Prepaid Debit Cards Attracting Drug Couriers

Drug couriers have turned to an unlikely source that allows them to remain mostly anonymous while moving drugs across the border—prepaid credit and debit cards.

According to National Drug Intelligence Center estimates, between $18 billion and $39 billion in U.S. currency from drug sales travels across the border to Mexico each year. And a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last October found that one way the cartels are moving the money across the border is through a new way of money laundering: using pre-paid debit cards. Prepaid cards can hardly be distinguished from other credit or debit cards, and can also process up to tens of thousands of dollars a month.

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New study on credit report accuracy raises eyebrows

99% of Credit Reports Are Void of Material Errors!

No, that’s not a fictitious headline designed to infuriate you into reading this piece. It’s actually part of the findings of a recently published study on the accuracy of credit reports by an organization called the Policy and Economic Research Council, or “PERC.” In fact, according to their research .93% of credit reports had an error that, when corrected, resulted in an increase of greater than 25 credit score points, which is what they considered as a “material error.”

The PERC study, which I encourage you to download from their website here, is one of those studies that gives pause because, frankly, the results are almost completely unbelievable. I mean, who honestly believes that 0.93% of credit reports contain material errors? Can that really be true?

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Travel tech: best prepaid SIM cards for travel to New Zealand

If you're travelling to New Zealand, the last thing you should do is leave your phone in global roaming mode. As we've covered recently, both phone calls and data are extortionately expensive when roaming with your Australian telco.

Optus customers travelling to New Zealand are particularly hard hit, with the worst data roaming rates of all the Australian mobile networks -- a minimum of $9.09 per megabyte, and $20/MB if you forget to pre-arrange a roaming plan with Optus.

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UPDATE 2-Florida AG says investigating 5 prepaid debit card cos

* Subpoenas also issued for possible hidden fees on prepaid debit cards

* Cos issues subpoenas must provide requested information by June 20

* NetSpend, Green Dot shares close in the red (Adds details in para 4, 5, background in para 6-7, 9-12; analyst comment in para 8)

By Brenton Cordeiro

May 19 (Reuters) - The Florida Attorney General's office said it was investigating prepaid debit card companies -- First Data Corp, Green Dot Corp , Account Now Inc, NetSpend Corp and Unirush Financial Services LLC -- for possible deceptive and unfair practices.

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What are prepaid forex cards?

Prepaid cards are used for making payments while you are travelling abroad. These are pre-loaded and enable you to access money in the required regional currency. You can also top it up depending on your requirement. The card allows you to withdraw cash in foreign currency, check your balance and shop. Banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered and Axis Bank offer prepaid forex cards.

How do you apply and what is the limit?
You need to submit FormA2 and any other required forex document (as mandated under Foreign Exchange Management Act regulations), proof of passport and required funds. Once the funds get cleared or are paid to bank, the card gets activated. For leisure trips, you can load the card for a maximum of $10,000 (Rs 4.5 lakh) and $25,000 (Rs 11.25 lakh) for business trips. Banks charge between Rs 100-300 per card.

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Are Prepaid Debit Cards Worth Buying Into?

If you're thinking about getting a prepaid debit card like the one the Kardashian sisters launched a while ago you should know the whole deal behind it. While the reality stars' venture ultimately failed, there are plenty of other cards out there that are targeting teens. However, MyBankTracker.com CEO Alex Matjanec says they may not be the best way to go.

"I have always been intrigued as to why consumers would go the prepaid card direction versus a traditional credit or debit card," he says. "For the teen demographic that these cards mainly target, products such as a savings or checking account should not be an issue and opening a kids or student checking out is definitely a more appropriate option."

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8 Reasons Why You Should Use a Credit Card

Throughout the financially tumultuous past few years, the credit card industry has been the subject of a great deal of attention in the press, Congress and the court of public opinion. The system admittedly was broken. Shady credit card companies, hiding behind a conspicuous lack of transparency, were using bait-and-switch tactics and confusing policies to take advantage of their customers. Now that the Credit CARD Act of 2009 has eliminated most of these issues, we can again being to appreciate just how useful credit cards can be. So, without further ado, 8 reasons why you should use a credit card as long as you trust yourself to spend wisely.

1. Credit building

Having a solid credit history is necessary to garner approval for a loan, get a mortgage, buy or lease a car, or be seriously considered for some jobs. Use of a credit card is unquestionably the easiest, least expensive, and most efficient way to build credit. Why? Well, because credit card usage information gets sent to your major credit reports each month, thereby allowing a lot of information about your fiscal responsibility to compile quickly. Interestingly, since this information reflects both what you do and don’t do with a credit card, actually making purchases isn’t even necessary to build credit. Simply by maintaining a card in good standing and at zero balance, you’ll be viewed as a responsible consumer.

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