European consumers are expected to spend €75bn ($95bn) by 2010 using pre-paid cards, sold like mobile phone top-up cards and targeted at consumers who do not have a credit card.

The pre-paid cards are expected to account for 2.3bn card transactions per annum by 2010 compared with 150m transactions now, says a new report. Consumers can buy the cards without credit checks at local shops, put their wages on to them and make cash machine withdrawals or online and telephone transactions. Retailers have also launched pre-paid cards as an alternative to paper gift vouchers. Visa and Mastercard have both launched pre-paid cards.