Not All Reloadable Bank Cards Are The Same

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- What do you need to know about reloadable prepaid bank cards?

If you're sending your kid off to college, you want to be sure that she has enough money in case of emergency, but not so much that she starts to think that the fee for that new music streaming site is an emergency that your credit card will cover.

Which is one reason twenty three million people now have reloadable, prepaid bank cards, which is a 50% increase over the last two years. But you need to understand a couple of things, the most important of which is that not all reloadable cards are the same.

Some have more fees than other to activate them, add money, make purchase, withdraw cash, or do a balance check and may have a monthly fee. Second, while the law says that consumers can't be held responsible for more than $50 in fraudulent use of a credit card if reported, there's NO LAW that requires the same protection to reloadable prepaid cardholders. Some cards do offer that protection, so ask-and ask if you have to register it to be covered and if so, how.

Of course, no card will protect you against dumb purchases made by a teen on her own for the very first time.