The BaBee Card
The BaBee card is a prepaid card that you load with money and then can use instead of a credit card. To get one, you don’t have to have any credit checks done, and you can’t build up any debt because you put the money onto the card before you spend it. The card is primarily aimed at mums and mums to be, but in fact, anyone can have one of these cards. The card is backed by MasterCard, which means that anywhere MasterCard is accepted as an electronic form of payment, you will be able to use this card too.
There are some fees involved with the BaBee card, but if used in the right way, it can actually save you money, and it does allow you to shop online safely without any risk to your bank account details, while at the same time giving you access to a wide range of online shops that are often cheaper than those on the high street.
When you are the owner of a BaBee card, you also get access to the BaBee discount club which is a discount scheme created to offer extra savings to BaBee card holders. Through this discount club, you can get discounts at over 100 high street and online retailers.
When you apply for and are granted a card, you pay £9.95 card issue fee. This covers the cost of card purchase and activation. Your card is then valid for 2 years and there is a monthly fee of 75p payable on the 3rd of each month. Once you have the card, you then load it with money as you need to. The minimum you can load the first time is £20, and after that your minimum is £10, while your maximum is £100 the first time, and £500 there after, and you can hold a maximum of £3000 on your card at any one time and spend a maximum of £1000 on it per day.
If you want to use the card without incurring any extra fees, you need to remember what costs and what doesn’t.
What is free to do:
* Any transaction to buy something within the UK is free.
* Balance enquiries via the website are free.
* Loading money onto your card via bank transfer is free.
What it will cost you to do:
* Withdrawals by ATM cost £1 per withdrawal in the UK.
* Withdrawals by ATM cost £2 plus 3% if you are outside the UK.
* Over the counter cash advances cost £5.
* Balance enquiries via telephone cost 35p.
* Balance enquiries via text message cost 20p plus standard network fees.
* Loading money onto your card via debit card costs £1.
Overall, the card is quite simple to use, and the monthly fee to use it is very small making it a good way to be able to access the savings that can often be had from making purchases online.