There are a number of reasons why one would prefer using a prepaid Mastercard over a conventional payment card. The disposable nature of prepaid cards makes them more secure. They’re not linked to a credit line extended by your bank and neither do they have access to the funds in your bank account.
Businesses stand to benefit from them as well. They can issue a prepaid Mastercard to individual employees or even entire teams and departments while maintaining full control over their spending limits. The inherent secure nature of prepaid cards also makes them a viable option for businesses.
What is Mastercard?
Mastercard is one of the world’s largest payment processing networks, second only to Visa. The company was founded back in 1966 as the Interbank Card Association. It was rebranded to Mastercard in 1979.
Its primary business is to process payments between the banks of customers who use Mastercard-branded payment cards and the banks of merchants. It has been a publicly-traded company since 2006. Prior to going public, Mastercard was a cooperative entity that was owned by more than 25,000 financial institutions that issued Mastercard-branded cards.
What does Mastercard offer?
Mastercard is one of the world’s largest payment processing networks, second only to Visa. The company was founded back in 1966 as the Interbank Card Association. It was rebranded to Mastercard in 1979.
Its primary business is to process payments between the banks of customers who use Mastercard-branded payment cards and the banks of merchants. It has been a publicly-traded company since 2006. Prior to going public, Mastercard was a cooperative entity that was owned by more than 25,000 financial institutions that issued Mastercard-branded cards.
Ways to pay with Mastercard
A prepaid Mastercard works much in the same way as a normal card does. This means that you can pay with a prepaid card at any merchant that accepts Mastercard. Simply load a prepaid card and use it for everyday purchases at your favourite shops. These cards can be used for online payments as well. However, some subscription services that rely on recurring payments may not accept your prepaid Mastercard.
Most prepaid Mastercards now also offer contactless payments. Simply tap the card on a contactless-enabled machine at checkout to make the payment. It provides enhanced security as the card never leaves your hand and also protects against double billing even if you accidentally tap twice.
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What is the difference between a normal Mastercard and prepaid Mastercard?
A normal Mastercard, whether that’s credit or debit, is linked to an account. You can only spend or withdraw the money that’s available in your checking or savings account with a debit card. A credit card will only allow spending till the maximum credit limit extended to you by your bank.
If you end up losing your card or its details leak from a website where you used it, someone could theoretically take money out of your account or max out your credit limit.
A prepaid Mastercard is entirely different. Firstly, it’s a lot easier to obtain even for those who may not be eligible for a normal card due to a credit check or any other hindrance. No credit check or bank account is required to obtain and use a prepaid card.
The only funds available on a prepaid card are those that you load on it. So even if you lose a prepaid Mastercard with €100 on it, you can’t lose more money than that. This makes prepaid cards a much safer option to use when travelling abroad or making payments online.
What are the extra benefits of a prepaid Mastercard?
Prepaid Mastercard users don’t have to worry about interest charges as it’s not possible to borrow money against an overdraft on these cards. It’s possible to withdraw funds loaded on a prepaid Mastercard through ATMs across the globe where Mastercard is accepted.
Mastercard also offers Zero Liability Protection on prepaid cards. The issuer won’t hold you responsible for “unauthorized transactions” if the loss or theft was promptly reported to it and you took reasonable care to protect your card from loss or theft. However, a prepaid card needs to be registered in order to take advantage of Zero Liability Protection.
How to get a prepaid Mastercard?
Mastercard has a wide variety of partners that utilize its payment network to offer prepaid cards. This includes banks, financial institutions, airlines, major retailers, and more. Issuers get to decide what features they want to offer on their prepaid cards. Some might not offer contactless payments, for example, while some might not allow cash withdrawal.
At SimpledCard, we offer prepaid Mastercard cards for business expenses. The platform enables businesses to issue their own bank-independent prepaid Mastercard cards and directly hand them over to employees. The contactless-enabled prepaid cards we issue can be used on location and online across the globe.
Managers get real-time insight in all payments and can thus exercise better control over business spending. They even have the option to switch cash withdrawals from ATMs centrally on or off. If a card is lost, it can easily be blocked and reactivated at any time in the future.
These cards are a part of our spend management solution. Whenever employees make a payment using their prepaid card, they can instantly justify the expense using the app by taking a photograph of the receipt and linking it to the transaction.
Finance managers have the flexibility of reviewing expense receipts and justifications through one central dashboard. They are even able to program rules to ensure that employees’ prepaid card budgets are topped up automatically.
Not only does SimpledCard make it easy to issue prepaid Mastercard cards to employees, but it also streamlines expense tracking and justification to provide an end-to-end solution for business expenses. So, it can be fully integrated into your bookkeeping process.
Do you want to know more about prepaid Mastercards or how you can implement the cards into your organization’s expense management workflow? Please contact our team of experts.
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