Supermarket giant Tesco has been accused of incurring unnecessary costs on its staff after telling some Christmas temporary workers their wages will be put on prepaid cards, which charge holders for cash withdrawals.

Several temporary workers have told Telegraph Money they received letters telling them their wages would be paid onto a Tuxedo Card.

The card, which uses the Mastercard payment system, has a £9.95 activation fee and a monthly fee of £4.99 (on some plans), as well as charging 50p for ATM withdrawals. Some online retailers may also levy charges for purchases.

The workers expressed concern that regular payments out of their bank accounts could result in overdrafts. This is because the cards offer no easy way to transfer the money back into their main account.

Tesco said it only uses Tuxedo cards to pay its staff when there is no other alternative – if a worker has no bank account, for example – but Telegraph Money was told by some employees that they had already handed over details of their accounts before receiving the cards.

The mother of an 18-year-old from Portsmouth who was recently given a job at Tesco and received a card said her daughter had not been told about the card in her interview or her induction. The mother claimed her daughter had given the supermarket her bank details.