Prepaid debit cards are one of the biggest, and most unexpected booms in the last few years within the financial sector. Recent reports have shown that some twenty six million households in the US, or roughly ten percent, do not hold accounts at any bank. With all of the scandals that occurred in the last ten years, it's no surprise that banks are losing trust. You don't need a bank account to take out a prepaid card, of course, and that may account for much of their rising popularity. A decade ago, the notion of a credit card with bills you pay beforehand sounded absurd, but thanks to massive credit card debt in the last ten years, the financial landscape has changed significantly. Prepaid cards allow you to shop online with or without a Paypal account, rent hotel rooms and cars and so on.In essence, prepaid cards are not unlike credit cards, except that they don't affect your credit.So who profits from all of this? Well, a lot of the companies who put out the cards are actually part of larger group. For instance, NetSpend market and sell or market prepaid cards as an alternative way to carry plastic. Today, PrePaid debit cards are everywhere. They started as a gimmick that seemed there for little more than shopping online without a PayPal account, but today, prepaid debit cards have commercials all over television, they're landing celebrity spokespeople and some companies in the business are reporting profits in the range of over a hundred million a year.Knowing that these cards are prepaid, one may wonder where these profits are coming from. Whenever you fill a pre-paid card, there is a small fee that goes along with the money you're putting on the card itself. Rather than late fees and fines and so on, these cards use an up-front system in order not to put the user at credit risk.So, what's the advantage, then? Well, clearly, in the event that you can use cash to pay for an item in person, it makes more sense to pay for that item in cash. Prepaid debit cards are popular, however, as an alternative to credit cards. By keeping a prepaid card in your glove compartment for gas, say, you have an emergency fund to dip into when you need to fill the tank without worrying about getting a bill in the mail. By using a prepaid card, you don't have to worry about what shape your credit is in while shopping online.Prepaid cards allow a greater degree of financial versatility. Here in the second decade of the 21st Century, versatility is very important. Prepaid cards have allowed many to begin working online by having employers deposit money into a prepaid card's account. Likely, you've seen their kiosks in grocery stores and shopping malls. However, NetSpend is working as a corporation under MasterCard and Visa.