Speaking of terminology, an article in today’s Wall Street Journal talks about “prepaid debit” cards. As debt among college students has risen to record levels in the last several years, colleges have gotten criticized for allowing credit card companies to aggressively promote credit cards to students on campus. In response, many colleges have limited credit card companies ability to hawk credit cards to students.

The result, according to the article is that banks are now pushing what they call prepaid debit cards. These are essentially the same as the open-loop (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) gift cards, but they are of the re-loadable variety. Essentially the same product but with a different name.

Oh, by the way, these cards are really loaded with fees.