The International Student Identity Card (ISIC), the only globally recognized student identification and discount card, is now also an international prepaid debit card, courtesy of MasterCard.
Why this card? It provides a safe, easy, and widely-accepted way of purchasing necessities abroad. Like any good debit card, the ISIC offers fraud protection and online monitoring with the added perk of the universally-recognized MasterCard name (the ISIC is accepted anywhere MasterCard is accepted). The ISIC even offers text message alerts.
The card itself costs US $25 and doesn’t need to be connected to a bank account. Since 2009, the US is the 11th country in the world to adopt this version of the ISIC. Other countries include Argentina, Russia, and Hong Kong. ISIC says more countries are hopping on the bandwagon. In the US alone, over 250,000 students are expected to purchase the card this year.
As for the old-school, just-ID version, it’s held by about 4.5 millions students in 124 countries.
Creative Commons Love: Jan Kaláb at Flickr.com
Written by Ling Shu