Bling (formerly Penta) review

Bling charges a monthly fee of €2.99 for the card. In the prepaid group the median monthly fee is €0 and the highest is €31.38, so Bling sits at the expensive end of the prepaid range. The card is prepaid, so money is loaded before it is spent.

Bling is aimed at kids, which is the audience stated for it, and the card type is prepaid. That makes it a spending card for children rather than a general account, and worth checking that a kids focus is what you are after before paying €2.99 each month.

Skrill charges €5 a month against Bling's €2.99, so Bling is cheaper on the monthly fee line. Both sit above the prepaid median of €0, so neither is among the lowest cost prepaid cards on this measure.

On monthly fee, Bling ranks 365 out of 419 brands compared. That position is a reason to read the fee carefully rather than treat the card as low cost, especially with prepaid rivals listed at JMD 0 and BHD 0.

The card is prepaid rather than a debit card, and prepaid cards account for 20.4% of the brands on the site against 74.3% for debit. The prepaid ranking shows the same pattern, with prepaid at 100% and debit at 0%.

Prepaid cards with no monthly fee do appear: JMMB Moneyline and JMMB Money Transfer prepaid card lists JMD 0 a month and CrediMax Cardy EX prepaid Visa lists BHD 0. Bling's €2.99 is the higher figure in this group.

Bling's overall score is 1.2, and the cost part of it is 1.2. Both point the same way, which fits the fee list: the monthly fee of €2.99 is above the prepaid median of €0, so the card is priced above most of its group.

Debit cards on the site have a median monthly fee of €0 and a maximum of €83.23. Bling's €2.99 applies to a prepaid card, whose range tops out at €31.38, so the fee sits inside the prepaid range but above its median.