Quote:
Originally Posted by Blossom
It's not a credit card but a way to add funds electronically. You buy it just like you would a gift card. You then add the code on the back to your PayPal or Green Dot prepaid card.
My mom uses it to send me money all the time. I take the code she gives me on the phone and redeem it on my prepaid credit card to add funds to it. It's Instantaneous so I get it right away.
Yes you read many things from the BBB about it because there are some really gullible people out there. Its not Green Dot's fault that bad people abuse the method. Same thing happens with Western Union or Moneygram. In fact we can't use Moneygram due to my husband's name (which is a common name I might add) is banned from the service.
Mom had to use Western Union which charges alot more to wire money and now thanks to Moneypaks it makes it so much easier and cheaper on her to send money to us.
You can buy Moneypaks at gas stations and places like Walgreens and of course Walmart. Moneypak's site will tell you where the closest dealer is.
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I'd have never though of it to try to send money to a relative (unless you need to hide the transaction or can't qualify for a bank account, I suppose, which is now nearly impossible, with bank cards being used as payroll payment cards so many places, for people that don't have their own accounts -- I heard that Walmart would let pretty much anyone open one, as well). I'd just use paypal for that (or mail a check ... 40 cents or so is a lot cheaper than $5). I guess I hang out in the wrong places (and don't go inside for gas stations), as I've never heard of them. And I'd put them in the same category as third party gift cards, I suspect, if I did see them, or high fee prepaid credit cards. I suppose for situations where you absolutely have to send money immediately, it might be convenient, tho.
Western Union used to be the way to go, but the only people I see using it now are illegals sending money out of the country (there is one busy all the time inside pretty much every Hispanic market, here, it seems). Oh, and the scamsters using it to get grandma's cash to bail out the grandkids. At least some of the WU markets have started stopping people from making some of those sends, but not all, sadly.
Another place that used to be interesting for transferring money was Revolution Money Exchange (but I can't remember using my account in ages). Now, though, banks fall all over themselves to let you just transfer money directly to another person's account. I suspect because they are deathly afraid that cell phone money exchanges will catch on here, as they have in the 'third world' (where they are actually more technologically advanced, in a few areas, as they had no existing infrastructure to displace).
(Oh, and I know someone whose name is on the "suspicious" list for air flights. There are dozens with the same name, just in this town, thousands nationwide. running these lists based on name only and nothing else is pretty ridiculous).