I've used prepaids for some time now due to frequent over drafts some of which were my fault and some due to stacking procedures by banks to maximize the fees. I could write a book with what I know about these cards.

The reload fee is the biggest fee if you are loading at retail locations. Loading by credit card often involves a fee as a percentage of the load amount and that gets onerous.

Greendot which is a common reload method is $5. Western Union is $4-5. Visa Readylink is $5. Now multiply that out over the course of a year.

AAA Southern New England has a Visa Travel Money card that has free in AAA offices reloads with a minimum $100 load. Its not personalized though so what you do is claim you lost it and they send you a personalized card for $4. I believe there is an initial $10 fee to get the card after that outside of atm fees which for a purchase card you wouldn't have there is no charge.
Other AAA regionals may offer something similar.

Some credit unions have prepaid cards with no charge for loading the card also such as DebitPass by Elan Financial.

T-Mobile is close to offering their Flexcash prepaid debit card nationwide with free reloads for T-Mobile customers and no fees except for atm's.

Lastly the MoneyNetwork card sold at 7-Eleven nationwide is only $2 to reload and its done via swiping the card which is safe, instant and for which you get a receipt with a confirmation number etc. There is a $2 monthly fee.

Most of these cards for kids deals ate complete ripoffs.

Thank you, Simone! You just saved me a lot of money!

Like always, not all products are created equal.
Disclosure: I run the company behind the Visa UPside card. We have 3 products for teens with various capabilities and fees. The entry level product has no activation fee and no monthly fee. The most expansive one has no activation fee and a $2.99 monthly fee.

If parents load their teen's card from their own bank account, there is no load fee. We do encourage parents to do exactly that.

Evidently, loading cash via networks like Western Union, Moneygram or Green Dot does cost money charged by those networks, not by the card issuers.

To Simone's point about the difference in consumer protection with a bank account, it is true that the protection of prepaid cards by policies like Visa's zero liability is limited to POS purchases while a bank account would be protected for other methids of spending, but then teens usually do not write checks or initiate bank transfers from checking accounts, so the protection of prepaid cards is pretty much what they need anyway.
In the case of UPside Visa cards, we provide a "suspend my card" function on any web enabled cell phone so that teens can freeze their card when they can't find it.
Teens do loose things.....
Only the parents can unfreeze the card if they find it somewhere.
This is the kind of protection that we think is useful.

The problem with free loading via bank account is the amount of time it takes for the money to appear in the account. Its done through an ACH transfer and can take 2 to 5 business days. So a transfer made on a Thursday or Friday likely won't be usable till midweek at best. The card company has no control over the time involved as that would be a function of who the transferring bank uses for ACH transfers. Cashedge is a big player in the ACH game and they are notoriously slow.

I find it odd that a check can be read optically and cleared within an hour for purposes of the bank not the consumer or direct deposit is done within a day yet ACH transfers can take a week. There is something Defend Your Dollars needs to investigate. Almost all prepaid cards allow free ACH transfers and if the transfers were timely it would be a great way to load the cards.

In regards to the fact that the charge for reloads comes from the reload network or the retailer, really what does that mean to the card user that pays the fee? All they care about is that the money is usable quickly (making bank transfers a terrible way to reload) reliable and that it is less costly.

DO NOT GET A AAA VISA TRAVELMONEY CARD. I was scammed and ultimately I was not protected from fraud by AAA or Meta, the card issuer:

My girlfriend and I visited Egypt in late March, into April, 2010. Prior to departure, I visited my local AAA office in Springfield, PA and was looking to secure Travelers Checks. I went with the intention of securing American Express travelers checks, something I have been doing for many years. However, AAA stated that they no longer carried them and that merchants abroad no longer accept them. However, my use of travelers checks is isolated to cashing them at an Amex office only for cash. So ultimately, this AAA Travel Card was strongly encouraged as their newest product to safely access cash abroad with theft prevention safeguards. They sold me on the fact that if it was stolen or compromised, they would send a new one overnight, and touted its protections against theft, etc…

We bought it and loaded it with $1,400. I used all the necessary precautions that one needs to exercise when withdrawing money from an ATM, covering my typing hand when typing in my PIN number, etc. I was told at the Marriott to only use ATM machines that have a flashing green anti-tampering card insert port, in which I followed through on.

After a few days in Cairo, we then we took an inter-country flight down to Luxor, Egypt. We then boarded a Nile cruise boat and this when things got sketchy. As we were traveling down the Nile River, we stopped for the night in the town of Kom Ombo. It was here where we experienced the first anomaly. We attempted to withdraw money from an ATM directly across the street from the cruise boats were docked and it did not work. I assumed the machine was out of money, but I tried it twice nonetheless. It was the only ATM near all the tourist areas and as a result, we were out of money at this point and had to borrow from some nice British family we met on the boat. However, having lived and travelled abroad, I have a keen awareness of my surroundings and after using the cash strapped ATM in Kom Ombo, I did notice a kid who was lingering near us, and upon our walking away from the machine, he ran off and was yelling something to someone. At the time, I thought of it as quite weird, and started wondering if we somehow just scammed, but ultimately, I think it had nothing to do with our problem.

We were out of money for the next day until the boat arrived at Aswan. It was here in Aswan that I asked our tour guide to take us to an ATM machine. He took us to the Barclay’s bank. I looked up the address online and the address is: “Beside Hadiket El Shagara- in front of the Radio & Television building, El Sadat St., Bandar, Aswan”.

When we arrived at this branch, there was a security guard sitting at a desk as well as a man with whom the security guard was chatting with. The non-security guard man, greeted me. I attempted to withdraw 2,000 Egyptian pounds, however, this request did not go through. I was bewildered by this because I knew we had enough money, but figured it was some kind of restriction on how much you could withdraw in one transaction. I attempted again to withdraw and this time, I attempted a lesser amount of 1,000 Egyptian pounds. This time, the withdraw spit out cash. So I left. Furthermore, I recall with absolute certainty that this machine had a green, security card port in it (otherwise, I would not have used the machine).

That was the last withdraw we were able to make and thankfully we were capable of repaying our debt to our gracious British fellow travellers. From there on out it was credit cards and it was a MAJOR hassle for the rest of the trip not having cash. I attempted to use the card numerous times at the Aswan Airport and back in Cairo, but the machines were saying there was insufficient funds or something to that effect. Furthermore, the phone number we were given at the AAA Springfield branch to call if there were any issues within Egpyt were incorrect. Most phone numbers within Egypt only require a certain amount of digits and this had too many digits. I implored the help of hotel staff as well and they didn’t recognize the phone number exchange given. I was not able to call until I returned to the states.

Upon arrival, I went directly to AAA Springfield branch. I spoke to the very accommodating and helpful retail office manager, Amanda. After listening to my problems, she printed out the transactions on the card and attempts on the card. It was then that I noticed that supposedly the first transaction I entered at the Barclays bank in Aswan, actually went through in system, even though no money came out. Additionally, it was recorded that someone went to a “El Hakeem Mall” and withdrew money after that. We never went to a “El Hakeem Mall” or heard of it for that matter.

She gave me the necessary documentation to report fraud on the account and I submitted it. Then on May 5, 2010, I received a response from META that claimed that “according to their terms” since it was a PIN based transaction, there is nothing that they can do. I made every precaution to protect myself from my PIN being compromised. I covered my hand when entering the digits and somehow, my card was still compromised. As touted (when I visited AAA Springfield prior to the trip) as a hedge in the event of fraud abroad, how am I being protected from fraud?

After looking at these dates and transactions, there is one thing that caught my attention. With the transaction history, the transaction dates do not fit the itinerary and where we were at the time. For example, I know I made a successful withdraw in Aswan at the Barclay’s ATM on Thursday, April 1, 2010, but the transaction date says March 31, 2010. I am 100% positive that it was the date because it even says so on the ATM receipt. However, the transaction dates on the printout provided by AAA, states that it was on 3/31/2010. I do not understand how this is possible.

Additionally, there were attempts made on the account at this mall location that were unsuccessful. I even have documentation from Egypt Air and Marriott that details that we were not even IN ASWAN when attempts were being made to withdraw more off the card. Facts that Meta refuses to take into account.

Ultimately, a total of $567.60 was stolen from us and we were told by the AAA office in Springfield that we would have protection from this fraud. We have been denied this claim.

I have already been inconvenienced abroad by not having cash available as well as spent significant time putting together this whole mess on paper. I was informed that this card was a better alternative to travelers checks, with which I have never had a problem using. So far, our dispute has been marginalized by META.

The last correspondence they mailed to me stated again that "the transaction in dispute was PIN based....we are unable to dispute PIN based transaction per association rules." Furthermore, "per your letter, the transaction you accepted was $181.79 on 3/31/10 at 10:40AM and the transaction in dispute was for $363.57 was on 3/31/10 at 10:39AM. Since the transaction that was accepted was one minute prior to the disputed transaction, we are not able to assist."

I completely understand how it does not make sense that I attempted to take 2,000 Egyptian Pounds out of the machine at 10:39AM and nothing came out and then at 10:40AM I was successful in pulling out 1,000 Egyptian Pounds. I don't know how it happened, but it happened.

I gave Meta one last chance to resolve this issue at their office at 5501 South Broadband Lane, Sioux Falls, South Dakota (866-782-0890) on May 18, 2010 and spoke to Employee ID #10991, Laurie who is a supervisor. After explaining to her this weird situation, she said, sorry, we cannot do anything for you. She stated that she indeed was the person who was receiving my written correspondence and that she and her supervisor reviewed my case but she again reiterated the company policy, "In the terms of our agreement, it states clearly that 'PIN based transactions are not covered by fraud'". She listened to my grievance, but ultimately, was unwilling to resolve this.

I entered AAA looking to get Travelers Checks. They said that they were no longer available, not explaining that you can still get them at an American Express office. They steered me into getting one of these Visa Travel Money Cards because of the fraud protections and ultimately, I was defrauded and now they are not behind me. I remember explaining to the girl at the back desk who was selling the cards, that I have always been leery of ATM cards because of fraud (I do not own one myself because A. it will lead to impulsive money withdraws and B. possible fraud that could clear out your bank account) but she assured me that it was protected from fraud.

Finally, upon my first visit to AAA Springfield PA office, I told them that they should contact the Barclays Office in Aswan Egypt and ask them about this and maybe even pull the video tape on the ATM machine. But, of course, this simple measure was most likely not heeded and now the tape is probably non existant two months later.

STICK WITH Amex TRAVELERS CHECKS and do not use the AAA Visa TravelMoney Card struck by Meta. Also, I cannot be the only one that has had this happen to them.

Please contact me if this has happened to you and also if you have been defrauded from Barclay's ATM machine in Aswan Egypt.

I bought a Visa "Buxx" card for my child a few months ago and it was a complete rip off! I was very disappointed with Visa and had countless arguments with customer service due to mishaps with the card. I suggest everyone take Simone's advice and be careful with the card you choose for your child.

It doesn't sound as though the AAA Visa Travel Money card would be a good thing to use over seas but as a prepaid card for purchases in the US it works great.