PayPal has launched a reloadable pre-paid Visa card for the UK market that can be used to pay for purchases in traditional retail stores as well as via the Internet.
Issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the PIN-enabled card costs £4.95 and can be bought on the PayPal Web site, where it can also be reloaded. Users can also top the card up offline at Post Offices and PayPoint retail outlets.
PayPal - which launched a credit card in 2006 - says the pre-pay card enables people without credit or debit cards to shop online. It also enables those who sell on the Internet - via sites such as eBay - to access funds stored in their PayPal account offline.
"Our new card will give PayPal customers more confidence to shop online with retailers that don't currently accept PayPal," says Carl Scheible, MD, PayPal UK.
"Over one in ten of our customers told us that they're looking for ways to manage their spending," adds Scheible. "The Top Up card allows people to control their spending."
The pre-paid market is set to explode according to research commissioned by MasterCard Europe last year which predicted total spend on the cards in the UK would hit $34 billion by 2010.