How to Send Your Balance From Checking Account to Prepaid Card

Honestly speaking, online services have truly changed our lives in a big way. If it’s online banking, one now can even go for several months without making any visits to his banker. Then, if it’s web-shopping, you can easily make your purchases just as you’d do in a physical store using your prepaid card. But let’s say your funds have been depleted unexpectedly, how can you transfer money from checking account to prepaid card online.

Um, that’s a pretty easy process. Before we look at it, nonetheless, let’s have a brief review on the checking account and a prepaid card. After all, you can’t be able to learn how to complete the transfer of funds if you don’t know what the two really entails.

Recommended: Tips on How to Transfer Money From One Bank Account to Another

Checking Account

By simple definition, a checking account is that account your bank allows you to deposit and withdraw money anytime. If you’re an enthusiastic online shopper, the account is very convenient to have as you can make regular transactions easily. It usually supports huge withdrawals and unlimited deposits to make sure either of your transactions is smooth.

For you to access your checking account, you can either use checks, ATM, or electronic debit cards. This guarantees you an efficient way to fulfill your needs successfully as long the account has got enough money. Shop online with a checking account number.

Prepaid Card

A prepaid card, on the other hand, is a debit card in the form of a bank card, which is used to spend money. Different from the “regular” debit cards, though, a prepaid card is not linked to a bank checking account that you get to access the funds from the account directly. It’s not even like that credit card which you loads the funds later after using.
A prepaid card usually requires one to “top it up” with money beforehand. The money you load in the card is what you get to spend with no chance of overspending. Hence, its second name “Pay As You Go card”.

If your prepaid card is well-loaded, you can use it just like any other bank-provided cards in buying groceries or paying bills online. With some of the cards, you can even withdraw funds at any point with the free nationwide ATM networks. Nonetheless, a prepaid card is not like visa debit cards which feature no restrictions. Some can restrict you on how much you get to withdraw, reload, or even spend in a certain period. How to send money to someone without a bank account? in this way, the Prepaid card is the way.

Benefits Of Using Prepaid Debit Cards

While a significant number of people find them not making sense, prepaid cards do help a lot with their flexibility. Some of the benefits you can enjoy from the card include:

Bad Credit History: if you’re amongst those denied a credit card due to ugly credit history, a prepaid card can work well for you. The card issuer doesn’t bother to check your credit score while issuing you with the card. Hence, you can even qualify for one even if you have not yet built up your credit.

Spend Within Budget: A prepaid card is not like a regular debit card which gives access to your particular bank account. It’s not even like a credit card which will leave you with debts. A prepaid card allows you to only use what you have topped up, hence, very helpful in managing your finances and cutting excess spending.

Avoid Bank Account Fees: in the majority of cases, a prepaid card costs less to use than a bank account. So, it might be much convenient to use considering it even gives access to services like online bill payments.

Limit Instances of Fraud: well, if you’re concerned about the safety of your credit or debit card in online transactions, a prepaid card can be a good throwaway account. While using it, there’s no direct access to the funds in your checking account but those loaded.

When it comes to loading your prepaid card, the format is almost similar to that of depositing cash to a particular account. So, you can set up direct deposits, deposit checks at the ATM, or load cash at participating vendors. The three, nonetheless, have now become less convenient considering the extending growth of online banking.
This now brings us to our main subject on how to transfer money from checking account to prepaid card online.

Unlike the three “traditional” methods, loading your card online is more convenient as you necessary don’t need to go to the bank.

How to Transfer Money from Checking Account to Prepaid Card Online

As we have just stated, topping up your prepaid card using online banking is the most simple and convenient means amongst the rest. The method, by the way, is even cheaper as it’s completely free if you’ll wait for the 1-2 days of completing the transaction. For instant top-up, though, you might have to pay a certain fee, which predominantly varies depending on the card issuer.

For you to transfer money from checking account to prepaid card online, there’re several steps you ought to follow to ensure a successful process. Following is a brief guide of these steps, starting with the very first one on getting the Account number and Routing number.

• Get Ready The Account Number And Routing Number

Well, the first step for you to transfer money from checking account to prepaid card online is to get the bank account number and routing number. An account number is a special number that is used to identify your card. It’s even different from the number printed on the face of the prepaid card. Thus, you’ll need to check with your card issuer in case you forget yours. How to transfer money using routing number and account number?

The routing number, on the other hand, carries the identity of where your transactions are being controlled and monitored. Both the account and routing numbers are very easy to get, particularly if you’re using a provider like Netspend.

With Netspend Visa Prepaid Card, to get your account number and routing number you only need to log in to your account and you’ll get all the information you need. This includes even the name of the issuing bank of the card as it’s usually different from the card issuer. With the Netspend Visa prepaid, for instance, the issuing bank is Metabank while that of Walmart MoneyCard is Green Dot Bank. If you have a question, where can I put money on my NetSpend card? Visit the Netspend official website.

• Add Your Prepaid Card To Your Bank Account

Once you have the account and routing numbers ready, you now use them to set up an external account through your bank. For this step, the manner you do it depends on the bank, even though it’s almost similar to the rest. It’s just like the normal transaction where you’ll need to log in to your bank account and set up an external account.
The details you fill in the part of the external account are those you prepared in step one (account and routing numbers). In case you come to encounter any problem, contact your bank to take you through it and ensure the successful addition of the card.

Test The Deposits

When setting up a new account, some banks usually require you to make test deposits to it as verification proof. Similarly, you’ll need to log in to your bank account and carry out two small test deposits to the created prepaid card account. Once the test deposits reflect, it means the verification is complete and you can now transfer money from your bank to the prepaid card.

Now Transfer The Money

Now that you have set up the prepaid card with your bank and verified they are functional, you can start the transfer. You’ll only go to your bank’s webpage and select the account you want to transfer the money from, and the amount you want to transfer. The prepaid card account, of course, is the account you’ll be transferring the funds to.

Note: To transfer money from checking account to prepaid card online, the whole process usually takes at least one business day to complete. As such, don’t be eager for the money to reflect on your prepaid card instantly.

Word of Thought:

Those are some of the key tips you need to have when transferring money from checking account to prepaid debit card online. For a quick learner, the process of setting up the card with the bank is pretty simple to do without any help.

Earlier on, we stated that prepaid cards can be good for those with poor credit history since the issuers don’t run a credit check. Well, while the idea can be an advantage at some point, it also can be a drawback when it comes to building credit. This comes as prepaid cards only allow you to spend your available funds without reporting to the credit agencies.

Also, for someone who wants to manage his budget properly, he/ she can be able to do that well using a prepaid card. However, this can be a limitation when in the urgency of making certain payments as it doesn’t support overspending. The card allows you to only spend what you have got with no credit features.

Apart from that, though, Prepaid Cards are truly valuable. Not just in facilitating online shopping and bill payments but also helping the cautious ones safeguard their banking details using the throwaway account.