Even as consumer-advocacy groups push for better disclosure of prepaid card fees, most adults remain in the dark about fees for using prepaid debit cards, new survey data suggest.
More than half, or 58%, of consumers surveyed online last month said they were not aware of any fees associated with using prepaid debit cards, CouponCabin.com said in a June 6 press release. Harris Interactive conducted the survey involving 2,159 U.S. adults May 16 to 18.
Despite the low awareness of fees, 42% of respondents said they had purchased or received a prepaid debit card.
Among the respondents who had used a prepaid debit card, 69% said they used it for everyday purchases, 36% used it to make online purchases, 19% used it instead of cash or credit when traveling, and 10% used it to get cash from an ATM.
Views on prepaid cards were about evenly split, with 44% of respondents declaring a negative opinion, citing the lack of credit-building utility (25%), too many fees (24%) and lack of security a bank-issued debit card provides (17%).
Some 43% of respondents gave prepaid cards a thumbs-up, citing as their reasons that they are safer than cash (23%), useful in controlling routine spending (19%), comes with no overdraft fees (19%), help avoid racking up credit card debt (18%), and cost less than a high-fee checking account (10%).
"More consumers are using prepaid debit cards these days. But like with any financial decision, users need to be aware of the pros and cons of using these cards," Jackie Warrick, president of the CouponCabin.com coupon-aggregation site, said in the release.
Consumer advocacy groups in recent months have initiated pushes for better card fee-disclosures and in March a coalition of such groups testified at a U.S. Senate hearing examining alleged prepaid card industry abuses (
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