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I'm confused: for me embossed and prepaid were kind of mutually exclusive. However VIABuy offers prepaid embossed Mastercards.

What are the limitations compared to a non-prepaid MasterCard? Are there any?

Edit: can such a card (embossed but prepaid) used "offline"?

Cedric H.
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Embossed vs. printed

Embossed credit cards are credit cards that have raised numbers. The purpose of the raised numbers is to allow the card to be used with carbon papers in a "zip-zap" offline machine. Printed cards without the raised numbers cannot be used with this machine. Functionally, this is the only difference between the two types of cards. Until relatively recently, just about every credit card had embossed numbers.

The carbon paper zip-zap devices are essentially obsolete. It is extremely easy for merchants to get online (you can process credit cards by smart phone today), and the carbon papers presented a security risk. I haven't seen one of these machines in years.

It is more expensive to manufacture an embossed card than it is to make a printed card. As a result, most gift/prepaid cards were printed to keep costs down.

The trend, however, is for all credit, debit, and gift cards to be printed. I have already received credit and debit cards with printed numbers.

Gift/Prepaid/Debit vs. Credit cards

I've looked at the advertising for the VIABUY card you are looking at. The issue they are talking about is that certain merchants might be reluctant to accept prepaid cards. Hotels are a big example of this: when they run your credit card at check-in, they might get approval for one night, but they want to be reasonably sure that if you stay longer or cause damage, they will be able to charge more. With a real credit card, they are more likely to be able to get more money if needed than with a prepaid, gift, or debit card. I've seen signs on hotel check-in desks asking customers not to use debit cards.

This particular card is designed to look like a credit card, in order to not give away the fact that it is a prepaid card. It doesn't say "prepaid" or "debit" on it, it is customized with your real name, and it has embossed numbers. But as I mentioned above, the embossed numbers on any card today are essentially cosmetic.

Offline transactions

Offline credit card transactions used to be quite common, but are rare today. You might occasionally see them if you buy something at a home sales party: the sales person will write your card number down on the order form and enter it online when she gets home. If the transaction gets rejected at that time, the sales person will simply cancel the sale and call you.

Credit card issuers used to guarantee offline transactions up to a certain dollar amount because they were so common. I don't think they do this anymore.

To answer your question, I don't think you would have a problem using this card in an offline transaction, on the rare occasion that you find yourself in that situation.

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Ben Miller
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  • Thanks for your answer. I understood that usually prepaid mastercards, are not embossed and printed with "electronic use only", using a zip-zap offline machine cannot be permitted as there would be no way to check if the balance is OK (thus making them online only). What about embossed prepaid then? – Cedric H. Jan 06 '16 at 13:50
  • That's up to the issuing bank and what contract you signed with them regarding overdraft. I'd presume you'd be expected to repay at the usual usurious interest rates plus a stupidity-tax find. If it hurts when you do that, don't do that ... – keshlam Jan 06 '16 at 14:03
  • Thanks for your update/edit. So that answers my question's edit ;) It is still "online only", has all the limitations of a prepaid/debit card but it's just made to look like a normal credit one ? – Cedric H. Jan 06 '16 at 14:03
  • @CedricH. Which limitations are you referring to? This product is essentially a debit card without the bank checking account. Debit cards are accepted everywhere credit cards are, with the exception I noted in my answer. The only issue comes when you get close to depleting your funds in your account. – Ben Miller Jan 06 '16 at 14:08
  • @BenMiller Yes that one. Am I correct that debit cards can be processed offline as there is some "room" for going past the funds limit of the account it is linked to, however for prepaid cards, this can't happen. So they should never be processed offline. If that's correct then having embossed prepaid cards without the mention "electronic use only" is a dirty trick. – Cedric H. Jan 06 '16 at 14:42
  • @BenMiller (Note also that I'm from Europe and the whole debit / credit business is not identical to what it looks like in the US) – Cedric H. Jan 06 '16 at 14:43
  • @CedricH. My experience is in the U.S. Whether it's a "dirty trick" or not is a matter of opinion, I guess. In my mind, if the card issuer doesn't have a problem with it, and you don't lie to the merchant if asked about it, I don't see a problem. In my experience, offline transactions are extremely rare today anyway, but your experience might be different. – Ben Miller Jan 06 '16 at 14:49
  • @BenMiller OK, for 99% of the cases I fully agree. I was thinking about reservations for hotels or renting a car. In my experience rental companies will ask for "real" credit cards, would accept this embossed prepaid but that's defeating their purpose, so in their view that would be a dirty trick. – Cedric H. Jan 06 '16 at 15:29
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    When PF Chang (chain of restaurants mostly in US) had a breach of their electronic system they reverted for several months to paper imprinting, or as you say "zip-zap". It was noted in news media precisely because it was unusual -- and although nobody said so, I suspect was chosen partly because it was very visible: "yes we are fixing that huge fraud you heard about, just look at this paper". http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/manual_receipts-fraud-pf_changs-1264.php – dave_thompson_085 Jan 06 '16 at 18:12
  • @dave_thompson_085 Very interesting, thanks for posting. From the story, it looks like they had a backup plan in place (dial-up processors) to deal with someone that doesn't have an embossed card or who for whatever reason didn't want to use the carbon copy machine. – Ben Miller Jan 06 '16 at 19:11