You may never have run your own business, so my situation could well be worse than yours will ever be. When I lost my business; I lost my bank account; I lost my debit cards and I lost a huge amount of time queuing in post offices to pay bills.

Try trudging to the post office, queuing in line, then realizing you've forgotten the letter with the payslip on. Imagine forgetting one thing, then having to get home, find the thing, trudge back to the post office and queue AGAIN. And we all know post offices around the world have a policy of closing counters as the size of the queue increases.

I can't stand waiting in line. No one wants their grave stone to read. Here lies our beloved Dad. He Queued.

Think about it. The bill arrives.

You curse it. You might stress over it. Here's the deal though, you can call the company, get through the annoying menu options, then pay with your card.

But, just suppose you don't have bank cards or automatic payments from your account. All you're left with is real cash notes. You can't stuff dollar bills down a telephone line. Or feeding them into your laptop? You have to physically get off your butt and go and pay.

In my case, in the beginning, I couldn't even open a bank account. Then I was allowed an account where I could pay in and withdraw cash. Add cash in. Money out. Just that! Still no card facility. Just the bucket.

And then like a scene from Rocky - I saw an advert for prepaid credit cards. Instant bliss. The clouds parted, gospel choirs raised me up and darkness disappeared. Sanity!

Who knew a piece of plastic could be therapeutic!

One trip to the post office and I could load that puppy up with enough cash to cover the bills AND have enough left over to make like a real man and buy my wife dinner. Alright, calling a club sandwich and soda may be stretching it, but I did have a credit card in my hand again.I was a man.

I could call and pay bills over the phone. Are you calling to pay today sir, became the nectar of gods. I could browse the internet and actually order something. I could REALLY buy something. And of course, I couldn't spend more than I had put on the card, which meant I couldn't run up more debt.

No-one has ever stolen my identity online, but if they had, the card would have been good for a diet cola and that's it.

What I didn't know and later found out was the card company took $5 each month for using the card. And at the end of 12 months, they update your credit record saying you successfully repaid a $60 loan.

That starts to turn a bad or non existent credit score around. So if you've had bad debt or never borrowed in your life, then this is one way to get off rejected planet and mingle with the cool credit crowd.

You know, in life some moments are truly inspiring. Your first boyfriend or girlfriend. Your first child. And getting a bank account where they let you have a debit card again.

I phoned my mom to share the emotion of my daughter being born. I phoned her again to share the elation of having a real bank account again.

And I still use the prepaid card. It's great for family fun days. Stack up the card with the amount of cash we want and can afford to use and then out we go for the fun of spending it.

So claim your prepaid card. And get back in the cool credit crowd.