Prepaid credit cards are growing in popularity among consumers fed up with bank fees.

In 2011, consumers loaded about $460 billion onto prepaid cards, according to research from Mercator Advisory Group. And by 2016, the amount of money added to prepaid cards is expected to mushroom by almost 50 percent to nearly $685 billion.

Prepaid credit cards function very much like debit cards, but they’re not linked to any bank checking account. So prepaid card users typically load money onto their cards through direct deposit or online transactions.

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We have all heard the horror stories of debt collectors harassing debtors to the point that they cannot take it anymore, but many people do not know that there are rules governing debt collection that all debt collection agencies must adhere to or face severe penalties.  If a debt collection agency that is contacting you is breaking any of these rules, you can report them to the Federal Trade Commission for a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  You may be entitled to financial compensation and damages due to the actions of the debt collection agency.

No Misrepresentations

A debt collection company is not allowed to misrepresent who they are when they contact you.  They cannot claim that they are from a credit monitoring bureau, an attorney’s office, or government agency if the information is not completely true and honest.  They are not allowed to claim that any document sent by them is a legal document if it is not.  If they are asked, they must state their name, the company that they work for, and the reason for calling the individual.

No Verbal Abuse

The representatives of collection agencies cannot use abusive or profane language when they are contacting a debtor about a debt that they are attempting to collect.  Obscene language, threats of violence or bodily harm, and even threats of arrest are prohibited by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and can result in the company being fined a significant amount of money for each occurrence investigated by the Federal Trade Commission.  If a debt collection representative becomes verbally abusive on the telephone, hang up and report the incident as soon as you can.

Verification Requests Must Be Honored

If you do not believe that the debt is valid, you can request that the debt collection agency send you verification in writing that you owe the money that they are attempting to collect.  This information must be sent within five days of the request and should include a description of the debt, the total amount owed, and the steps that can be taken to dispute the debt if the person believes that they do not owe any money or if the information provided is inaccurate.

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It’s been quite the year for me and am very thankful to Tom Drake for all of his support in my online endeavours.  He makes running a blog easy because I can just focus on writing without having to worry about all the technical stuff of running a blog.  Together, Tom and I launched Retire Happy Blog at the beginning of 2011 and in less than a year, the site has grown beyond my expectations.  My biggest accomplishment was being voted Canada’s Best Personal Finance Blog by the Globe and Mail.

As we near the end of the year, I thought it would be fitting to share some of my best and most popular articles of 2011.  I can

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Tis the season of giving so Ive decided to award two lucky MyMoneyBlog readers with $2,500 in cold hard cash!  And as an added bonus, each winner will receive a brand new iPad 2 (64gb).  Yes, really! I dont think youll find a richer giveaway on the web so please tell your friends, family and coworkers to get an entry in!   Winners will be selected at random on the morning of Wednesday, December 21st and to enter the giveaway, you need to follow two simple steps:

1. which will help me understand your credit card preferences better in 2012.  Remember to hit the blue arrow on the bottom right of the survey so your survey is submitted!
2. .  I know that many of you may already subscribe in other ways, but this is the only way that I can actually track. I wan

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