Cornèrcard prepaid card users have had the option of loading their prepaid cards at SBB ticket vending machines since 2017. Now SBB is expanding its partnership with Cornèrcard and SweePay to offer consumers Mastercard prepaid cards from Cornèrcard at its vending machines.
The prepaid cards available at SBB vending machines are not conventional plastic cards. Instead, the card number, expiry date and CVC2 code are printed paper (the same paper used for railway tickets). Consumers can use the card information to make purchases from all online merchants which accept Mastercard.
The Cornèrcard prepaid cards sold at SBB vending machines come with predefined credits of either 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 Swiss francs. The cards cannot be reloaded.
A one-time fee applies when you buy these prepaid cards. The fee for cards with credits of 50 to 100 francs is 5 francs. The fee for cards with higher credits is equal to 5% of the card’s value. These fees are relatively high.
Cornèrcard charges a 2% foreign transaction fee in addition to the currency exchange spread for purchases from foreign merchants. Conventional Cornèrcard prepaid cards have a lower 1.2% foreign transaction fee.
Customer support for the cards via SMS costs 60 centimes per SMS. Customer support via the hotline costs 1.90 francs per minute.
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