AccountNow Vantage MasterCard - Review

one MasterCard online banking

MasterCard Online Banking - MetaBank issues the Account Now Vantage credit card. This should not to be confused with an unsecured card, which it is not.

It is intended to be used as a MasterCard but is meant to restrict your purchases to the quantity of money loaded on it. You can load your card with money numerous ways ; direct deposit, transfer from a checking or deposit account, PayPal, or participating merchant.

Once you have loaded funds, you can use it the same way as any unsecured card. You can make purchases and get cash advances though in the confines of the amount loaded onto it.

There are two plans ; the classic and the premium plan and each plan offers benefits. However, there are some charges you want to be aware of.

A number of these charges include : $4.95 monthly charge for the Classic Plan and $9.95 monthly charge for the Premium Plan ; activation fee of $9.95 without direct deposit ; $1 fee for U.S. Card purchases if you use your PIN ( free for Premium Plan ) ; $1 fee if you use an ATM to ascertain your balance ; and, a $2 fee if you use an U.S. ATM to withdraw cash.

Before you make an application for any card, you should always review the terms and conditions and fee schedule. Also, be careful if you use retail locations to load money as the retailer may charge a fee. Likewise, if you use an international ATM to withdraw cash, you will incur a $4.95 fee for the transaction.

Be aware that if you use currency conversion when making a foreign purchase, you may attract a fee of 2.95%. That is a proportion of your purchase, not $2.95. As an example, if you are making a purchase in Italy that is the equivalent of $500, you’ll be assessed a fee of $14.75 for the currency conversion.

In addition they now offer the iAdvance loan option. This is an open-ended credit line which MetaBank provides to cardholders. They also offer Credit Builder. This is a voluntary program which can be accessed when you sign up for online Bill Pay.

The way this works is you pay your bills thru Bill Pay and it’ll report your payments to a countrywide credit reporting agency. The sole transactions that may be reported to PRBC are the bills you pay using Bill Pay. No debit transactions will be reported.

In summing up, if you are looking for a card which limits your purchases, while providing the benefits of internet banking and the reporting of timely bill paying, this could be for you.