By : Mr Credit Card

Sterling VIP Prepaid Visa Debit Card Review

Summary - The Sterling VIP Prepaid Visa® Debit Card is a basic prepaid credit card from Four Oaks Bank and Trust. One of the unique feature of this card is that you can pay and load your card from any Money Gram location.

Cost and Fees - Like most prepaid credit cards, the Sterling Prepaid Visa Debit Card charges a one-time application and fee and processing fee when you apply. The one-time application fee is $59.95, which is non-refundable. You also have to pay a one-time processing fee of $90.00. You will also have to load your card with $10.00 (as an initial first load). Hence, in total, you will pay $159.95 upfront when you get your card. This charge will be debited from your bank account. There is a monthly fee of $8.90, consisting of $4.95 for the debit card and $3.95 for the ATM card.

Methods of loading the Sterling VIP Prepaid Visa - There are various ways which you can load your card. Firstly, you can load them via Direct Deposit from your employer. There is no limit as to how much funds you can load via direct deposit. You can also load your card via another debit Card (which will take one business day for the transfer to take effect), ACH transfer, bank checking or savings accounts , or U.S. Postal Money Orders. All of the above methods will take 5 days to for the transfer to be initiated (with the exception of the debit card transfer).

Cardholders will be charged a fee when you load your card. There is a $1.00 charge each time you load via direct deposit and bank account to card reload. There is also a $0.50 charge each time you use the card to make a purchase at a merchant or for online purchase.

One of the unique feature of the Sterling VIP Prepaid Visa Debit Card is that it can also be loaded at any Money Gram location.

Funding Limits - There are a few funding limits that cardholders.

1. There is no limit upon the maximum amount that may be transferred to your Card by an employer for your regular work payment.

2. You may not load more than $500 or less than $25 onto the card at any one time from your Funding Account.

3. The Card may not be loaded more than twice per day or ten times per week, nor for more than $1,500 per day or $5,000 per week.

ATM Withdrawal - You can also use your card to withdraw money from ATM machines or even from merchants. You are allowed to withdraw up to $300 within 24 hours from ATMs. The maximum cash back service cardholders can receive from a merchant (upon a purchase) is $50.00. Cardholders will be charged $1.50 for each ATM withdrawal.

Conclusion - The Sterling VIP Prepaid Visa Debit Card is a no-frills debit card. One of the unique feature is that you can load your card from any Money Gram location. For those who use Money Gram, this may be a convenient card to get. The card though, does not report your activity to the credit bureaus. Hence, it will not be suitable for someone who wishes to rebuild their credit.

Update - The Sterling VIP Card has been discontinued. If you are looking for a basic prepaid card, we recommend the Western Union Prepaid MasterCard as it is much more cost effective and by far the prepaid master card with the lowest cost and fees.

Positives

• Can be loaded at any money gram location


Negatives

• Various fees (which are common in these types of cards)
• Does not report to credit bureaus