Over the last 20-plus years, Netspend has grown to more than 5 million active accounts. What is Netspend?įounded in 1999, Netspend is a financial services company that specializes in reloadable prepaid debit cards for consumers who lack access to traditional banking or typically rely on “alternative financial services” such as check-cashing businesses or high-priced payday loans. Netspend is a provider of prepaid debit cards on the Visa and Mastercard networks - keep reading to learn more about how they work, their pros and cons and the fees you need to watch out for. Prepaid cards offer unbanked individuals in particular, many of whom don’t trust banks or earn too little money to open an account, an alternative way to manage their money. However, for roughly 63 million unbanked or underbanked adults, navigating an increasingly cashless society without full access to banks can make even the most basic tasks difficult, if not impossible. It’s how most of us get paid and otherwise conduct the business of day-to-day life: the quick grocery-store run when you realize you’re out of toilet paper, the swing by the drive-through to avoid having to actually make dinner.
For a majority of American adults, it’s hard to imagine not having a bank account.
