Why MasterCard prepaid as a fee-free option I cannot fathom
There are various fees attached to getting hold of a prepaid Mastercard. This includes things like a card purchase fee, fees to use the card or monthly account maintenance fees, ATM fees, card replacement fees, fees to talk to a person on the phone, fees to load money on your card, etc. etc..
All this means that unless you spent quite a lot of time searching through the Terms&Conditions of the various card providers and will be purchasing several round trips per year, it's not worth the hassle. That family of four who fly FR for their summer holiday get charged £40 in card fees..... is it really worth buying a card for £10 and going through various card fees and hassle to save maybe £20 per year ? Probably not.
I have to admire FR on this though - they've found a card payment mechanism that is technically available in every country in which they fly, but is more expensive and higher in hassle factor than an Electron card. Furthermore, FR can disclaim all responsiblity for the fees that card providers charge. The net result is that apart from the cheapskate brigade, people are more likely to end up paying FR's card fees. Lousy for the consumer, but a truly brilliant way at raising more revenue while destroying one of the arguments of its critics