O2 launches pre-paid O2 Money cards

"Load and Go" and "Cash Manager"

O2 launches pre-paid O2 Money cards

15 July 2009 10:47 GMT / By Duncan Geere

O2 has announced that it's launching a scheme called O2 Money, to help you keep track of your finances using your mobile phone. The network has partnered with Natwest to offer "Load and Go" and "Cash Manager" pre-paid Visa cards.

Both cards are offered free and only available to O2 customers. They send you text updates whenever you spend money on them, and the pre-paid nature means that you can only spend cash that you've already waved goodbye to from your bank balance.

The Cash Manager card, the company says, is designed for people who "want to keep their disposable income separate from regular outgoings". It gets loaded up online, works like a debit card, and it doesn't cost anything to withdraw cash from, unless you're using one of those dodgy cash machines that charges a fortune.

Then there's the Load and Go card, which is targeted at kids aged 13 and up. Parents can load it up online or at "one of over 20,000 locations across the UK". It won't work in places like online gambling sites, but does have chip and pin security, so that your kid won't have to worry so much about losing cash.

Both cards will be available from the O2 Money website from the middle of August.

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Comments

  • Please be careful with this card if you take one out!!! I requested a basic load-and-go card from O2, to make sure I didn’t end up overspending on my bank card. It was a costly mistake for me to make.
    After having it only about 1 week (and having only used it only once), I first had it rejected by a PIN machine (and I had just put a LOT of my salary I had transferred still on it, so it wasn’t out of cash in the least), and then the ATM took it from me – all without warning or explanation. Seemingly, my account had been inexplicably cancelled without discussion or warning – and I’d only had the card about 10 days.
    I called O2 from that day onwards consistantly, only to be told they couldn’t tell me why the account had been cancelled, and a letter had been sent to me. Said letter never came, nor did my explanation. This happend over TWO MONTHS AGO, and I have been fighting to get my money back from them ever since. They have been disasterously unhelpful on the phone about it, and have to date not returned my money to me.
    I hope this is a one-off situation, but still I would urge caution, especially if this is young people’s money on the cards that these people are messing around with.
     Posted by Del, UK

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