Best prepaid business cards in Europe
Prepaid cards especially for businesses should offer all of the convenience attributes that all prepaid cards provide, with certain special features that simplify the issuing, control and accounting. As well, out of preference, they should be chosen according to the expectations of regular use, such as currency options, ability to tie into the company’s own bank account which allows topping-up directly, and the range of countries of expected use so that currency conversion costs are minimized.
Corporate online debit card with IBAN
The main advantage of debit cards over prepaid cards lies in minimizing administration and accounting effort, and for this to happen, associating the debit card with an IBAN account is essential. In the case of prepaid cards, there has to be some degree of manual intervention (in maintaining the card balance and tracking usage) whereas for debit cards, this is not required as long as one IBAN number is associated with the individual card. This facilitates the automatic processing of payments between different countries and accounts, and allows for automatic debits/transfers.
Pros and Cons of Prepaid Debit Cards
- Pros
- Prepaid business debit cards require no credit check but they also do not help you build credit.
- The cards are a convenient way of accessing cash.
- There is generally no fee associated with reloading your card but your bank may charge for the service.
- When using a prepaid debit card your spending is limited to the amount you have preloaded on the card.
- As the amount loaded onto the card is finite in the event of loss or theft your losses are limited.
- As of April 2019 registered prepaid accounts have federal protections as with standard credit cards and checking accounts.
Cons
- Prepaid cards do not come with the same cash-back programs or rewards that credit cards can have.
- Some cards have a maximum balance; daily load limit or daily spending limit.
- Not all prepaid debit cards allow for cash withdrawals.
- Some prepaid debit cards offer multiple copies of the card for use by more than one employee.
- Prepaid debit cards do not automatically include all bank services and features.
- With one of these pay-as-you-go debit cards you can only use the money you have loaded onto the card and not funds in your bank account unless you link the card to your business checking account.
