Generally speaking, a prepaid card should be accepted anywhere a Visa or Mastercard credit card is accepted.
However, there are situations where this may not be the case. Keep in mind that a merchant CAN choose to arbitrarily block all prepaid Visas/Mastercards. This often happens in situations where a credit card is used in lieu of a damage deposit, such as hotel bookings or car rentals.
Places that rent you a $20 000 car or a $50 000 room generally don't want to do so anonymously, they want to have a credit card they can charge for damages/cleaning/traffic tickets/etc after the fact, so they often don't accept prepaid cards. This is unfortunate, since many people without a credit card think they can just get one of the prepaid Mastercards or prepaid Visas and book a hotel or rent a car, but the reality is usually different.
In general, if you have no/poor credit and need to routinely book hotels/rent cars, etc. then it's best to look into getting a Secured Visa or Secured Mastercard, which has a lot of the features of a regular Mastercard/Visa, especially from the point-of-view of the merchant. Sometimes the card doesn't even look any different than that of the bank's regular Mastercard/Visa offerings.
They may, however, accept prepaid "gift" cards as payment for a room or such, but will likely want something else as a damage deposit.
A company may accept the prepaid cards that have your name registered to them (or imprinted on it), but their policy may still be to not accept such cards.
The BEST bet is to call the company in question and ASK!
In Canada? The best non-anonymous card is the BMO Travel Mosaik Prepaid Mastercard. The best pseudo-anonymous card is the RBC Prepaid Gift Card. I'm still on the lookout for a cheap completely anonymous Prepaid Mastercard or Prepaid Visa, but the Vanilla Prepaid Mastercard described here might be the best (scroll down!). Another option may be a secured credit card.
Re: Prepaid Visa for Hotel and other Bookings
I don't know where you've been turned down but I've used Titanium Visa for 6 years and have NEVER been turned down at any Merchant - from $5 purchases to $2000/night hotel bookings to Car rentals and vacation bookings - it's always worked for me. Reputable Hotels ALWAYS ask for ID as well as Card so your comment on them not accepting card is bogus - name on card matches your ID. I could see, perhaps in some third world countries where they may be jittery, but they likely have other reasons to be.
hotel booking
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Reloadable Canada Post Prepaid Visa
Bought Visa in Newfoundland August 2013 -- Booked hotel in Sydney NS all good -- later arrived staff inform us they do not accept prepaid cards. Staff later took my friends deposit on her Mastercard and let myself pay by debit the cost of the room.
When I got in Miri Hotel, I
When I got in Miri Hotel, I decided to have prepaid of paying the booking flight via visa.
Booking Hotel rooms
I was wondering if I could book a room with a prepaid visa card? Do you have to pay with a personal visa card?
Hotel booking
Yes you can - done it many times, especially through Expedia.
air tickets and rental cars
I have a pre paid visa and never had an issue booking and paying flights. Even when picking up kiosk tickets at the terminal. Just swipe and machine spits out your pre paid ticket.
Rental cars have only been a problem in Canada. No problem renting cars in USA so far. They take 200 to 300% of the rental agreement at time of rental and replace the unused portion to your card 45 to 60 days after the rental return. So always make sure that you have plenty of pre loaded cash available on the card. Suggest you call what ever agency you are dealing with ahead of time to secure necessary details (ie) they would then be expecting you.........also helpful if you have and carry an active insurance policv on personal vehicle from wherever you reside. Call car rental company head office ahead to confirm their policies on such matters.
Use Outside of Canada
I would like to know if these pre-paid cards, like the Vanilla Mastercard (I've used two without any issues) can be used in the States and internationally. I'm headed to China later in the year and am really hesitant to use my own credit cards.
Hi there, this is an
Hi there, this is an informative post and i am sure this will be a great read for my blogs visitors too, i am wondering if you can allow me to post it on my blog ? i will for sure mention your blog as the original source, can i do it pls ?
Ryan
from Dubai Hotels
purchace a flight ticket with one of this prepaid cards
I want to know if is possible to purchace a plane ticket with one of this prepaids credit cards.
prepaid cards and booking flights
Yes, definitely. Do it all the time.
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