So my daughter asked me what is the point of keeping the Bluebird prepaid card... her understanding of a prepaid card was for people who cannot get a bank account or debit card because of chexsystems issues. So I explained to her, the reason I love my bluebird card and has kept it around for several years is because I use it for all my trial subscriptions and unimportant recurring transactions that I may forget to cancel in time. I keep just a few dollars on the card but it is linked to a regular checking so it can be funded in seconds. Whenever I get an alert of a charge that didn't go through on bluebird, I can either fund it, or go ahead and cancel the subscription at that point. It used to be linked to my Walmart Savings Catcher as well to collect all my Walmart Rewards Dollars but for some reason, Walmart discontinued that option. I guess they figured if they send customers an emailed egift certificate with $0.07 or $0.43, chances are it will not be used and they will ultimately get to keep the money. What do you use your prepaid debit cards for?
These are usually trials that I have to put a card number in for, maybe a $1 or so to start and cancel within 7 days to not get billed. Or sometimes it's something like the first month is free then they start billing. If I like the product and decides to keep it long term, then I change the billing information and move it to a credit card. Maybe crazy but I just hate putting my credit card info all over the place until I'm sure I'm gonna stick to the product.
I still have a bluebird card from the days when I couldn't get a bank account. I just noticed it the other day when I shuffled the cards in my wallet. I think that is a great idea to keep it for subscriptions. I tend to forget to cancel them, too. You can also get Amex rewards on it but it's kind of a hassle to track and to link the card.
