The latest Cleo Bopo Visa Card review can be found here. The review gives you a break a down of the key features and fee structure for using the Cleo Bopo Card.

The latest MTV Bopo Visa Card review can be found here. The review gives you a break a down of the key features and fee structure for using the MTV Bopo Card.

In a challenge to credit cards online payments company PayPal is expected to launch a service sometime in the next few weeks that will allow Australian customers to make payments for prepaid mobile accounts online. After negotiations with Prepaid International, Paypal has been given access to many high-traffic websites and the deal will allow prepaid customers of Optus, Virgin, 3, Boost Mobile and Dodo to use PayPal to recharge their phone rather than Visa or Mastercard. PayPal estimates that it currently has over 3 million customers in Australia.

By The Financial Review

The latest Pink Ribbon Bopo Visa Card review can be found here. I’ve posted an article previously about the Pink Ribbon Bopo Card. The review gives you a break a down of the key features and fee structure for using the Bopo Card.

With uysthe success of the MTV Bopo card and their support for the Nation Breast Cancer Foundation, Bopo has now aligned itself with another major Australian E-commerce website Buytradesell.com.au. They have become an authorized representative for the Bopo Prepaid Visa Card which now offers their members the opportunity to purchase their own prepaid visa card for use on the buytradesell.com.au website or any other online retailer.

The New Buytradesell Visa Card offers all the great features of the Bopo Visa cards which allows those under 18 to obtain their very own prepaid visa card.

For more information about the Buytradesell Bopo prepaid visa card.

The latest figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia show that more consumers are trying to reduce their credit card debt with an average balance in August of $2,999, down slightly from the previous month, but still 5.7 per cent higher than a year ago. A record $18.1 billion was repaid onto our cards which is $1.4 billion more than the same month last year. Still, total spending on cards was over $18 billion making the total outstanding debt in August $41.1 billion.

News Source: Infochoice.com.au

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.

Virginmoney credit card meets enter the dragon.

This ads is great, I was in tears. I think it has great viral potential.
Anyway enjoy the video and pass it on.

Don’t forget to watch MTV prepaid card ads.

With Bopo and MTV joining forces to the promote the prepaid visa card to youth market, we’ll be seeing more youth originated commercials hitting the small screen.

While this ad is cool and generate awareness, I would love to see a more viral focused campaign. Something a little more engaging and a great laugh.

I just love this ad, wish my bank managers we this hip.

This is an interesting question that’s currently being debated over the internet as financial institutions target their marketing strategies towards the youth market with student focus credit cards. Financial Institutions understand that the youth market is one of the largest driving forces for spending, but

I believe the really question is, are the teens ready to handle the responsibility of a credit card. With surveys from the US seems to indicate teens not ready yet, in a recent poll found 11% teens acknowledge that their parents make the monthly payments. 15% had made the minimum repayments and 2% had intentionally missed their monthly repayments. [Article can be found here]

Just based on the above results show that there’s a serious need to educate teens about financial planning and personal accountability. Though Parents need to follow suit and show a little bit of Tough Love no use having systems in place when Mom and Dad continue bail their children out of debt.

Where do prepaid cards fit in?
I see the prepaid credit cards being little like training wheels on my first bike. Teens gain access to all the features of a credit card, their own card, freedom to make purchases online and offline. With the only risk involved being zero balance, though teens begin to understand the value of money.

The magic bullet comes back to education, as soon as Teens understand the value of money they’re spending habits will change.

Read more about Giving Teens Credit

In a recent survey in USA conducted by The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association (NBPCA), has found that  early users of re loadable prepaid cards had positive experiences with the reloaded prepaid cards and that the service had offered a solid value.

Consumers that were more likely to pay for goods and services with cash, recognized the positive improvements when testing the prepaid credit cards as they began to understand the benefits of the service, security, convenience and the control.

The NBPCA expect to see a great card acquisition amongst this target demographic.

Read more about the Consumer expectation survey here

Wanting to gain a more dominate brand within the youth market, Bopo prepaid cards has announces that they have enter in to agreements for MTV to promote and distribute a co-branded Mtv prepaid visa card. The MTV bopo credit card is being promoted using MTV’s television network and website, targeting the youth market. The agreement is for a term of 5 years and is designed to strengthen the appeal of the bopo prepaid Visa card to this demographic.

There’s seems to be a little confusion over the Bopo Prepaid Visa Card and the Prepaid Visa cards issued by ANZ from their online website prepaidshop.com.au

While there are similarities between the cards there are differences between the Prepaid Visa cards and Prepaid Visa Gift Cards.

Both cards allow:
Cards to be used to make transactions online.
Cards can be worldwide, where Visa is accepted.

This is where the similarities end for the Prepaid Visa Gift Cards.
They’re seems to a few more restrictions on where the Prepaid Visa Gift card can be used.

The Prepaid Visa Gift Cards cannot be used in the following scenarios.
Cannot be used at an ATM
Cannot widthdraw cash from Prepaid Visa Gift Card
Cannot be used for online gambling merchants (Adult ?)
Cannot be used at petrol pumps
Express payment services
Make purchases that exceed the Card Balance.

Just with the restriction alone places the Prepaid Visa Gift cards into niche market. The Prepaid Visa Card services is definitely targeting a different type of consumer and believe it offers a great solution for those last minute shoppers.

Their Corporate services benefit both Company and Employees as Companies are able to have branded Prepaid card created and offer them as incentive rewards to employees who will benefit from the being able to make purchases where Visa is accepted.

I wasn’t able to find information regarding Bopo offering Branded Corporate cards though they do have a facility for Companies to offer employees incentive rewards to employees.

While both cards offer similar services each prepaid visa card provider, Bopo seems to have covered both by having the option of withdrawing funds from an ATM puts the Bopo card ahead.

You can review the PrepaidShop FAQ to get more information about their services.
To review the Bopo credit card fee schedule here

Both Prepaid Visa card services offer great value for their target markets, we’ll be keeping an eye out to see how both services

Websites offering the Prepaid Visa Gift Card
Prepaidshop.com.au
Cometrue.com.au

Unlike Prepaid Visa Gift Cards that is offered by ANZ the Cometrue giftcard can only be used within Australia where EFTPOS is available.

Some may see the EFTPOS only as a barrier, it really shouldn’t be as many locations that do accept VISA/Mastercard within Australia have EFTPOS available.

The ComeTrue giftcard is a no frills version of the Prepaid visa cards. They have a shorter card life as card will expires within 6 months of being issued. The Giftcards cannot be reloaded or topped up with additional funds as  the value of the gift card is set at the time of purchase.

Just like cash, if you lost it, it’s gone forever, you won’t receive a replacement cards.

Fees are minimal, $0.20 per sms balance inquiry though this can be reduced if you check your balances online. There are no transaction fees for EFTPOS transactions.

Fees & Charges (just an overview)

$5.95 – Cost of the Gift Card
$0.50 – SMS Balance inquiry
$0.75 – attempt to make a transaction with Insufficient funds
$1.50 – ATM denial Fee.

To review all of the Cometrue Gift Card fees and charges here

While some of the features may be a barrier for some, I believe that this service works well with the last minute shopper market and I personally would look forward to Christmas with Cometrue gift cards rather than boxers and Socks.

Another great feature about the Cometrue giftcard is that for every Cometrue giftcard purchased, $1.10 is given to OzChild Charity.

So if your out of ideas and need a gift that you know they will use, consider using the Cometrue giftcard service and help support a great charity.

For more about the Cometrue Giftcard visit Cometrue.com.au

We’ll for those of you that are regulars, you’ve probably noticed the changed, I can’t help changing the colors, I felt the red color was a little too strong.

Though I have this weird feeling that the color will change in a months time HEHEHE.

I also made updates to the following pages namely the Bopo Prepaid Card review and updated the Bopo prepaid visa card fees page so that it was clearer to read the Bopo fees.

I’ll be following up the Bopo card review article with my own tutorial for when I apply for the Bopo Card. Since I’m going to talk about Prepaid cards I might as well jump in the deep end and see if my current spending habits are Bopo card ready.

I’ve nearly completed the Prepaid Visa Card Comparison table. You’ll be able to quickly glance and compare the fee structure from the available Prepaid Visa Cards providers, this will be uploaded to the Prepaid Visa Cards website.

The latest figures from the financial review, Banks are starting to see a trend in the way Customers are using their Credit Cards. While the total credit card debt was up $508 Mil from the previous month, the growth rate for credit card debt is slowing. With a definite downward trend for the use of the credit card cash advances.

Which is a good indication that customers are starting to feel the effects of interest rates applied to the cash advances. The average outstanding credit card debt for bank customers is around the $3,014.

from Infochoice

NAB’s latest ATM fee rise should generate the company around $50 Million in the next year.

The fees effect NAB customers using other bank ATMs. unfortunately for NAB customers, the bank is currently upgrading their ATM’s, leaving NAB customers having to use competitor ATM’s.

Even when the ATM service returns to normal, NAB stands to reap an additional $4.5 million per month from the higher fee it extracts from its 3 million customers.

More About NAB’s ATM fee rise

Westpac, having revamped their marketing approach has proven there are tangible results in producing and promoting marketing campaigns involved with environmental, social or community causes. Corporate social responsibility is a widely circulating topic in recent years and since Westpac’s campaign launch, areas such as brand consideration, “product experience” and overall customer experience has increased strongly. Since October, Westpac reported an increase among existing accounts by 20 per cent, and the number of customers leaving the bank decreasing by 25 per cent.

Article from InfoChoice

A new Australian committee has been created to identify potential issues with the new smart cards. The Australian Payments Clearing Association established which is made up of representatives from Visa, MasterCard, merchants, card issuers and card acquires.

APCA sets, manages and develops regulations, procedures and standards governing payments clearing and settlement within Australia.

It will be interesting to see what standard the committee will put in place to help customers make the smooth transition to the Smart Cards.

Another Bopo Prepaid Visa Card TV ad. Haven’t seen any of the ads on TV yet though I believe they’ve been on the MTV. Recently Bopo prepaid card and MTV had enter into agreements that will allow MTV to promote and distribute a co-branded MTV prepaid visa card to the youth market. The MTV prepaid credit card will allow Bopo to reach one of the largest consumer markets in Australia.

These youth focus commercials definitely hit the mark.

Well it took sometime but we finally got around to integrating the latest wordpress theme.
We hope you all like it.

I’m still reviewing the Comparison data for the Prepaid visa cards Vs Standard Credit Cards, I’m hoping to have it online for you all by next week.

Here’s another cool youth oriented Bopo prepaid visa card Ad.
With anyone under 18 being able to apply for their own Bopo prepaid card offers teens the freedom to shop anywhere. Where was Bopo when i was young… I would’ve been to many more concert.