In US you can go to many store and get such a card, pay with cash. Downsides are that some merchant (mostly internet ones) will check and refuse to accept such pre-paid options.
but they do work for most non-recurring type things akaik.
I have seen people have them fail - because they quickly try to use them, not knowing that many places require at a zip code to be entered that matches the card.. and if you have not logged into the pre-paid-card's portal and set a zip code.. well fail it will.