The Treasury Department wants to convert millions of Social Security benefit payments currently made by checks into prepaid debit cards.The department's Financial Management Service began soliciting bids Sept. 4 from banks to administer the prepaid card program, which would begin in January and take no more than six months to roll out nationwide. ...
The cards would act like a typical debit card with PIN and signature capacities. They would carry a Visa or MasterCard logo on the front and the bank's logo likely on the back. The payments would occur automatically each month, and recipients could access their funds through automated teller machines and point of sale terminals.
The recipients would decide for themselves whether to shift their payments from checks to cards. "Since we're just introducing this product we don't want to make it mandatory right away," she said. "We don't necessarily want people to use a card if they don't want a bank account." ...
Sep 19, 2007
Benefit Cards Coming
From American Banker, although I do not have a link to the article:
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2 comments:
I'm confused. Would this supercede direct deposit? Would I have to transfer the money on this card into my bank checking account in order to get it in that account? Would that even be possible or would I have to cash out the debit card and then physically deposit that money myself.
What a pain - maybe I'm misunderstanding this - and I probably am - but for someone who has issues getting out of the house - and no one really to help with errands - this would be a huge disaster - some of my bills might not get paid if I can't just get to my computer to deal with a payment that is already in my checking account.
While it is far from clear, I don't think you need to worry. Treasury is trying to get rid of checks. If you already have direct deposit, you won't be impacted by this initiative at all.
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