Chris .. I saw this article today which may interest you:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/travel/article.html?in_article_id=496826&in_page_id=1093

David

Thanks David. I will pass it onto my friend who has yet to decide which card to go for.

Chris

Just an update for anyone who's interested.

The Escape Prepaid Mastercard is working well so far for me.

I have had to load cash at the local Phones4U outlet, transfers from our HSBC account can't be done at the moment until HSBC setup the option to allow you to do this - this is being progressed.

When its done it will cost 99p a transfer money - going to our local Phones4U outlet costs nothing to load money so maybe I will keep doing this, well 99p is 99p ! Perhaps you can tell my distant relatives come from Kelso Scotland and I now live in Yorkshire !

The first load was for £500 and the Phones4U system at that time would only allow £50 in one go - so they took a while to do the £500 but it happened ok and at no cost to me. Last week we put on another £300 and their systems have been changed to do this in one go.

I have used it 3 times to book Ryanair flights online and no issues at all.

There have been no transaction / booking fees charged by Escape when I have booked the flights. I only need to make sure I 'do' something within 3 months or the inactivity charge of £1 a month kicks in. Well that will never happen.

Anyone else any feedback on their Prepaid Mastercards ?

Chris

As you will note earlier in the Thread I use a Prime Card you can top this up at our local Spar,wouldnt use anthing else now after having my card cloned 3 times,I can load upto 3grand onto it,I use it when buying online ect.Stops you from running up massive bills.

I've just used my Ice prepaid mastercard for the first time, to book some Ryanair flights. The transaction went smoothly and it saved me £30 in booking fees.

andy

Now up and running with the Escape card too - flights sucessully booked with Ryanair.

We actually managed to get two personalised cards free rom phones 4 U
Our son was negociating the renewal of his phone contract and we happened to mention that we were interested in the cards - threw 2 cards into the deal gratis ........

John

Just a follow-up to my last post regarding being unable to transfer money from HSBC to your Escape card.

HSBC have now added 'Tuxedo Mastercard' to their list of Mastercards so you can now move money (free!) from your HSBC bank account into your Escape Mastercard.

Tuxedo are the company managing a number of prepaid cards and Escape is one of them.

Chris

ps John123 - its always nice to get something free - well done !

Not actually tried a transfer rom a debit card yet.
Top ups from phones 4 u and by PayPoint both worked OK

John.

I successfully added my HSBC Debit card details to my Escape account but when I tried to initiate a transfer from my Escape account ie 'pull' the money from HSBC it said I couldnt do it and would need to contact CustSvs.

I then went onto my HSBC account and did a transfer to the Escape account without any issues.

I understand that doing a debit card transfer from the Escape account costs 99p but if you move money into the Escape account from your Bank account its free.

Chris

Thanks for linking me here from the ryanair topic Chris . Just had a good read through here and moneysaving expert forum and looks like this Escape card is going to be my best option for booking my flights this weekend .

We have a local phones4u so looks like I willbe heading there tomorrow .

I have enough money here in cash for my flights that will be £116 but dont want to pay another £40 extra in booking fees. Now do I need to go and pick up the card first , go home and activate it and then go back and top up or can I do it all in one visit .

Bearing in mind it's going to cost me to get it i'm probably being a bit tight here at the prospect of saving £20-30 and it seems a lot of hassle if I need to make 2 trips but i'm all for avoiding giving ryanair my money so I can say I've got a bargain and had one over on them keeping at least £20 in my pocket .

lyn

lyn,

I'm sorry but I can't answer your question regarding loading your card at purchase but the guys at Phone4U I'm sure will be able to help. Or maybe one of our fellow contributors would be able to assist before you set off tomorrow.

A condition is that the card needs to be 'active' at least once every 3 months or a charge of £1 a month as a dormancy fee is added.

Given the intial 'in-store' cost of around £10 I would suggest booking a couple of flights a year would make it cost effective ie loading money and spending it ! anything less the savings, clearly (and I know its stating the bleeding obvious !), would be less.

Regards, Chris

We always use Ryanair at least once or twice a year so I'm happy to pay the £10 and I can top it up a little in between to stop the £1 fee.

Hopefully phones4 u are open tomorrow and they have some there but I will ring first .

lyn

Lyn,

On reflection as a payment card it can be used for any purchase and of course not just for flights so the dormancy charge shouldn't be applied if its used in supermarkets etc just to 'do' a transaction once in a while etc and save the £1 monthly fee.

Chris

I'm assuming "active" means either a top up or purchase Chris ?

All done and booked with no charges

It was all very simple . Headed down to phones4u early to get my escape card .Must say they were very helpful and knowledgeable about why I was doing it .Paid the £20 (one off £9.99 charge for the card which lasts 3 years + £10 mandatory top up) . They activated it there and then before I added the remainder to give me enough for my flight booking . Came out checked my balance in the machine accross the road . It was all on the card and home I came to book . All done within the hour . I'm very pleased as we have a holiday booked to scotland for Oct half term at a good price with brilliant flight times and I have avoided their £40 credit card charge .

Ok I know the card has cost me £10 but I have saved £30 alone on that booking and the full cost on any subsequent bookings over the next 3 years until the card expires.

Ill repeat this over on the Ryanair topic for anyway that doesnt see here .

Thanks for all your Help Chris.

Hi lyn,

My pleasure. Glad it went well and nice to get feedback on how it went.

Regards, Chris

lyn,

The £1 a month dormancy charge comes into force when the following applies.

A period of 90 consecutive days in which no money has been loaded onto or taken off the card by the customer.

Regards Chris

I'm going to mark the date on my calender Chris to top up if I havnt used it again by then .. I've still got a little bit on there so I can always go and buy a cup of coffee in starbucks with it in 3 months time if we havnt .

Monarch are also doing a Euro zone pre paid mastercard, no load charges, no commission to exchange from sterling to Euro, no charges for purchases within the euro zone except for using an ATM, which is €1.25, only downfalls I can see are that you top up with a bank debit card and you can only have one if you purchase a minimum of 10 euro's on the application.
Ordered mine this morning
Just preparing for a week in Majorca next month although shouldn't need a lot of money as we are all inclusive

Alan