Prepaid Student Credit Cards | Avoid Debt Up To Your Eyeballs!

For parents and students looking for a safer alternative to traditional Visa, Discover and Mastercards, prepaid student credit cards can offer you the peace of mind that they will not get you into debt up to your eyeballs!  Having the control of how much money is available can make all the difference in helping your student learn to budget his or her money.

In our previous article, we outlined some advantages and disadvantages to what we think is the best credit card for students.  Now, let’s shift gears to the prepaid student credit cards for which we have a few options for you to compare. 

The major advantage that the prepaid student cards have over the traditional credit cards is that you have complete control over how much money is accessible at any given time.  In other words, these prepaid cards act like a checking account so that students cannot run up the balance and get themselves into credit trouble before they even graduate from college!

The Best Prepaid Student Credit Cards

Silver Prepaid Mastercard

First on our list is the Silver Prepaid Mastercard.  Like the other cards we list below, the Silver Mastercard has FREE direct deposit, and guaranteed approval.  Also, they have what they call “Payfit Credit Builder” which basically allows you to begin building your credit by paying bills using this card. 

Another perk that the Silver Mastercard has that many others do not is the guaranteed approval and they don’t run a credit check!  That speeds up the process of getting your card, which is convenient if you waited until the last minute.  Here is a list of other features…

• FREE Direct Deposit
• No Credit Check
• Guaranteed Approval
• Use Where Debit MasterCard is Accepted
• FREE Email and Text Message Alerts
• PayFit Credit Builder (Pay bills and build credit)
• 100,000 Locations for Loading Cash
• No Overdraft or Interest Charges
• Withdraw at Millions of ATMs
• Low Monthly Fee of $3.95

Get your Silver Prepaid Mastercard HERE.

Visa UPside Prepaid Card
Next on our list is the Visa UPside prepaid card.  It has many of the same features as the Silver Prepaid Mastercard, but the monthly fee is lower.  If you load up $500 or more in the month, your fee is only $.99!  And even if you do not want that much money in there, the fee for the Visa UPside is $2.99, which is a dollar cheaper than the Mastercard per month.  In addition to that, here are a list of features for the Visa UPside…

• No Activation Fee
• FREE Direct Deposit
• $0.99 Monthly Fee if You Load $500 in the Month (Normal Rate: $2.99)
• Free Direct Deposit
• Load Cash at 50,000 Retailers Nationwide
• Write personal checks online
• Earn cash back points

Get your Visa UPside Prepaid Card HERE.

Vision Premier Prepaid Visa
The last card we would recommend is the Vision Premier Prepaid Visa card.  It is very similar to the prepaid student cards above, but what we specifically like that makes this card a bit different are the free transactions.  It is very easy to accumulate small charges for transactions that can add up over time, especially if you use this often.  Having the free transactions is a nice feature for frequent users.  Here is a list of additional features…

• Free Direct Deposit
• No Credit Check
• Free Transactions
• Use anywhere Visa Debit is Accepted
• Free Email and Text Message Alerts
• Pay Bills and Build Credit for Free
• Withdraw Cash at Millions of ATMs
• Over 100,000 Load Locations
• No Overdraft Fees or Interest
• $3.95 Monthly Fee

Get your Vision Premier Prepaid Visa HERE.

The Prepaid Student Credit Card Verdict!

Each of these 3 prepaid student credit cards has it’s own set of features and advantages.  It doesn’t take much to see that many of them are the same.  No credit check, free direct deposit, withdraw cash etc are just a few that are universal perks.  However we do have a favorite!

And the winner is!: Silver Prepaid Mastercard

Although any of these 3 would be a good choice, we feel that the Silver Prepaid Mastercard has the most to offer.  Although it has a slighltly higher monthly fee ($1), it’s probably worth it. What we liked most was..

• Guaranteed Approval - You don’t have to worry about an application process that’s drawn out and checks your background
• No Credit Check - Again, you are a college student and may not have any credit to speak of just yet.  This eliminates that step.
• Payfit Credit Builder – Being a college student, you will need to begin to build up credit before you graduate.  What better way to do that than by simply paying bills using this prepaid card, and not having the option to “max out” your balance and get into credit trouble.

Prepaid student credit cards are definitely the way to go if you would rather play it safe and not have thousands of dollars of credit at your fingertips.  Take a good look at each of the cards we recommended to find the one that is right for your needs!