In one of Forbes’ recent articles, the concept of pre-paid cards available for all Walmart shoppers is brought up. In collaboration with American Express, Walmart was able to derive an alternative to debit cards, at lower cost and with lower fees – called the ‘Bluebird’.

With the increasing costs of banking and maintaining accounts, Walmart hopes that customers will realise the value for money that the ‘Bluebird’ accounts offer, and that consequently the number of users will further increase. With 28.3% of the market being classified as ‘unbanked’ (meaning 28.3% of the market prefers to carry out transactions that do not involve banks), there is a gap in the market that Walmart can most certainly seize with the new Bluebird account. 

With only $3 of monthly payments, the Bluebird has become one of the fastest growing alternatives to regular banking (5% growth in 2011). This brought it to the attention of banking giants such as FDIC, which began to retaliate by pointing out the dangers and potential limitations of prepaid cards.

Will the Bluebird card system continue to grow? Or will it get shut down by the banking giants? Would you personally prefer to use a prepaid card or would you rather continue using your debit/VISA card?