Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Winners to be Announced in Jan 2010

Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Winners to be Announced in Jan 2010: "The second edition of the Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards announce which means results will be announced in January 2010. Worth checking out!"

4 night break plus �100 spend money at scenic Ramsey Lodge

4 night break plus £100 spend money at scenic Ramsey Lodge: "BaBeeCard and Bluestone announce a nice christmas Prezzie. A four night stay in at Ramsey lodge with a £100 quid on a BaBee Prepaid MasterCard too. Nice one!!"

2% Discount on Your Mortgage With Phones4u Prepaid Cards

2% Discount on Your Mortgage With Phones4u Prepaid Cards-

NO, NOT REALLY- the Phones4u Neon and Escape prepaid cards are undoubtedly good value but you’d be downright silly to think that a 2% discount on your home mortgage with a prepaid card purchase was actually possible! Read on..

Avoid the Job Centre - Monitor Your prepaid Card Programme

Avoid the Job Centre - Monitor Your prepaid Card Programme:

"The success or failure of most prepaid card programmes lies in the product proposition but as a programme manager, you can do a few things to increase your chances of success by following best practice."

The O2 Cash Manager Prepaid Card is As FREE as can be!

The O2 Cash Manager Prepaid Card is As FREE as can be!:

"Its Free to Get, Load, Use and Withdraw cash. Need I say more why I think this is brilliant. It is going to rock the prepaid card market in the UK. Full review posted at Prepaid365."

Can Apple Inc. take over the Prepaid Card Industry, Please?

Can Apple Inc. take over the Prepaid Card Industry, Please?: "Apple Inc. offer an excellent customer service experience as I discovered with my iPhone. Wish the same could be said about the prepaid card industry. Why not let Apple run the prepaid card industry, have a look at Global warming and the War on Terror, too!"

A Prepaid Card by any Other Name

A Prepaid Card by any Other Name: "The role of marketers is to educate consumers with regards to how they can use prepaid cards and then simply let them get on with it. The category evolves simply by how the consumer chooses to use their prepaid card."

Banquets, Afghan Music and Prepaid Cards

Banquets, Afghan Music and Prepaid Cards:

Prepaid Cards seem a better fit in the business environment rather than the consumer world especially when it comes to using prepaid cards for event management. Read more about our prepaid expert's unholy obsession with prepaid cards and his newly discovered love for Afghan music!!

Prepaid Cards Coming of Age!

Prepaid Cards Coming of Age!: Analysts and prepaid card “experts” around the globe have been arguing that the prepaid cards are coming of age. They quote figures about growing acceptance in corporate and government circles. Amit Sharma, CEO and prepaid consultant at eMotion Associates, disagrees and here is why."

They are at it again in Googleville!

Well, just when you thought it was safe to say that you were starting to understand Google and the rules around optimising your website for Google’s search engine results – Google have done a Britney with an “Oops, we did it again” single of their own.

I am Gonna be your #1

It all happened on a quite Monday night as I sat running up some Google search results for sites I had spent time optimising recently. Typed in “prepaid marketing” in to Google and was quite chuffed to see my site as the #1 result – rightly so too as I was competing with 1/2 a million other pages for the right to be up there.

Turning the focus away from my blog, I moved on to other sites which I had spent numerous hours on and lo and behold, when I did a search for one of the most popular keywords, my other site was ranked #1 again!!!!! Grinning like a Cheshire cat and doing a dance and a jig which can only be described as improper and inappropriate with a total lack of courtesy to my neighbours (Yes, we live in houses with paper thin walls) at 2:00 am in the night – I spent the next 10 minutes marvelling at what I had done right.

During this phase of self admiration, I moved on from the Firefox browser to Internet Explorer and to continue with the gloating and frothing, did the same search again and viola…. my world seemed to crash around me as my site appeared a measly #7 in the rankings.

Cue: Drama – I was upset, angry and seething at Google for pulling the carpet under my feet. How could they take my dream away from me so quickly…?

And then, it happened….. I did the search in Firefox again – I was #1, Internet Explorer – #7, FF- #1, IE – #7, FF- #1, IE – #7, FF- #1, IE – #7…… what the hell was going on and it dawned on me.

On Firefox, I was signed in to my Google Account and Google was serving up the search results taking in to account not only their natural listing but also my search history. They had been sitting in a corner observing my search behaviour and then served me the site that I usually visited every time I searched for that keyword – my site!!

On Internet Explorer, on the other hand, I was not signed in to my Google account, so they were just serving me unadulterated natural listings.

Is there a point optimising if Google is going to play with the listings??

Whilst my bubble had been burst, it also got me thinking about optimising for natural listings.

Whilst it is actually not a bad thing that if I have a preference for a certain site or result and click through to it 80% of the time when I search for that phrase or item, Google recognises that is what I must be looking for and artificially boosts the results slightly but on the other hand, here I may be optimising like crazy but not a chance in the world if some other user has in the past visited some other site which is ranked below my site, it is likely that the other site may be served first in their searches.

Wasn’t Google’s mantra never to tamper with the listings or results? Logged in or not, shouldn’t the most relevant result be served up?

Personally, I love Google to bits – Adwords, Adsense, Webmaster Tools and all the wonderful bits and bobs and given their stance on search, I just think Google have made a big “booboo” if this is how they are looking to proceed with search!

Phones4u Takes on O2 with Prepaid MasterCard Card Launches

Phones4u has teamed up with Newcastle Building Society and MasterCard to launch the Escape Prepaid MasterCard and the Neon Prepaid MasterCard.

Unlike the fee-free cards that 02 recently announced for their customers, the Phones 4U cards carry charges.

The Escape MasterCard Prepaid Card and the Neon MasterCard Prepaid Card will not only make topping up your mobile phone easier, they can also be used to make purchases at over 28.5 million retailers worldwide that accept MasterCard and to withdraw cash from 1.5 million ATMs across the globe. Top ups can be made free via text message in just 60 seconds, 24 hours a day.

• Escape Prepaid MasterCard Website
• Neon Prepaid MasterCard Website

Both MasterCards are available to buy from 450 Phones4u stores, with no bank account needed and thus 100% card acceptance guaranteed.

Banks still dragging their heels

Prepaid Card companies are being innovative and thinking laterally by offering prepaid cards that provide basic banking facilities and budgeting tools such as the budgetmaster provided by ClearCash Prepaid Card which help with paying bills online as well as staying overdraft and debt free. The banks still seem to be kicking their heels over this for some reason. Still too worried about cannibalising credit card fees - thats our take!

http://www.prepaid365.com/Articles/prepaid-credit-cards-with-basic-bank-accounts.html

Some of the prepaid card providers providing such tools are

• ClearCash Prepaid Card
• Red88 Prepaid Card
• OneBanking Prepaid Card
• ThinkBanking Prepaid Card

In some ways, it seems we are going full circle with banking, credit, debt, no credit, no debt and then no banking!!

Clear the Decks with ClearCash

ClearCash have recently launched the ClearCash prepaid MasterCard which comes with the nifty Budgetmaster tool - ideal if you face budgeting problems.
The ClearCash account is all about intelligent money management and it shows in their efforts to keep costs to consumers down whilst providing a valuable service to consumers.

Some of the goodies on offer with the ClearCash prepaid card include

• Online bill payments and standing orders
• Unique online budgeting tools
• FREE financial healthchecks
• FREE live chat
• FREE SMS Balance Check
• FREE purchase protection
• Friendly money advisors

As always, the proof of the pudding will be in the tasting, so watch this space. The ClearCash prepaid card and icount have been reviewed on Prepaid365 and you can read the ClearCash prepaid card review here.

http://www.prepaid365.com/clearcash-prepaid-card.html

Rational FX Prepaid Card Launched and Reviewed on Prepaid365

Rational FX which have been lauded as one of the fastest growing FX companies in the UK have launched the Rational FX Prepaid Card. If these guys deliver anything like the quality and service of their currency business, travel money cards are going places this summer or whatever is left of it anyway!

Rational FX have an excellent reputation in the currency exchange market and the Rational FX prepaid card is out to deliver the same benefits and customer focus in the Prepaid market and in true Rational FX fashion, an excellent FX rate is delivered through the convenience of a prepaid card. This is backed up by excellent customer service and two currency card options in Euro and USD. If used wisely, the Rational FX prepaid card can be cost neutral attracting almost no fee.

Read the review and get your Rational FX card here: http://www.prepaid365.com/the-rational-fx-prepaid-card-review-at-P365.html

Prepaid365 Announce July 2009 Prepaid Card Awards

Prepaid365 announced the first edition of the quarterly Prepaid365 Prepaid Card Awards yesterday. The awards aim to recognise the best in category service provider for different categories as well as highlight a few worthy runners ups in each of those categories. Cashplus Prepaid Card, Caxton FX Prepaid Card and Splash prepaid were big winners on the night.

For a full list of winners, visit Prepaid365 and check out our best prepaid card announcement page.