I’m very excited to tell you about the New American Express Prepaid card that is perfect for traveling, especially if you are on a budget! I’m also excited to use it while I’m in San Diego this week for the BlogHer conference. You see, American Express has sponsored myself ( along with a group of other blogger’s) so I can use the prepaid card on my trip and then share my experience with my readers. I haven’t actually used it yet but I’m ready too!

This prepaid card isn’t like the other on the market because there are no fees involved in getting or using the card. Which is always a plus in my book. It’s also a great budgeting tool because what you put on the card is all you can spend! You use it just as you would a regular American Express card but the card physically will not let you overdraft. Therefore traveling and using a prepaid card is a great way to not go over budget! But here’s the BEST part, you order the card and have your name printed on it. It looks just like any other American Express card. And you can use it over and over again.

So how can you get one and how easy is it?? Well its super easy. Just head on over to AmericanExpress.com/prepaid and order a card. It’s free and you can select from a few colors. You can order the card without even putting any money on it. It takes about 1-2 weeks to arrive so make sure you leave yourself plenty of time before you need it.

Once you receive your card you can then load money onto it a few different ways.

• Transfer money from your bank account (savings or checking)
• Transfer from your existing American Express credit card
• Purchase a GreenDot MoneyPak card and load money onto that and then transfer it onto your prepaid card.

The first two options are free but the GreenDot MoneyPak card there is a $4.95 fee but it’s the fastest way the first time.

I choose to purchase the GreenDot MoneyPak card just because of I didn’t have a lot of time to put money on my card. I don’t have an American Express credit card and to use my bank account it would of taken a few days for my account to be paired up with my card.  So I went to CVS and purchased a MoneyPak and loaded money onto it right there. It did cost me $4.95 to get this card but it was quick and convenient.  Next time I’ll use my bank account.

Once I purchased the GreenDot card I signed into  my prepaid American Express card account and choose “Load Funds” in my account and then selected “visit moneypak to load with cash” and followed the instructions.  Within seconds my money was on my prepaid American Express card.  Now I’m ready to go.

I will let you know later in the week how it’s going using my card.  I plan to use it for several transactions while at BlogHer.

Have you already used an American Express Prepaid card?  I’d love to hear about it if you have.

Disclosure: American Express sponsored my trip to BlogHer by providing me with money to load onto the prepaid American Express card in exchange for me sharing my experiences on my blog.  My opinions are 100% mine.