Debit Card, Prepaid Card | featured news

There’s a big change taking place. Many young people and those who want to avoid, or don’t qualify for, traditional financial products are choosing to use prepaid debit cards. A new study from Javelin Strategy and Research finds that the use of prepaid cards rose by about 18 percent last year. About 13 percent of the households in this country had one of these cards in 2011. Debit cards linked to checking accounts are still significantly more popular than prepaid cards. But the Javelin report points out that prepaid cards are “one of the few major financial products that has grown in usage in the past year.” In fact, the number of Americans with credit cards, checking accounts, and bank debit cards is actually falling.