excella Visa Prepaid–A Prepaid Card Just for New York City?
The excella Visa Prepaid Card is available only at retail locations in New York City. So, it must be exclusive–right? Nah. Here are the details.
excella Visa At-a-Glance
Pros
- Savings account
- One free cash load option
Cons
- Available only in New York City
- High fees
- Purchase denial fees
Overview of the excella Visa
Why is the excella Visa Prepaid Card available only at New York City retail locations? You got me.
Maybe excella has something so unique that making it hard to get is just part of the hype–right? Nope.
The excella Visa is a fairly basic prepaid card. It has few features that set it apart from other cards, and it’s missing some of the more important ones, like a mobile app. It has one cost-saving feature–free cash loads at excella retail locations. Those include several stores in New York City.
Outside of the free loads, the card is on the pricey side.
excella Visa Prepaid Debit Card not what you are looking for? Check out other options in our Best Prepaid Debit Cards list.
excella Visa Fees
The excella card offers two fee plans. The standard plan is “pay-as-you-go” with fees of $2 for each PIN purchase and $1 for each purchase when you select the credit option at the register. The unlimited transaction plan charges a monthly fee of $10–higher than most monthly fee cards. Transactions are free with the monthly fee plan.
ATM fees are also higher than most cards. excella charges $3 for each withdrawal. And it has no ATM network, so you’ll be charged the ATM owner surcharge in addition to excella’s fee.
Excella also charges decline fees. If a purchase is declined for an insufficient balance, you’ll be charged $.50. An ATM decline will cost you $1.00.
Features
The excella Visa offers some standard features like text alerts and direct deposit.
It also offers a savings account attached to the card. The savings account pays interest. Excella purports to pay a “competitive rate,” but the rate isn’t disclosed on its site or in its terms. You can get the rate only through its portal after getting the card. It doesn’t, however, offer promotional high-interest savings rates offered by some other cards like the Brink's Prepaid Mastercard® or Netspend® Visa® Prepaid Card.
Notably, the excella card doesn’t have a mobile app to handle check deposits and other mobile banking.
Bottom Line
Do you live in New York City and deposit a lot of cash to your prepaid card? If so, the excella card’s free cash load option at certain New York City stores might offset its otherwise high fees.
For everyone else, you’ll find plenty of better options among prepaid debit cards.