Hyderabad: With the demonetisation of high value currency notes and shortage of cash, people are opting for prepaid or preloaded cards to make small transactions as they don’t want to use their primary debit card issued by the bank for the fear of skimming or data theft.

“I am afraid of using my primary debit card at small shops for the fear of skimming. So I have bought a preloaded card from my bank for the daily use,” said Sayan Banerjee, a software professional.

According to RBI, the prepaid cards issued by the banks can be used to withdraw cash from an ATM, pu-rchase of goods and services at Point-of-Sale or online purchase and for domestic fund transfer from one person to another. Such prepaid cards are known as open system prepaid cards.”

However, the prepaid cards issued by authorised non-bank entities can be used only for purchase of goods and services at physical or online stores and for domestic fund transfer from one person to another. Such prepaid cards are known as semi-closed system prepaid cards. These cards can be used only domestically. Prepaid cards can be issued for an amount ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 50,000.

“Prepaid cards allow secure transactions without carrying cash and remove the fear of compromising security as the card holder can only use it till the money preloaded in the card is exhausted,” said Adhil Shetty, the CEO of BankBazaar.com.

Unable to get small change for Rs 2,000 note, the only note dispensed by ATMs at most of the places, people are paying salaries of house servants through prepaid cards.

Apart from prepaid cards, people can use different type of cards such as gift cards, travel cards and petro cards depending on their requirement. If people want to using plastic currency for giving pocket money to their children, they could use e-wallet cards like ICICI Pocket, Axis Bank Lime or those offered by your bank. These allow you to transfer money from your main account seamlessly. Specific purpose cards like petro cards or those issued by any commercial establishments could be used at places, where the card was intended for use.

Different types of plastic money

Prepaid card

You need to buy these cards from banks. Cash can be reloaded several times.
It can be used for buying offline or online and also can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs.
Ideal if you don’t want to use main bank debit card or give your servant for shopping.
It could be used to pay
servants who don’t have bank accounts.
Prepaid cards issued by non-bank entities could be used to buy online and offline products but can’t be used to withdraw cash.
E wallet card
Some banks which offer e-wallet apps issue these cards. These cards allow users to buy products offline by swiping the ewallet card.

Gift card
Gift card is almost similar to prepaid card in features, except that you cannot withdraw cash and it cannot be reloaded with cash, if you exhaust the available money.

Petro card
This card is issued by oil companies and can be used for filling fuel. This card can get you loyalty points.

Shop specific cards
Stores like Shoppers Stop, Cleartrip, Lifestyle, Dominos, Big Bazaar, etc issue preloaded cards. Some of these cards can be used multiple times only at specific store.