The Balance Blog

For years, the term “prepaid” has been synonymous with plastic gift cards and stopgap banking solutions - products that were useful in specific situations, but limited. Beneath the surface, however, prepaid technology has quietly grown into one of the most powerful layers of modern financial infrastructure. 

Think about the last time you received a new credit card. Did you wait a week for it to arrive in the mail? Activate it by phone? Maybe even type the number into your mobile wallet?