I haven't kept any open long enough to find out for certain, but I've been wondering - since most pre-paid credit cards charge you a monthly fee on the card, what happens when you use up the balance on the card so it's at zero, and just stop using it? Do they continue to charge you another $5 or so monthly fee, sending your balance further and further into a negative balance? And if so, will they expect you to pay that negative balance or do they just close the card if it's not paid within a certain amount of time? I just started buying some of these a few months ago, to take advantage of some trial offers. All but one of them I cancelled as soon as I was done using them. The one card, however, did go like one day past the date where it would implement the $5 fee, and I noticed it was now at a negative balance. I hurried up and cancelled the card online, and it didn't give me any problems. So far I haven't heard anything from them either.
I do think some do. It's a good idea to carefully read all terms and fine print before purchasing one. This way you can avoid extra fees and get all of your money's worth. This sort of reminds me of gift cards that expire after a year...
As a prepaid card, once it is used up it should just become inactive. It isn't as though the card will allow you to use more than the balance. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised to see prepaid cards continue to accrue fees. These fees are a corruption that some consumers are letting companies get away with. When you prepay, the company already has use of your money and can earn interest on it - that is a fair use of the money. Fees amount to a huge rate of interest being charged to spend your own money and many people don't keep a big balance on a prepaid card. Gift cards and prepaid credit cards have had their fees severely inhibited in Canada as the companies issuing these cards were taking too much advantage of the consumers. Monthly fees are generally no longer allowed.
No they do not. They will only let you go one month without paying before they shut off your service. Which means you can only be one month in debt. I know this true with Green Dot, and Paypal prepaid cards. Because i own a few of each. I cannot speak for other brands, but i would guess that they have the same policy. They cannot charge you for something you did not use.
