Gift "Credit" Cards

C

Chapman

Guest
Gift "Credit" Cards

Has anyone come accross this idea? ie. prepaying some cash on a short term credit card to put a thin veneer of polish on a gift of cash-for-spending.

Do American Express do this?
 
Don't think they exist here in Ireland. I have heard of pre-paid reloadable credit cards (like mobile phone credit) in the US so parents can give their offspring a card but still limit the spending.
 
As far as I know VISA also do (preloaded?) credit cards with a limited lifetime for use on holidays/trips etc. However, again, I don't think that they are available here in Ireland. Presumably the [broken link removed] might be a barrier to these being cost effective too?
 
Brown Thomas do a "credit card" type voucher. You say how much you want and give the person a card which they can use in the shops up to the value of the voucher.
 
Thanks guys. It seems you are right that this is not an idea to penetrate the Irish market yet, and as ClubMan astutely points out, will probably be dead-on-arrival anyway because of the stamp duty imposed by the cut-purses in government.
Interestingly, prepaid credit cards are available in the UK but are targeted at the uncreditworthy rather than the gift market. Social allegory there somewhere?

Someone could make some bucks by getting a good sample set of stores in Dublin to subscribe to a joint gift-card program.
 
Someone could make some bucks by getting a good sample set of stores in Dublin to subscribe to a joint gift-card program.

You mean like ?
 
I agree that the government tax will probably kill this off at birth , but its not a bad idea if you have a 'child' going on holidays or in college. at least if its lost you know the most that can be lost and it might be better than carrying cash. I have a daughter who inter- railed through europe two years ago, with a credit card on my account and to be honest I checked the net fairly frequently in case the card was lost of stolen, especially when she told us of her experiences in prague in particular.
 
I have a daughter who inter- railed through europe two years ago, with a credit card on my account

And there's me thinking that inter-railing was one of those rites of passage on the way to independence from one's parents/guardians. Young people today, blah, blah, blah....

;)
 
I got a travel Visa once for holidays from the Health services credit union near Christchurch! I only got it there as my mother worked in a hospital!
 
I don't altogether disagree with you Clubman. They dont travel quite as 'light' on dosh as they proclaim to their peers.However I should highlight they following. Daughter aged 19 +1 friend head off on jolly old Ryanair to Paris. Two weeks later Setanta gets a phone call from parent of friend wanting to know if setantas daughter wants to come home. Turns out friend took ill while in Rome and other parent was taking her home. Setantas beneficiary however was having none of it and continued on in the company of other youthful travellers etc to Vienna and Prague.bit a scare in Prague, nothing too disturbing but left Prague to go to another Czech town Dulka something or other and spend a few weeks there.
Loved it and finally travelled back on own to Brussels for flight home. So on one front quite independent, on the other, well,would probably argue thats what daddy's are for.
 
... would probably argue thats what daddy's are for.

I was with you until this bit... ;)
 
I thought daddys had 'atm' stamped across their forehead, invisible to all but their daughters.
 
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