Hey, I love proving the Internet (or Reddit) wrong.
Ever wondered if you can use that prepaid card abroad? Though some prepaid cards are limited to the country or region they are registered to, there are those can actually be used abroad. Quite frankly, the only way to know is to try it.
In my case, I was able to pay for a few things abroad via my Visa prepaid gift card, notoriously bypassing Reddit lore (cue the music). In fact, I had less issue using the prepaid card than my actual bank card.
Of course, it is important to remember that mileage may vary too. For instance, a gift card may work in one country like France, but may not work in another country like Australia.
In theory, if a prepaid gift card is a Visa or a Mastercard, it should work, since well, they are the world's two largest payment processing networks.
I'm glad I didn't let Reddit dictate my life for once 😅
Using a Visa prepaid card in Mexico City
Since I'm currently in Mexico City for an extended amount of time, I wanted to see if it would work, since the dollar generally goes farther here. And honestly, I just wanted to get rid of all my gift cards.
I had a $30 Visa gift card (so much money, right!) that was just not enough to pay for anything, so on a trip to the Mexican supermarket Sumesa, I decided that I wanted to pay for $81.97 MXN ($4.51 USD) with my card.
To my delight, it went through!
That's four passion fruits, and a huge bottle of water, by the way.
Then I made even more purchases!
Curious, I rushed back to my Airbnb to see how it worked. Just like debit and credit cards, prepaid gift cards are subject to exchange rates and fees all of their own, so I wanted to see exactly how much had been deducted from the account.
Here's how it ended up faring.
| Restaurant/Vendor | MXN | Visa Conversion | Google Conversion | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sumesa | 81 | $4.78 | $4.71 | $0.07 |
| Torteria Los Guerros | 100 | $5.83 | $5.65 | $0.18 |
| Paxil | 155.1 | $9.01 | $8.77 | $0.24 |
In the end, I ended up paying a couple of cents above the exchange rate.
Though the percentage seems to vary across the board per transaction, it ended up averaging around 2%, costing me around 49 cents to use it. It still ended up being far less than what the exchange rate calculator estimated.
Is it the best use of gift cards? Probably not, since it costs me more (but just marginally).
But in my opinion, it is harder to get rid of gift cards since there is always some pesky few cents left I can't pay anything for back in the States.
C'est la vie!
