I'm looking for a way to "use" money on my prepaid MasterCard

Life Hacking
1

Hi!

I’m not sure which section of the forum would be the best…

I hope you Guys&Girls might have some creative ideas of a way to “take out” around 3k CHF from a prepaid MasterCard. Some time ago I got too excited with the bonus offer, and topped-up the card too much :frowning:

I can use it in two ways:

  1. virtual MasterCard (so online)
  2. POS transactions, but only contactless

What I cannot do with it:

  • Revolut top-up / TransferWise top-up - not accepted for financial services
  • not working with Curve

My “regie” actually accepts rent payments by CC, so that would be perfect, but they don’t support contactless :sleepy:

I keep using it for shopping, but (luckily) I do not spend much with CHF these days, trying to do bigger shopping in the neighboring France (therefore not worth using this card cause of bad exchange rate and FX fees)

Any ideas?

2

i9 9900k + RTX 2080 Ti gaming rig? 65" OLED TV? A fullframe mirrorless camera? A tube amp? :wink:

Are you time limited to spend the 3000 CHF? If not, it will dissipate quicker than you think on basic stuff which you pay for in CHF - local shopping, train tickets, airplane tickets, petrol etc.

1 Like
3

Luckily, I manage to spend quite little on grocery in Switzerland (tnx France), and the trains are covered with the AG :slight_smile: It might be a good thing that it doesn’t dissipate quicker than… :slight_smile:
If I don’t find a faster way of (effectively) using it, I will spend it with the next AG extension, in June.

I just hoped that there is a creative way :slight_smile:

The limit is up to 3000 CHF/month, and the profit is permanent 2% bonus for topping up the card, that’s how I end up with still around 3k on it, cause I was using it, but then topping it up again.

4

So disappointed that you don’t like my creative ways ;-).

How about an ATM withdrawal? It’s a debit card, so one time withdrawal fee (5 CHF?) and you’re done.

5

:wink:

Unfortunately there is no physical plastic. It’s a vitual debit card + contactless (ApplePay).
Are there any ATMs that would allow a withdrawal from ApplePay?

6

Buy a couple of iPhones and sell them on ricardo. They’ll sell for CHF 3 under the toppreise.ch price.

And hope they don’t announce a new model when you have them.

Otherwise just buy the rubbish bags you need until the day you die. But don’t move to another town then :slight_smile:

2 Likes
7

And you’ll pay 8% in fees to ricardo. Very bad way to lose 8% of capital :slight_smile:

8

No worries guys!
I won’t do stupid things. Will just slowly spend it on grocery and AG at some point, if there is no better way.

BTW, I like the rubbish bag lifetime stock idea, but in Geneva we don’t have taxed rubbish bags, free trash! :smile:

9

If you are into cryptos you could buy those with credit card but that would probably be kind of inefficient and they are not so hot right now.

10

Ask a friend, you can buy stuff for your friend in exchange for cash.

11

Can you use it to buy reka rail money from like coop at 3% advantage and then use it for the AG in summer

12

Yes, it looks like this is actually a great way of buying Abo General :slight_smile:
2% on card top-up + 3% with reka. That’s what I’m going to do.

I have never heard about Reka Money/Checks before coming to this forum.
This seems like a thing everybody should be doing while being a Mustachian!

Apparently with Reka Money you can pay Petrol (Avia, BP, Coop), buy any rail tickets (SBB), pay local transportation (TPG in Geneva at least), and it’s a permanent discount of 3%

13

Be careful that there is reka money and reka rail money. Usually the 3% is for reka rail only. Usable only at sbb

1 Like
14

I think I’ve bought reka at coop and not reka rail. I’ve used it to buy my GA ofc. Note that you might not be able to buy it with a CC. Cash only. I’m not sure. Ask your Coop info point.

15

Why not use twint?

What you need: A bank account that has twint.

What you’re going to do:

  1. Set up Twint Prepaid with your prepaid card
  2. Set money to yourself with the Twint account your bank offers.

A friend might want to help you out and avoid having to set up two twint accounts. You might need two phone numbers for this to work

1 Like
16

For some reason that didn’t work out for me.

But what you can also do is buy a “TWINT Guthabencode” for eg 100 CHF at Coop and then charge a TWINT Prepaid app with that code. Then you can send that TWINT money around as you wish, including as suggested by wirpo032 to a TWINT hooked up to PostFinance or a Bank.

PS: There’s a yearly limit of 5000 CHF which you can transfer via TWINT btw.

1 Like
17

I actually tried it (attaching the virtual card to my Twint account, but it doesn’t work for this card cause they don’t accept “pseudo-money” DCC code probably.

I will try with the TWINT Guthabencode suggestion :slight_smile: