It’s like a cross between a checking account and a gift card. With a pre-paid card, your parents deposit money onto the card, and can reload more money as you spend it down. In that way it’s similar to a checking account. However, with a checking account you can overdraw you account (spend money you don’t have) and incur hefty overdraft charges ($35 – $50 for each ofterdraft incident, even if you’re $2 overdrawn.) So, like a gift card, you can only spend the money that’s available on the card. If your card has $48 on it, and you want to buy something that costs $50, your card will be declined and you will have to find another way to pay for your purchase.