GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - PRE PAID CREDIT CARDS: REBILLS: is there anyway to tell the difference?

drriley · 08-26-2009, 11:00 AM

I wonder if any of the card recipients made online purchases. lol

Schemes to distribute aid and benefits

By: The Economist

EARLIER this year more than 1.5m residents of Pakistan?s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) fled their homes to escape fighting between the army and Islamist militants. Faced with the problem of distributing aid in a region with an honour code that frowns on cash handouts, the government turned in June to a local bank and Visa, a card-payments network. Within a week they began issuing pre-paid debit cards. Some 230,000 cards?one per displaced family?were handed out, each loaded with $300 per month that could be spent on food and medicine at any of 500 terminals in and around their camps.

Using plastic to channel aid and benefits is a growing global trend. Visa is also doing this in the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, where 800,000 people get food aid, fuel subsidies and even rewards for attending school on its Solidarity Card. MasterCard, another card network, is active in Poland and Peru. Mature economies have caught on, too: at least 38 American states distribute benefits on cards or plan to do so.

For governments, the savings can be substantial. It costs a penny to put money into an account linked to a card, compared with 60 cents to send out a cheque, says Shane Osborn, the state treasurer of Nebraska, whose card schemes include child benefit and income support. The state has been able to halve its call-centre staff because it now gets fewer inquiries about lost cheques and the like. Card schemes mean less fraud, too. Pakistan?s is backed by a database of biometric information.

For recipients the advantages include an end to cheque-cashing fees (of $1.5 billion a year in America alone, Visa claims), convenience (you don?t have to be at home to get the money) and greater security (the balance is safe if the card is lost). The card networks and banks, meanwhile, take a slice of every transaction from merchants.

There is also a social benefit. Ali Hakeem, head of Pakistan?s National Database and Registration Authority, sees the NWFP scheme as a ?massive financial-inclusion programme?. The hope is that some of the 95% of recipients who previously had no link to the formal financial system will eventually become regular bank customers because of the scheme, or at least hang on to their cards as a way to save as well as spend.

(Source:<http://tinyurl.com/na53ph>)

08-26-2009, 11:00 AM
drriley Confirmed User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 263	Use of pre-paid debit cards when disaster strikes. I wonder if any of the card recipients made online purchases. lol Schemes to distribute aid and benefits By: The Economist EARLIER this year more than 1.5m residents of Pakistan?s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) fled their homes to escape fighting between the army and Islamist militants. Faced with the problem of distributing aid in a region with an honour code that frowns on cash handouts, the government turned in June to a local bank and Visa, a card-payments network. Within a week they began issuing pre-paid debit cards. Some 230,000 cards?one per displaced family?were handed out, each loaded with $300 per month that could be spent on food and medicine at any of 500 terminals in and around their camps. Using plastic to channel aid and benefits is a growing global trend. Visa is also doing this in the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, where 800,000 people get food aid, fuel subsidies and even rewards for attending school on its Solidarity Card. MasterCard, another card network, is active in Poland and Peru. Mature economies have caught on, too: at least 38 American states distribute benefits on cards or plan to do so. For governments, the savings can be substantial. It costs a penny to put money into an account linked to a card, compared with 60 cents to send out a cheque, says Shane Osborn, the state treasurer of Nebraska, whose card schemes include child benefit and income support. The state has been able to halve its call-centre staff because it now gets fewer inquiries about lost cheques and the like. Card schemes mean less fraud, too. Pakistan?s is backed by a database of biometric information. For recipients the advantages include an end to cheque-cashing fees (of $1.5 billion a year in America alone, Visa claims), convenience (you don?t have to be at home to get the money) and greater security (the balance is safe if the card is lost). The card networks and banks, meanwhile, take a slice of every transaction from merchants. There is also a social benefit. Ali Hakeem, head of Pakistan?s National Database and Registration Authority, sees the NWFP scheme as a ?massive financial-inclusion programme?. The hope is that some of the 95% of recipients who previously had no link to the formal financial system will eventually become regular bank customers because of the scheme, or at least hang on to their cards as a way to save as well as spend. (Source:<http://tinyurl.com/na53ph>)