 TITLE: Do Prepaid Credit Cards Help Your Credit Score? CONTENT: Prepaid Credit Cards Will Not Affect Your Credit Score\n------------------------------------------------------\nEvery time you use a regular credit card to make purchases, you borrow money from the card issuer. Then, you can either repay this debt in full before the end of your billing period, or make at least a minimum monthly payment and let the remaining balance carry over (or \"revolve\") to the following month. If you carry a balance, you'll accrue added costs in the form of interest charges.\nCredit card companies typically report your payment activity to one or more of the three major consumer credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). On-time payments help build a credit history and improve your credit score.\nA prepaid card works differently. You put your own money into the prepaid card account, and the amount you spend is limited to the account balance. Once the prepaid balance is exhausted, no more purchases can be made. If the prepaid card is reloadable, you add (or \"load\") money onto the card as needed. Non-reloadable prepaid credit cards, often sold as gift cards, are no longer usable when the funds are gone.\nYour use of prepaid credit cards is not reported to credit bureaus, so they don't affect your credit score. END