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If I have a $20 MasterCard prepaid debit card, and I use it to buy a $19.99 item, the card will have $0.01 left. What can I do with the remaining balance? Can I transfer it to my bank account? Can I convert it into cash? If so, how?

Flux
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  • The answers to https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/81749/can-you-withdraw-or-transfer-money-from-a-prepaid-debit-card address some ways of getting money off of a prepaid card, but probably aren't practical if the remaining balance is only $0.01 – yoozer8 Apr 28 '20 at 11:56
  • Note that Racetrac has started to 'use' the uselessness of the last cents, and programmed their gas stations to stop filling your tank at 6 to 10 cents. If you don't realize it, you throw away a gas card with some cents on it, and if you do, you have to work through each card to get the little extra worth out of it. – Aganju Apr 28 '20 at 13:30

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Many retailers will allow you to split a payment across two or more payment methods.

I have done this when I received multiple $50.00 pre-paid debit cards for buying a new phone. The plan was to use the cards for a few weeks at the grocery store. I just made it clear to the cashier what I was going to do this before scanning the first card. You can even split it between debit and credit or between cash and non-cash.

I might not make the effort if it was $0.01 but I didn't hesitate when I wanted to get the very last dollar from the cards.

Some online merchants may allow you to load the money, but some might not.

mhoran_psprep
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