Personally, I have used it for everything from online purchases to Hotel Reservations with no problems. Recently I purchased an $80 card and misplaced it. I went online and ordered a new card right online took me all of about a minute. Hell it was a lot easier than trying to get a new card through my bank. They do charge a 5.95 fee to issue a new card. However to me that seems reasonable. Both of my banks charged me $5.00 to replace my cards that were stolen and used through no fault of my own. My one bank even charged me $30 in overdraft fees due to my account being overdrawn because of the theft of my visa bankcards. They later removed it after receiving my police report. However, everytime I use my debit card for any purchase or inquiry both of my banks charge me 1.00 per transaction. Keep in mind that this is my money that I am depositing with them. That adds up. So if you ask me visa charging a few measly dollars a month for maintenance fees after 6 six months of inactivity is not that bad. Besides I would never hold off on using these cards for more than a few months and holding off on using them for a year is way too long IMO.

I had bought a 140$ card for the sole purpose of using it online and had even heard people say it was impossible to use. However, I managed to link it to Paypal and purchase something on ebay fairly easily. I have had almost no problems so far (I had to call their number in order to get them to link my card to the bank) and am relatively pleased with the card.