General purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid debit cards continue to evolve as providers add new features designed to attract and retain cardholders in an increasingly competitive market. Once viewed primarily as alternatives to traditional bank accounts, today’s prepaid cards offer a growing range of capabilities, including early access to funds, rewards programs, interest-bearing accounts, check-writing privileges, overdraft cushions, and secondary accounts for budgeting purposes. Research from Mercator Advisory Group highlights how consumer expectations are changing, with many features that were once considered innovative now becoming standard offerings as issuers compete to deliver greater value, convenience, and flexibility to prepaid card users.
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Data for this episode of Truth In Data provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report – Top 10 General Purpose Reloadable Prepaid Debit Cards in the U.S. Chosen by GPR Cardholders in 2018
- Early availability of funds: Present in 8 of the top 10 GPR cards
- Rewards & Interest: 2 of the top 10 GPR cards offer cash back rewards; and 3 more offer 5% APY interest
- Check Writing: 5 of the top 10 GPR cards offer check writing (new feature last 3-5 years)
- Payment Cushion: 3 of the top 10 GPR cards offer a $10 payment cushion for unintentional overdraft
- Monthly Fees: 2 of the top 10 GPR cards have no monthly fee
- Card Purchase Fee: 4 of the top 10 GPR cards have no purchase fee
- Subaccounts: 5 of the top 10 GPR cards offer free secondary accounts – useful for budgeting
About this report
A new research report titled Top 10 General Purpose Reloadable Prepaid Debit Cards in the U.S. Chosen by GPR Cardholders in 2018, has been released by Mercator Advisory Group which provides a deep dive into the features, functionality, and pricing of each of the Top 10 cards. This report will be especially useful to program managers and prepaid card issuers as a means of evaluating their programs against their competitors’ programs. GPR cards will receive increased scrutiny regarding their fees and disclosures when pending prepaid card regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau takes effect April 1, 2019.
“Providers of GPR prepaid debit cards should be evaluating their programs on a regular basis to be sure the program’s offerings is competitive and attracting the type of GPR cardholder that is beneficial to their portfolio,” comments C. Sue Brown, Director of Mercator Advisory Group’s Prepaid Advisory Service and author of the report. “What was considered new and innovative from a feature/functionality perspective five years ago is now an expected minimum basic offering on most cards. A few new trends in features/functionality as well as pricing have emerged, so program managers need to be make sure their portfolios align with them.”
