Pre Paid Visa cards

Hi can anyone help ? I moved to Poland last year and need to find out if anyone knows where i can apply for a pre paid visa card ? Tried to get a normal Visa but it's not been possible due to no credit history.

So in Poland you also can't get a credit card without a credit history?
Funny, because I overheard some Poles in the US laughing at Americans that if you have no credit history you can't get a credit card, and how can you get credit history if you can't get a credit card? So it's the same in Poland after all.

If you know someone in Poland, you cold co-sign on a credit card or get a card from your own country, which are accepted in Poland.

Just found out maybe ING Bank is the only bank that offers Pre Paid Visa Cards.

Just open a bank account here in PL and they give you a visa debit card which is accepted anywhere.

Yep, ING definitely give proper visa debit cards, as do PKO.

I got a prepaid Visa Card from BZWBK some time back. I dont know if they still do them but i think they do.

nope sorry... i was just asking them about this on Friday. Just a debit card. BUUUUT they do have a "virtual visa" which u can load, and make internet purchases.

I don't understand why more banks don't offer a prepaid credit card.

But they don't help build a credit history like a regular Visa. Right? I wonder if that matters to Sury.

So what's different between a pre-paid credit card and a debit card. In both cases you need a balnce before you can spend. Am i missing something here

Maybe some organizations don't accept Visa? Also, it would be one way to build a credit history with the banks. Showing restraint and being able to pay off (top up) the balance on a regular basis is one way to build the history. After all, you know those bankers, can't be too careful.

Thread answered. Go to any bank and get a a Visa debit card. If you have money no one will deny you a card.

They do, because you still have to use it responsibly - not going overdrawn, etc etc.

You cant use a debit card in many hotels, car rental agencies,cruise ships for your incidentals/reservations. Basically it bones you when you need to travel

I've never had a problem using mine for reservations...

Hmmm i know you want a visa card but you can get a pre-paid master card from idtprime.com

i said in many hotels....not every.

also when u want to buy internet time in many airports

Visa Debit cards usually can work as Visa Credit as well (in so far as what the retailer sees), so there should be no problem utilising internet in airports.

Visa Electron is a different story.

Really? I've been very lucky then. Never had a Visa debit card refused anywhere in the world. Now Maestro was a different problem!

What an utter shambolic system Maestro is, it's not helped by the fact that they've just bodged it together from all the former systems in use throughout the world.

I don't know why anyone would even want to take a Maestro card given the utter unreliablity of it.

And here was me thinking I was the only one that had problems with them. My work card is Maestro. I don't think I've used it once without some sort of problem. The most recent was them telling me I had to enter a security code that I had previously set up. Yet I hadn't set anything up. Rigmarole to get it fixed.

It could be worse it could be a Lloyds tsb visa debit, they don't seem to understand that any other countries exist outside the UK and simply stop it without telling the customer, You then have to phone up and ask them why they stopped it, Appears to be an almost daily event now.

True. Pre-paid, debit, credit cards...we were better when we kept our money under the mattress ;)

It's all because Maestro uses (or replaces) the former national debit card systems throughout the world - and I don't think they thought it through properly. The amount of trouble that UK Maestro users have abroad is one exmple - all because in reality, Maestro is just Switch rebranded, which was never usable outside of the UK (at least as far as I know?).

Why on earth they didn't simply set up Maestro to act as a Mastercard if needs be is entirely beyond me.

Having said this, Lloyds TSB debit cards are a pain in Poland - acceptance of them at cash points seems to be very erratic in nature.

can you top that up in poland? I havnt noticed the PP signs.. maybe I'm blind.....

perhaps because of the costs involved in the implementation and not enough expected returns due to little interest in the public


it worked for me as a credit card on a couple of occasions buying on the internet
- can't say would work that way every time

well that site i give with the pre paid mastercard u can change it to polish, anyway i have used it to book flights,hotels buying stuff on online an not a problem yet, the good thing about them is, no one can steal your account details online cause if they do, they wont get very much from a pre paid card

Toyota bank... toyotabank.pl would offer visa cc to its customers if you open and keep regular account for some time. It's not advertised but seems to be their practice.