Is Visa Prepaid any good for (international) online purchases?

[eduardomenduso]

For decades I found that Cash and Bank transfers covered all my payment needs. I've only twice needed a Credit Card (renting a car and contacting my embassies help desk whilst ordering a new passport) and in both occasions managed without. Since getting (more) into knives I've started to use Paypal for ordering internationally. That's worked fine but many online sellers I'd like to use don't accept Paypal and at the moment I cannot find a vendor of Zero Tolerance 0550 replacement scales that accepts that method. For several reasons (mostly online security and costs) I don't want to get a regular credit card if it can be helped.

I'm just about to replace my annual national train pass and see that there is a free offer to combine it with a Visa Prepaid card. I'm wondering whether I'll be able to use it for international online transactions. I know that Visa say it will be accepted everywhere that Visa is accepted in general but can imagine that some sites might not accept this particular flavour of Visa as the sum might not be guaranteed to the seller because, presumably, my prepaid balance will not be checked by the system whilst/before purchasing. Any input on this question would be very welcome.

 

[Horsewright]

We have had several international customers use it and it works but there are delays. The biggest problem for us is that the address of the buyer and the card won't match and so it will automatically be denied when the card is run through the system. The card's address is the issuing bank not the customer's. So if Tom Smith in AB orders a knife and gave us his address as 123 Somewhere. It will get denied because the card's billing address is 456 Main St. To resolve it, we call the customer, they call the bank at the phone number on the card and get the address. Then they call us back and give us the banks address and then the card will go through. So they do work but can be a pain for the merchant and the customer. If you had the banks address prior and gave it to the merchant (letting em know it is a prepaid card) it would save a lot of time and frustration on both parties part. Others may have had different experiences but this has happened with us several times.

 

[eduardomenduso]

If you had the banks address prior and gave it to the merchant (letting em know it is a prepaid card) it would save a lot of time and frustration on both parties part.

Thanks for your excellent and knowledgable advice. That's definitely worth sorting out in advance. Also, it confirms my assumption that prepaid credit cards are, despite being workable, not ideal for my intended purpose.