You pay 25 cents every time you load money into the account and an additional 25 cents each time the card is used. You can specify whether the card may be used at ATM machines to get cash. But watch out there. Because it's not a credit card, you'll never pay interest charges or late fees. It takes only a few seconds to reload the card from the Web site.
Funds are available immediately.
When Katherine used the card Sunday, I knew right away where she had shopped and how much she spent, though I didn't know what she bought. For those rare moments when you're away from your computer, you can add money from a touch-tone phone by punching in the child's account number and a secret personal identification number. Well, theoretically you can. I tried to add money to his account via phone, but for some reason it wouldn't accept my PIN, and unfortunately the company's customer service department is available only Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Central Standard Time. If PocketCard wants to be a big player in the consumer financial arena, they'll need to improve on those hours.