www.iva.co.uk

What happens if the company that provides it goes bust? Is any money you’ve put on there safe or is it all gone (a la Farepak Christmas club thing?)

I would assume it goes too, like you said a classic example is the farepak saga the other year!

But im sure most of them are owned by larger banks, there usually sister companies of much larger organisations!

Payplan is a huge worldwide operation so I think it's fairly safe.

They are usually underwritten by large banks. It will tell you in the small print.

The way I handle my card is to keep a low balance and transfer money when I need it on the card.

This way I am as sure as I can be that my money is safe.

At the moment I don't use mine at all. I use cash and am now waiting for my debit card from Nationwide and I'll be happy.

The card from O2 has small print that states that the bank running the card will not pay out if they go bust and that no protection is given to anyone with money tied up on the cards!!

Scarey but I am hoping that the banks have all sorted themselves out(sort of!!).

Paul

That's not good!

I've not used mine though so no worries there!

I put all my disposable income/ebay sales and any money left over from the month on mine. Balance is looking tasty at the minute.

There is one pre paid card and I can't remember which one it is(might be Clearcash), where your balance is protected if they were to go bust, plus I think there might even be purchae protection with that one.

Thanks very much everybody, that's really helpful.

M80x

I have applied for a PayPal card, and when it arrived today it was in the same envelope (same return address) as my Tesco credit card who are one of my creditors. Does anyone know if they are linked? I daren't put money on it now in case it is taken by Tesco against my credit card debt!

Thanks

You will be fine, no one will touch your prepaid card balance.