Users of a pre-paid MasterCard from UK firm Tuxedo Money Solutions will soon be able to top up their cards via text message, as part of a new service called 'eccount'.
Tuxedo says that the SMS top-up service, along with text alerts to warn customers when their balance is low, will be available from December.
Tuxedo says its pre-paid MasterCard users will be automatically signed up to eccount, which also lets customers manage multiple cards online, share money with friends and family in the UK or abroad and use the Internet to transfer funds to separate cards within the same account.
The card, which is personalised with the users name and eccount number, is available over the counter and can be loaded at over 35,000 locations in the UK as well as online or by bank transfer.
Tuxedo says it will add more new services to eccount on a regular basis as it pushes the adoption of pre-paid cards in the UK.
Research commissioned by MasterCard earlier this year predicted a total spend on pre-paid cards in the UK of $34 billion by 2010.