Pros
- Free Stuff: A lot of the things that other prepaid cards charge for, like customer service, inactivity, activation, etc., are free with the Capital One Prepaid Card.
- Ability to avoid a monthly fee: Ideally, the CapOne Prepaid Card wouldn’t even charge an annual fee, but Capital One offers an escape route for people who don’t want to pay up each month: just load $500. That’s an easier requirement to meet than the Orchard Bank Card’s $1000 benchmark.
Cons
- ATM withdrawal fees: Like the American Express Prepaid Card, you can only make one free ATM withdrawal per month with the Capital One Prepaid Card. After that you get charged $1.95 per transaction. Anyone looking to get Capital One’s Prepaid Card better take note of that and consider how often they need cash or else they could find themselves wasting a lot of dough, like an inefficient pizza shop.
Unfortunately, I only see the Capital One Prepaid MasterCard as a mid-level option in the prepaid card market. If you don’t want to load a lot on your card each month, the Amex Card is better because it doesn’t ever charge a monthly fee. And if you are going to load your paycheck or whatever, the Orchard Bank Card would be better because it offers unlimited free ATM withdrawals and doesn’t have a monthly fee when you load at least $1,000.