Stored Value Cards - Prepaid Convenience

You see them everywhere - gift cards, eating house cards, phone cards and more. These stored value cards (SVCs) electronically hive away any finances you wage in advance to do a purchase, pay a measure or retreat money at a future date. They're also very convenient to use.

A growth number of consumers simply don't like to carry cash around or compose checks anymore. SVCs are an attractive financial option to many of these consumers who now prefer to do a bulk of payments electronically.

Even employers and choice authorities agencies are getting in on the SVC action. Some employers now issue prepaid paysheet cards, undertaking cards, corporate travel and inducement (bonus) cards. The authorities agencies that issue these cards may also issue electronic benefit cards for people on public aid or requiring other authorities services. In 2005, numerous households hit hard by the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina were issued a $2,000 prepaid debit entry card from the Federal Soldier Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Anyone can purchase a SVC. There are no credit checks necessary or collateral required as all the available finances on each card are prepaid at the clip of purchase. SVCs can be electronically loaded with finances by direct deposit, wire transfers, money orders sent directly to the card issuers or from retail point-of-sale. The prepaid finances are stored electronically in accounts attached to a specific batch of SVCs. Many SVCs can be reloaded with an limitless amount of finances or as often as the cardholder likes.

Functionally, SVCs are very similar to debit entry or credit cards. Many SVCs have got a magnetic band that tin be swiped at any debit/credit card terminal. Some cards necessitate you to input signal your ain personalized four-digit pin number. Others have got a signature strip on the dorsum and necessitate a matching signature from the cardholder at point-of-sale.

SVCs are a portion of the slow but steady transition to a "cashless society." As more than than and more financial transactions happen not on paper, but in the electronic realm, SVCs will go on to play a growth function in the evolving finance industry of the 21st Century.