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How do prepaid cards work?
Whilst a cardholder's prepaid card experience is similar to that of a debit card, there are differences in how funds are loaded onto the cards and how account reconciliation operates.
Prepaid cards can be loaded in a number of ways. Businesses will often choose a primary loading system, such as loading cards directly via their bank for payroll applications or via their web interface in the case of emergency payments.
As soon as physical funds are loaded into the TransSend account, we ensure the card is allocated the required spending facility.
The cardholder can go online and check they have the money on their card or, should a programme owner have requested the facility, mobile messages can be sent to let them know the new balance.
If the business has allowed the cardholder to do so, the cardholder can then withdraw cash at an ATM, make a point-of-sale payment at any of the 25 million locations around the world accepting the MasterCard® brand or use a secure website to make a transaction.
Sometimes a business will choose to restrict its cardholders by only allowing certain types of point-of-sale transactions and not allowing ATM withdrawals or online transactions.
Once a transaction has been approved, an advisement will be sent to MasterCard. Settlement is made with MasterCard once every banking day.
