This Prepaid Visa card comparison table gives you an idea of the fee schedule for each card.

The table compares 2 prepaid Visa cards. The Bopo MTV Visa Card and the My Canvas Card. The following Prepaid Gift cards are also compared. The ANZ PrepaidShop and Wish Come true.

Based on the comparison, The Bopo / MTV Visa Cards offers the better deal by far for general prepaid visa cards. The no monthly fees on the Bopo / Mtv Visa Cards gives it the edge over the My Canvas Card. Take a look and see if the Bopo / Mtv Visa Card is right for you.

It would be interesting to see the Bopo / Mtv Visa Card compared against a low rate credit card and debit card.

Australian Prepaid Visa Card Company Bopo.com.au (Buy online, Pay Offline) has just released their latest prepaid visa card, The Pink Bopo Card. The Pink Bopo card supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBSF) just by using the pink bopo prepaid visa card for with your everyday purchases.

$5 of the Pink Bopo purchase price goes directly to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Each Purchase made with the Pink bopo card, 3 cents of the transaction fee will be also go to the National Breast Cancer foundation.

Donations to the National Breast Cancer foundation can also be made via your Pink Bopo card at any time.

The Pink Bopo card is a great idea and great opportunity for you to make a difference. More than 13,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year this unique card helps raise vital funds for breast cancer research.

The ‘pink’ bopo is available for $14.95, or $24.95 to create your own picture card.

Get your pink bopo here

Open to Victorian Residence only

This another great reason to get your very own Bopo Visa card today!

Apply and pay for a bopo card before September 16 and go into the draw to win one of five family packs of four tickets to the 2007 Toyota AFL Grand Final.

Get more information about the AFL Grand final competition here

Just like the large Department Stores Myer and David Jones, that offer the customers with instore credit cards. Woolmorths, Australia’s largest supermarket chain will be following suit by offering their customers the Woolworths credit card. The Woolworths credit card is due to be released next year.

Woolworths is expected to offers extra services like home and car insurance and loans.

Now it’s Woolworths, the credit card people

Major banks have earned an estimated 90million dollars in credit card fees, with majority of the fees stemming from credit card limit violations and late payments.

Several community groups like the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Family First Senator are supporting the move for reduced fees for low-income earners, which would place restrictions on penalty fees.

more: Bank nets $90Mil in Credit Card Fees

Research by research group Oxera has found that the typical median-income Australian family pays $222 each year for a transaction account, while an equivalent family in Britain only pays $48. The news is better on the credit card front though: our average interest free period of 35 days ranked in the middle of the 11 countries surveyed and our rates are not particularly high after taking into account differences in the cash rate. Penalty fees for late payment, overdrawing accounts or exceeding card limits can be up to $150 in Britain but are usually less than $40 here. Australian consumers are also offered a wider choice of account types which means that fees can be minimised by taking a basic bank product or higher fees can be paid for a product with more features.

Source: www.infochoice.com.au

Virgin Money are going to resist passing on to their customers any increases in funding costs for now, accepting reduced margins instead. Virgin’s home loans are funded by residential-backed mortgage securities from Macquarie bank which has a 10 per cent stake in the company. If the current level of expense in credit markets persists for a long period Virgin said that it would have to consider raising rates. The company also said yesterday that its credit card business was very profitable despite offering some of the lowest rates in the country.

source: http://www.infochoice.com.au

The Australian Bankers Association has called for an end to regulation of interchange fees on debit and credit cards by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Instead the association says that interchange fees should be set on commercial terms by the market, helping to restore regulatory certainty, and reducing the risk of sub-optimal levels of investment and innovation. In its submission to the review of payments system reforms American Express said that they had given merchants a significant and ongoing financial benefit, estimated to be at least $2.2 billion since 2003, but that there was no evidence of any decrease in the price of goods and services resulting from this.

Source http://www.infochoice.com.au

This is M. Night Shyamalan My LIfe My Card - American Express Card Ad.

Interesting Ad.

I can’t see this Ad making it to TV but wanted to list it here for fun.
I think this is part of the film project, which is cool.

Those long waits at the checkout counter will be a thing of past if NAB and Telstra have their way. Both companys have teamed up with VISA to trial the new technology that allows customers to authorise payments by waving their mobile phone past special electronic markers.

The new mobile phone could potentiall replace the credit card as well as public transport tickets and building access security cards.

The new technology is currently being tested overseas, with Australia set to trial the PayWave technology early 2008.

Source: Infochoice.com.au

I’m not sure if this was an actually ad, but it made me laugh.

The ad is for Virgin Credit Card - Low rate credit cards, though think sends out a different message.

Customer of the ANZ bank that currently hold a Centrelink Health Care Card, Seniors Concession Card, Pensioners Concession Card, or Veterans Affairs issued Repatriation Health Care Cards, will receive a reduced dishonor fee for cash advances that go over the credit card limit. The cash advance dishonor fee will be reduces from $35 TO $10.
The new policy will take effect from 1 December.

Source: Infochoice.com.au

The abolition of ATM interchange fees could mean lower charges to consumers. The removal of the fee, typically $1 per transaction, should lead to a substantial reduction and perhaps even abolition of the fees that consumers are charged when using another bank’s ATMs. From October next year, the owners of ATMs must disclose fees charged, increasing transparency of any charges.

source from Infochoice.com.au

Halifax Ads bring out some of the best Banking ads I’ve seen. If banking actually had this much action I would have taken up accounting.

I love this Ad, Pierce Brosnan in Visa James Bond commercial.

I wonder how many Tomb raider fans applied for a Visa card after seeing this ad.