as a prepaid gift card, but is actually a checking account that requires personal information and charges fees. I imagine they prey on many unsuspecting people and get massive gains on the fees.
Edit: If you are looking for a checking account, I guess this one could work if you would otherwise be denied by banks. I will say that the card worked, and they were to send a permanent card with my name, etc. My frustration comes from the fact that people can be confused with this being a gift card.