Posts Tagged ‘ Green Dot ’

Prepaid Debit Road Test: Paying up front to get ripped off

October 18th, 2009. By Hunter West

Tyrell Blocker is a young fella with a family and doing the best he can. At 20 he has a newborn and all the responsibilities to go with it. 

What he doesn’t have is a bank account. He only has one piece of ID. The bank requires two, so what’s a young father to do? Head to the check-cashing place and hope to escape with the majority of your pay in your pants once you pay the fee. Or just maybe there is another way… 

Oh! But there is, says the prepaid debit card industry to the 80 million Americans who are classed as unbanked or underbanked. Just bring your paycheck to the Green Dot kiosk, or MiCash, or NetSpend, or AccountNow. Wal-Mart has one. 

Our boy Tyrell hooked up with Pay-O-Matic in Manhattan. Took his paycheck and bought a Pay-O-Matic card. Note that it’s HIS money on the card. The card is worthless until it’s pre-loaded with the client’s cash. Aside from operating the storefront, printing the cards and owing anywhere from a nickel to 20 cents to the owner of the logo that emblazes the card, card providers haven’t a whole lot to lose beyond any loss associated with a bounced paycheck or overdraft. 

But still, is that risk enough of a reason to charge more than two-dozen fees? That’s how many there are tagged to the Pay-O-Matic card. Poor Blocker didn’t know what hit him. As soon as he noticed the balance dropping like a rock every time he used his Pay-O-Matic card, even if he didn’t actually buy anything, he high-tailed it back to the kiosk to ask what the *@$% was going on. It was only then Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AccountNow, Green Dot, MiCash, Millennium Advantage, NetSpend, Only 1 Visa, Pay-O-Matic, Prepaid Debit Cards, Silver Prepaid Mastercard
Posted in Financial | 2 Comments »

Green Dot Should Be Greed Dot

October 12th, 2009. By LucyC

Almost everyone has a tale of woe when it comes to fees charged by bank cards and credit cards, but what about prepaid debit cards—the new kid on the block? 

Reportedly, some 80 million Americans are using these cards in lieu of having a bank account— and it’s proving exhaustively expensive. Why? These types of cards automatically deduct a laundry list of fees, information on which may not be easily found, and which can result in a “Surprise!” zero balance. You know—you put $200 on the card, spend $150 and then go to make a $20 purchase sometime later only to have it declined due to insufficient funds. Where’d the remaining $50 go? To the card company—in fees. 

Take Green Dot . for example. Green Dot is among the largest providers of prepaid debit cards in the US. Here’s a list of their fees that are not put front and center on their marketing materials:  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Green Dot, Prepaid Debit Card
Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »