New research from Uswitch.com has highlighted that a large proportion of the UK workforce have seen their wages stagnate despite rising inflation. The research revealed that nearly 90% of those surveyed hadn’t seen a pay increase in the past 12 months, highlighting the need to squeeze more mileage out of pay packets.
A little known fact is that consumers can make their wages stretch further by simply using a prepaid credit card. The virtues of a prepaid card mean that customers can have their wages paid directly onto a prepaid card, budget better for the month ahead, monitor their spending 24/7 online and also benefit from a wealth of added extras to help keep costs down.
As a prepaid card has to be topped up with money before it can be spent, customers can set a specific spending allowance and then add more funds when required. As this isn’t a credit card and no money is borrowed by the customer, spending on a prepaid card won’t accrue interest charges and could prevent people from increasing any existing debts.
There are many ways a prepaid card can be topped up, making it quick and easy for consumers to transfer a proportion of their wages into a card account each month. For example, the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard®, allows customers to top up their cards at over 1000 retail stores nationwide, at epay outlets, via bank transfer and at UK Post Office branches. With all of these options available, Cashplus customers can move their spending to a prepaid card and start budgeting accordingly.
Another option is to have an employer pay an employee’s entire wage packet directly onto a Cashplus card account. This is valuable if an employee doesn’t have a UK bank account and instead has to rely on cheque cashing to access their wages. Cheque cashing can be costly for workers and also means carrying a relatively large amount of cash around once carried out. The benefit of having wages paid directly into a Cashplus card account is that it eliminates the need for cheque cashing fees and also gives quicker access to hard-earned cash. As the Cashplus card offers guaranteed acceptance and no credit checks, customers can rest easy that a card payment method is available to them. As the Cashplus card is a prepaid MasterCard card, wages can then be used to pay bills or make purchases online, over the phone or in person. It can also be used at ATMs throughout the country or worldwide.
Other savings are available through the added extras that prepaid cards can offer. The Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard offers benefits such as free purchase protection and Cashback rewards. This means that not only are damaged purchases covered but that customers can earn cashback when using their Cashplus card to shop online. In this way, customers are both protected from loss and can increase the funds available to them.
Therefore, it’s clear that in a climate of stagnating wages and rising costs, switching to a prepaid credit card could help make hard-earned cash stretch that little bit further. From enabling effective budgeting to managing entire wage packets, prepaid cards can offer savings and efficiencies. A host of added extras also serve to increase the value of prepaid card, further helping an already beleaguered workforce.
