PrePaid Card Regulation Next?

Should Prepaid Cards Be Regulated? - WSJ.com

By KRISTINA PETERSON

Credit cards, debit cards and gift cards are due to face tighter regulations in the coming months thanks to a new credit-card law signed by President Barack Obama, but one piece of plastic is flying under the regulatory radar.

Prepaid reloadable cards, payment cards that aren’t tethered to a traditional bank account, won’t get the same regulatory scrutiny under the recently enacted Credit Card Act of 2009.

Between 2003 and 2007, prepaid transactions jumped from less than $5 billion a year to somewhere between $39 billion and $113 billion, according to industry estimates

Consumer advocates want to change that. They are urging the Federal Reserve to strengthen guidelines affecting prepaid cards from companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Green Dot Corp., NetSpend Corp. and H&R Block Inc. while the Obama administration’s focus remains concentrated on regulating the credit-card and banking industries.

Unlike credit cards, prepaid reloadable cards aren’t covered by the federal statutes that protect credit-card holders from fraud or limit their losses when cards are lost or stolen. Though many prepaid card companies do offer some consumer protections, they do so voluntarily.

Though the new credit-card laws don’t oblige the Fed to weigh in on prepaid cards, it could choose to issue regulations. The Fed added consumer protections to payroll cards in July 2007, for example.

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Prepaid Cards, Green Dot, NetSpend, Regulation, Payroll Cards