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Prepaid cards are a convenient way to manage your money when you don’t have access to a bank account.

With a prepaid card, you can only use the amount loaded onto it, which helps to control spending.

Prepaid cards are a safer alternative to cash and can be used at millions of shops in the USA, UK, Dubai and other outlets locally.

Some of the best prepaid card providers in the Kenya offer great value, award-winning customer service, and plenty of ways to earn rewards and save even more money.

From our blog post on how to shop and ship from AliExpress to Kenya, we mentioned that to shop online you will need a prepaid debit card for making online payments in Kenya.

This guide will help you pick the best card best prepaid debit cards in Kenya that you can use to do your online shopping.

But before we get into that, maybe it’s worth mentioning the difference between a debit (ATM) card, credit card and a prepaid debit card.

  • An debit (ATM card) is a card issued by your bank to help you access funds from your bank account directly via an ATM.
  • credit card is a card issued by your bank to help access funds (in the form of a loan) above your normal bank account balance. Like the name says, credit (loan), depending on your financial status the bank may decide to allow your to withdraw more funds than you have in your bank account to be paid back with an interest, of course . Here’s a more in-depth article on how credit cards work.
  • prepaid debit card is a card issued by your bank to help your access funds that you’ve only topped up in it.

Benefits of a Prepaid Debit Card

  1. It’s easy to use and convenient.
  2. It’s safer than carrying cash or using your bank ATM card especially when shopping online in Kenya.
  3. It’s accepted by millions of shops worldwide due to Visa and MasterCard functionality.
  4. You only spend what you have loaded onto the card.
  5. There’s no requirement to open or maintain a bank account with the card issuing bank
  6. You can reload the card with any amount of money* and use it to shop online safely in Kenya
    • *most bank will have a limit of $10,000 or equivalent in Kenya Shillings 

With that been said, let’s get on to some of best prepaid debit cards in Kenya that you can get to help shop online from any USA, UK or Dubai online shops.

1. I&M Prepaid Debit Visa and MasterCard

I&M offers 3 types of prepaid cards (1 Mastercard and 2 VISA Pre-paid cards) which are convenient payment cards designed for use both within Kenya and internationally on global shopping sites like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress.

Worth mentioning is their I&M MasterCard multicurrency card which enables you to carry out transactions in Euros, US Dollars, Great Britain Pound (GBP) and Kenya Shillings which is a plus because you save money by avoiding related currency conversion costs.

They are easy to purchase and available across the counter from all I&M Bank branches.

To learn more about their card features, fees and more, visit their website.

2. MPESA Global Pay Virtual Visa Card

M-PESA GlobalPay Virtual VISA Card is a partnership between M-PESA and VISA.

The virtual card is linked to your M-PESA wallet and enables you to make payments to international online merchants for goods and services using your card details.

The M-PESA GlobalPay virtual VISA card will only be used to facilitate payments on global shopping sites like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and many others.

The M-PESA GlobalPay virtual VISA card allows you to transact Kenya Shillings only.

To learn more about their card features, fees and more, visit their website.

3. KCB MeCash Visa Card

Weeknight grocery shopping, fuel for the weekend, shopping online for your son’s or daughter’s first birthday from USA or UK shops in Kenya, pampering at the spa; pay for your expenses with the KCB Me’ Card.

Me’ card is a prepaid card; top-up cash before transaction allowing you to remain in control of your spends.

The Me ‘card allows you to transact Kenya Shillings only.

To learn more about their card features, fees and more, visit their website.

4. NCBA Prepaid Visa Card

One card, three currencies, unlimited benefits. The best prepaid card in the market with three different currencies.

Just choose the wallet you wish to load and transact anywhere in USD, Euros, or Kenya Shillings.

To learn more about their card features, fees and more, visit their website

5. Family Bank Prepaid Visa Card

Family Bank has 3 prepaid cards options for you. It’s secure, easy to get and you don’t need a bank account to use it.

Also, worth mentioning is their Family Bank multicurrency visa card which enables you to carry out transactions in Euros, US Dollars, Great Britain Pound (GBP), Chinese Yuan and Kenya Shillings .

This is great because you save money by avoiding related currency conversion costs.

To learn more about their card features, fees and more, visit their website

Final thoughts…

We recognize that there’s no shortage of prepaid cards in Kenya. Using your Bank ATM card is still an option to consider when shopping online in Kenya from USA or UK shops if you don’t have a prepaid card.

However, the cards mentioned here are in our opinion some of the best prepaid cards in Kenya from our experience.

We particularly prefer the multicurrency prepaid cards because they help you save money with better foreign exchange rates.

You can simply buy foreign currency from your local forex bureau at the best current rates then load your card compared to using bank card foreign currency rates which are normally higher.

This is important if you’re shopping from global shopping sites in the USA or UK that accept payments either in USD, GBP or any other currency.

I hope that this post has been insightful to you.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your experience from using any of these cards or any that you may be using. Let’s chat in the comment section.

Also, please do share this post with a friend or two on WhatsApp or any social platform that you’re on, if you like it 😉

Read my next post on how to use a prepaid debit card or bank ATM to shop online in Kenya.

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