American Express Pre-Paid Card Simplifies Your Life…
American Express now has a super easy to use, prepaid card, that can help you in so many ways. You can use it to budget, pay bills, pay allowance, and more.
Here are the basics of the new American Express Pre-Paid Card works:
- You can load it any way you want- online, by phone, with cash, or link it to your checking account.
- You can use it any way you want- online, at tons of ATM’s, and millions of stores around the world.
- You can access it any way you want- you, and anyone you approve, can check the balance and purchase history online.
Sounds great, right?
When Mom Central contacted me about trying out this card, I was pretty excited to learn more about it. When I was young, and moved out on my own for the first time, I struggled a lot with budgeting. Partly because it was something I hadn’t done before, and partly because I just plain ol’ didn’t have enough money! The less you have to spend, the more important sticking to a budget gets, you know? Plus, I was only paid once a month, and it was hard to make the money last.
My solution was to buy gift cards to budget with. I figured out how much I had for my monthly spending, and divided it up. Then I bought a Safeway gift card to cover my grocery budget, a Starbucks card with enough for my coffee fix- which meant if I wanted a morning muffin, I’d have to skip a day of coffee. Loading my check onto the cards at the beginning of the month meant I had juuuust enough money set aside in each category– and taught me how to manage my spending!
American Express can help YOU organize your spending too
There are a ton of ways that the new American Express Prepaid Card can help you too- even as a grown up :)
Here are a few ideas:
- Leave your debit card at home, and load your weekly spending money onto a prepaid card- and stick to that amount! Cuts down on all of that “sneaky” spending that creeps in a dollar or two at a time during the week.
- Use it for allowance. Load your teen’s weekly allowance onto the card, and let them use it themselves. This gets them used to using a card, and helps them learn responsibility.
- Use it for payment. Do you have a teenage babysitter, lawn mower, or dog walker, that you pay frequently? I bet they’d love the idea of their own American Express Prepaid Card that you load their payments onto! And you don’t have to worry about always having cash on hand for payments.
- Shop online? Use a Prepaid card to keep your info safe when shopping at unknown sites.
Prepaid Card = Safety
The American Express Prepaid Card has a ton of great safety features! Unlike a debit card, you can ONLY spend what’s on the card, which means no overdraft fees. That makes it a great option for college students learning how to use a card- they can’t overspend, leaving bad marks on their credit history.
Plus, there’s loads of protection in case the card is lost or stolen- which is great for anyone. They’ve got a great team of customer service folks 24 hours a day- so you can get help asap. And best of all, they offer purchase protection- any eligible purchase made on the card, if it’s accidently damaged or stolen, can be reimbursed within 90 days! {See site for details on how this works.}
What do you think?
I’d love to hear what you guys think… Have you ever used a prepaid or gift card to help you budget? Do you think this would be helpful for you- using a card to pay your sitter, or give the kids their allowance? How about when your college kid calls home, asking you to send money- this would be a quick way to help them out, right? How would YOU use it?
{Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of American Express and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.}
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