Summary: You want to check vanilla prepaid card balance, but do not want to wait on hold with customer care! Here are some of the best ways to do so.
Customer care lines are frequently busy and with their long hold times and thick accent of representatives, you can end up having a harrowing experience without actually finding any solution to your problem. The same is the story with bank or payment card service company customer care. Regardless you want to order a new check book or find out balance in your prepaid card, calling up the customer care number is a hit or miss affair. Long hold times and frequent call drops means phone call might not be the way to go. Still there are many options left.
If you are not in a hurry and are also rather concerned about not sharing your card details with anyone one phone, you can simply email your card provider to check vanilla prepaid card balance. In most cases, you will have to provide last few digits of your card number along with the card variant information. Depending upon company to company, the customer care executive will respond to your email instantly or within a few hours. The biggest advantage of email is that your card details remain very safe. The major challenge is of course, the reply might not be instant like other methods.
Most card companies also provide a website which can work on both a computer or a phone. You will have to visit this website and register your card with a user id. This process is generally very fast but will need you to have access to internet. Most people do have access to internet in these times when we are moving to fifth generation mobile phone networks. Most bank websites work equally well on computers and phones, so this might not be an issue. An extra advantage with this method is, you can also get transaction information from website. The core challenge is of course you will need to ensure that your web connection is https secured, so your data remains safe.
You can also send a SMS to your bank to check vanilla prepaid card balance. This process is very safe and simple and can be done from anywhere as-long-as you have even minimal mobile phone network coverage. You will need to compose a SMS in a specific format and mention last 4 or 6 digits of your card number and send it to the prepaid card issuer. Almost instantly, you will get a reply SMS with information about your card account balance. This method has no visible friction of any kind, text messaging is generally secure, and you are not sharing you card details with any person who may misuse it.
Yes, you do not need to call up customer care every time to check prepaid card balance. There are many better ways to do it.
