Pre-paid Mastercard
 

Just curious if anyone has tried one of those new pre-paid Mastercards. I saw some on display at a CVS store...from the fine print, it appeared you could use another credit card to 'fund' the pre-paid card. The obvious mileage earning opportunities would be very intriguing: using the pre-paid card to get its value returned in cash from an ATM to pay off the card used for 'funding', which earned the miles on the funding transaction (ie, use an Amex Starwood card to charge $500 at a time to fund the pre-paid MC, and then use the pre-paid MC at an ATM to get the cash to pay the Amex).

I would guess that there is an ATM fee like a Visabuxx card.

There is even a monthly free for $4.95, plus some up front activation fee.

Too much loss there to be of real value, I think. Although if you give cash/check gifts you could consider switching those to Bank of America Visa gift cards, which would allow you to funnel those amounts through a mileage card. The fee is still hefty, though, at $5.95 or $7.95 per card purchased. It pays for personalization, etc. It's no good for simple mile accumulation because it would cost too much to get the cash back out (that fee plus $1.50 per withdrawal, with a $100/day limit). But if you were giving a gift anyway, maybe it's worth a look.

http://www.bankofamerica.com/giftcard/