Orange's prepaid Cash card reviewed

The mobile phone and broadband provider now offers a prepaid card – but it is any good?

Orange has branched out into the prepaid card market with the Orange Cash card. And the card allows users to collect points on their spending that can be redeemed for Orange pay-as-you-go rewards.

Let’s take a look at the card, how it works and what it costs.

What is a prepaid card?

A prepaid card works in a similar way to a debit card from a bank. You can only spend as much money as there is available on the card. You fund the card by topping up via your bank account, debit or credit card, Post Office branches or even your mobile phone.

You can get hold of a prepaid card without a credit check, so for people with a poor credit history they can be a valid alternative to a bank account.

The main drawback with prepaid cards is the fees they charge, which can include a fee for getting hold of a card, a monthly fee for using it, ATM withdrawal fees – the list can be pretty long.

What the Orange Cash card offers

The Orange Cash card is a MasterCard. It allows you to withdraw money from ATMs and pay for purchases both on the high street and online, providing you have enough money on the card.

It also offers PayPass contactless technology on small purchases, where you just need to tap the card on a contactless reader to pay.

You don’t need to be an Orange customer to apply for it.

You can load money onto it for free via a bank transfer or debit card or in an Orange/Everything Everywhere shop. You can also load it at the Post Office or a PayPoint outlet, but each load will cost you £1.50. Or you can use a credit card, though this will cost you 4% of the amount you’re loading. You can also money via the Orange Cash app, but at the moment this is only available for Android phones.

You can have a maximum of £5,000 loaded onto the card at any one time and you can load up to £500 in one day. You can withdraw up to £250 a day from ATMs.

What it costs to use

The Orange Cash card costs £5 to buy, but there’s no monthly fee to use it. You can pay with it via a card reader or online for free, but ATM withdrawals will cost 2.95% of the amount you’re withdrawing. So, for example, if you withdraw £50 it will cost you £1.47.

These charges could quickly mount up if you use it instead of your bank account and you don’t take out a lot of cash in one or two withdrawals.

If you use it abroad, it will cost you 2.75% for a card transaction and a whopping 5.70% for an ATM withdrawal.

It also costs £5 to cancel the card, £2.50 for a paper statement and 20p to change the PIN at an ATM.

Rewards for spending

You can earn one point for every pound you spend (not including ATM withdrawals and gambling transactions). These points can then be spent on rewards for pay-as-you-go phones as follows:

Note that when you swap points for a reward, it is only valid for one month, with the exception of the six-month unlimited text reward.

The verdict

While the Orange Cash card has some plus points, such as the lack of monthly fee and the idea of rewards, overall it’s difficult to see who this will really benefit. If you have a good credit history, you would be much better off putting your spending on a decent cashback credit card. The cashback you’d earn from the levels of spending you need to earn decent returns from the Orange Cash card would be several times the value of the Orange rewards.

If you don’t want or can’t gain access to a bank account or credit card, it may prove useful, particularly if you only need to take out cash once or twice a month and you can top it for free in Orange/Everything Everywhere stores.

Or if you are happy paying for most things via a card transaction, and you’re already an Orange customer or thinking of becoming one, the card could pay off in lowering your monthly mobile phone costs.

But it doesn’t really have much to offer most people.

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