Instant prepaid card?

March 22, 2011 6:52 PM

Is there any way to get a prepaid credit card in Los Angeles, CA without having a permanent contact address? I'm based in London but spending a week in LA and I'd love to use it as a chance to sign up with the Rhapsody music service via a US card if I can find one. So are there any cards that don't need proof of address and that I can sign up to immediately?
posted by skylar to shopping (5 answers total)

Do you know if you need an actual credit card, or would one of those Visa/AmEx branded gift cards would be sufficient?
posted by Metasyntactic at 6:58 PM on March 22, 2011

A lot of those gift cards can be used like a credit card. They have a card number, expiration date and the address you use to verify the card when making an online purchase is the one you used when you registered the card (you can register it by phone or by the card website).
posted by MaryDellamorte at 7:00 PM on March 22, 2011

I think the gift cards would be fine by me. Where can I get them and do they require any ID or proof of address? Can I buy them in stores?
posted by skylar at 8:53 PM on March 22, 2011

If the pre-paid cards will work, you can find them at almost any 7-11, AM/PM corner market type of store. Even if it doesn't work, you could still use it elsewhere.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:06 PM on March 22, 2011

The Visa branded gift cards can be bought almost anywhere (grocery stores, convenience stores, etc.) and they can be used to make credit card purchases online. The most commonly available ones usually have a face value from $25 to $200. No ID is required to purchase them, because most stores require you to pay for them with cash. Here's the Visa gift card FAQ.
posted by amyms at 1:45 AM on March 23, 2011