Telefónica O2 Ireland Ltd. have recently announced their O2 Money Card, a prepaid Visa (debit) card which customers can purchase at O2 shops nationwide for €4.99. We have reported on similar products in this space on the Irish market, in particular Rubycard, MoneyBookers and the Dublin City Gift Card, both prepaid Mastercards.

The important factors for these products are always the ease of access to top-up facilities, costs and how widespread the acceptance of the cards are as payment mechanisms. Being backed by credit card companies, the prepaid Visa card is accepted wherever you see the Visa sign and similarly the Mastercard endorsed cards are accepted wherever you see the Mastercard logo. The costs however tend to vary widely, see our other posts about prepaid Mastercards from Dublin City Business Association and Tuxedo Money.

To buy an O2 Money card for €4.99; you need to be 18 years or older, have an Irish registered mobile phone and you need to place minimum €20 on the card (maximum €150).

Checking your balance

The balance on the card can be checked by:

• Texting the word 'BALANCE XXXX' to 50280 where XXXX is replaced by the last four digits of the 13-digit customer number imprinted on the back of every O2 money card; or

• Signing into your O2 Money card account online

Topping up the card

Transferring funds from your bank account appears to the the most cost-effective method offered. As with any bank transfer, it may take 3-5 days to process. The cost of the transfer is deducted from the amount transferred and the maximum you can transfer in one day is €350. These transaction costs apply:

€20.00 - €59.99 charge €0.80
€60.00 - €99.99 charge €1.25
€100.00 - €159.99 charge €1.70
€160.00 - €350.00 charge €2.55

Two other methods are available, both subject to the same topup costs. Topping up in an O2 store or at a Payzone outlet should make the new balance available on the card ten minutes later, however O2 do recommend retaining the receipt for up to 24 hours just in case. These transaction charges apply:

€20 - €50 charge €0.99
€60 - €90 charge €1.49
€100 - €150 charge €1.99
€160 - €350 charge €2.99

There are other charges and limits that apply, for example ATM withdrawls and moving money to another O2 card are charged at €1 per transaction; replacing a lost or stolen card or moving money back to a bank account is charged at €5; if you use the card as a credit card Government stamp duty (€2.50, once per 12 month period) will be charged and if you use the card in an ATM a second stamp duty applies (Again €2.50, once per 12 month period).

Do you use a prepard Visa or Mastercard? We'd love to hear your comments below!

Ultan.

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Related Blog Posts:

• Ruby Card - A Prepaid MasterCard launches in Ireland
• An Irish Prepaid MasterCard with no surcharges or monthly fees

I have always been interested in new technology so I thought this deserved a blog post. Finextra, a great independent source of news on financial technology, reports that later this year Boots in the UK will trial a new 'contactless' payments system in 15 London stores and 6 Liverpool stores. This technology trial involves a partnership between Boots, MasterCard and RBS WorldPay.

The contactless payments technology will allow Boots customers with MasterCard PayPass cards to make payments of under £10 by tapping their MasterCard PayPass card against the contactless payments terminal. The US MasterCard web site has a page explaining how to "tap" and shows the PayPass Readers and Devices. It is interesting how they are calling the technology "contactless" when you have to tap your card against the terminal :)

Boots and RBS WorldPay will not be the first companies to adopt contactless payment technology. Visa have a competing version of the MasterCard PayPass called payWave which works in a similar manner to PayPass. Barclaycard has been using the Visa payWave technology for some time now. In 2007 they launched a three-in-one card that allowed standard chip and PIN credit card facility, contactless payments up to the value of £10 and Oyster card.

Late last year MasterCard announced that they had issued their 50 millionth PayPass device. A device could be a PayPass card, a mobile phone, a key chain fob, a wrist watch or similar device. They claim to have over 141,000 merchant locations around the world. So it looks like contactless payments are here to stay.

This leads me to some questions -

• Does anyone know if this technology is available in Ireland?
• Would you use it if it was available?
• What do you think of the security risks associated with this technology?

Personally I like the idea and would use it daily if it was available. It would encourage card usage for small purchases and speed up the process. I know McDonalds recently started accepting credit cards in their Irish restaurants and have a chip and pin terminal at paypoint. I would see this technology as the next step for organisations like McDonalds.

With regards security it seems to be a bit of a grey area at the moment. Mastercard say:

• There is Zero Liability protection with PayPass.
• There will not be any accidental payments as you must be extremely close to the reader for it to work.
• You cannot get billed twice even if you tap more than once at checkout.

Visa say it is just as secure as chip and PIN and there is less chance of fraud as the card never leaves your hand. I'm not sure I fully agree with this statement!

Dave

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