A Good Spanking? Priceless

Last week while strolling through a large drugstore I noticed foil-wrapped packages on display:




Vanilla MasterCards? It's hard to make out the print on the wrapper, but here's what was inside the package:



I had never heard of them before, so when I got back to my computer I looked it up. The site was extremely helpful and polite, if somewhat misguided:



They are like gift cards, but they're prepaid credit cards. Why? Prepaid credit cards are great because you aren't charged interest as there is no balance owing. You basically use the amount on the card. They are also better than store gift cards as gift cards usually can only be used at the store where they were purchased. Since prepaid MasterCards are also credit cards, you can use them virtually anywhere credit cards are accepted electronically.




I hope it's only a matter of time until we also see this: