Curbing spending. With prepaid debit cards, you only spend money that's loaded on the card. "That's

They're vacation rentals orlando now the fastest growing payment method. Americans spent about $37 billion on prepaid debit cards last year -- double the amount from 2009, according to the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association.
The answer depends on how you use them. If you're controlling your expenses, vacation rentals orlando limiting potential losses while traveling or teaching kids about money, vacation rentals orlando prepaid cards make sense. The reason: You can't spend more money than is on your card. And because they're cobranded vacation rentals orlando with MasterCard or Visa, you can pay bills online vacation rentals orlando or use them almost anywhere.
To tap into this boom, American Express launched its own version in June. It's a prepaid, reloadable card that you can use at ATMs, online or any place that takes AmEx cards. Online statements can help you track spending.
"It's a lot of grief for little buying power," Woolf says. Putting $100 on a card could cost you 20 percent just to load it, he says. The upshot is that if you use the card a lot, you may be spending high fees just to move your money from one bank account to another.
Curbing spending. With prepaid debit cards, you only spend money that's loaded on the card. "That's good because you can't carry a credit balance," says Howard Dvorkin, founder of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in Fort Lauderdale, vacation rentals orlando Fla. The downside is you don't build a credit history since the card is just a cash conduit.
Keeping money safe when traveling. Prepaid debit cards are easily used overseas. And there's another upside: If your card is stolen, your losses are limited to the amount on your card. You're not stuck with a drained bank account, damaged vacation rentals orlando credit or lost time recovering funds, Woolf says. "You have damage control," he says. advertisement
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