This article discusses the various uses of stored-value cards and the different degrees of their use and acceptance four years after their introduction.

Summary: On January 13, 2005, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia sponsored a workshop led by Gary Palmer, chief operating officer and co-founder of WildCard Systems, to examine the developing market for prepaid card products. Palmer described several distinct...

This conference, sponsored by the Payment Cards Center, brought together prepaid card industry leaders and regulators to discuss how various prepaid-card systems work and the ways in which different state and federal laws can affect them. The conference featured sessions on bank- and...

Prepaid cards, also commonly referred to as stored-value cards, are typically credit card-sized pieces of plastic that contain or represent an amount of pre-loaded value. They include a wide range of payment products, such as gift cards, payroll cards, teen cards, and travel cards. Despite...

On March 30, 2005, the Payment Cards Center hosted a workshop led by Sherrie L.W. Rhine and Sabrina Su of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Office of Regional and Community Affairs to discuss the relevance of stored-value cards to “unbanked” or underserved consumers. The authors...

What value does a prepaid gift card retain when the company where it can be spent files for bankruptcy? A legal intern looks at the law and recent cases and offers advice to consumers.

Some consumers use prepaid cards like cash—others, in place of a bank account.