Prepaid Money and Gift Services.
The way we view Money and Gifts, the prepaid wayCash used to be king, no more.
It's the classic story – a person walks into a store to really apply some creative thinking to a purchase, walks the aisles, sees some great merchandise – but always has the suspicion that the gift will never really achieve that – "oh wow" factor – the "thanks so much" and if it does – who knows if its sincere.
That was before prepaid gift cards.
In its very raw form, a gift card is a voucher – remember those gift vouchers – denominated in 10, 20, 50, 100 even 200 increments. The prepaid gift card is the next generation gift voucher – the slicker, enhanced and 2007 brother.
The benefits are clear. As a gift, a person can now buy a gift card from one of the thousands of tier one retailers on planet earth. Gift cards are loaded with credit that can be used at that store and once the credit is finished – it can be reloaded easily. These cards are becoming increasingly available at all major retail stores and convenience stores. It's becoming a familiar site these days – for employers to give their star employees a gift card to their favourite store...some of the tier one stores who have gift card programs include Starbucks, Nike, Virgin Megastores and Amazon.These are but a handful – the card son offer are to many to list right here.
Essentially, prepaid gift cards are as good as cash. Many gift card operators have built in safety features to the card and its program. For example each card has a unique identifying number which when registered on a website allows the owner to stop the card – thereby nullifying its validity and transferring the balance onto a new card.
Another form of a prepaid gift card is the fast growing prepaid credit card sector. The major players are Visa and MasterCard and whereas gift cards are directly linked to a specific retailer or shopping center, a prepaid credit card can be used anywhere in the world where either visa or MasterCard is accepted.
There are other benefits to a prepaid credit card. In some instances a person may not be eligible for credit if applying through a traditional credit card company. However with a prepaid credit card – no credit checks are necessary and easily and efficiently – through prepaid credit cards a person has all the benefits of a credit card. These cards are also easily reloadable.
It's been estimated by Prepaid Earth that the global prepaid gifting and credit card sector is currently worth $38 billion dollars per year
