I got my stimulus payment -- in the form of a debit card!

Money Network Cardholder Services is run by MetaBank.

Gee....wonder if they have close connections to Trump, Mnuchin or Kushner.

R1, according to the Vox article:

"MetaBank is a bank that the Treasury Department has used since 2016 to send people payments from federal agencies."

My partner got his unemployment payments this way at first, a backlog of two months! But you could only transfer it $500 at a time, and he’d signed up for direct deposit. I’m in NY.

R3, I was able too transfer $1200 into my checking account online. There's this "Money Out" option.

I know! My sister called me and told me she got a debit card for her stimulus payment. She thought it was a scam and she was about to throw it away. I looked it up online and verified that it was legit and not a scam.

Frankly, I think the Treasury is hoping a lot of people think the debit cards are fake and toss 'em.

*I was able to transfer

R5, I don't think they're capable of thinking like that.

From the article:

The government really screwed this one up

It seems as though the federal government’s communication strategy around the existence of the EIP cards and the delivery of the cards themselves have been a disaster. A slew of elected officials, from attorneys general to state representatives, have now posted online urging people not to throw out the plain white envelope containing a relatively unmarked debit card loaded with the coronavirus stimulus payment. They’re urging people to more dutifully inspect their mail, lest they don’t get the aid at all.

FYI, also from the article:

"And what about the people who already destroyed or trashed their cards? Well, there’s a $7.50 fee to replace it and that additional $17 fee if they want the replacement mailed back quickly. That assumes that this person even realized that a prepaid debit card loaded with hundreds or thousands of dollars of aid from the federal government had even arrived in the first place."

Lots of reports of people throwing these out by mistake

Did they drag this whole disbursement out for 2 mos. so people wouldn't beg for another one too soon? Seems like this could have all been done in one week in late April.

Very clever crime family.

I'm putting this out there strictly so people in my situation can keep their eyes open for it if they're still waiting for their stimulus check.

As to why some of us are getting debit cards instead of direct deposit (even though the IRS has my direct deposit information on file):

"While 4 million sounds like a lot, those Americans receiving debit cards in the mail represent a small sliver of the total population receiving payments. The Treasury Department says it has already sent more than 140 million payments. The department also explained in a press release that people receiving prepaid debit cards would be those 'without bank information on file with the IRS, and whose tax return was processed by either the Andover or Austin IRS Service Center.' It’s unclear what makes these centers exceptional, but if you’re from Massachusetts or Texas, pay extra-close attention to your mail.

I live in NYC.

Somebody gives you $1200 for doing absolutely nothing and all you do is bitch about it. What loser.

Go spend time with your husband and kids, R12...er...Kellyanne.

"Somebody gave" me, R13, asshole? Nobody "gave" me $1200, cunt. The federal government in its ineptitude over how to handle this corona crisis, decided to give everyone stimulus pauments. That probably included you.

What I'm bitching about is how they sent it out in such a ridiculous way, with no information as to what it is.

The point of this thread is to let people know.

What a douchebag you are, R13. Loser? Look in the mirror.

Huh, R14?

[quote][R5], I don't think they're capable of thinking like that.

You aren't familiar with crime syndicates, are you R7?

Of course the Trump Administration thought this was a clever way to cheat the poorest among us — people literally too poor to have a checking account (and who knew getting a checking account required passing a credit check?) — out of their share of the stimulus pie. Of course the Treasury knows that the majority of people who receive an unmarked debit card will assume that it, like the dozens of other such mailings banks, payday loan companies, the sort of financial institution that makes huge profits from performing basic banking services to poor people, is just another scam to avoid.

This is just another method of denying the neediest any assistance at all. Put a pin in this story; you'll likely hear tales of banks, stores and anyone who processes financial transactions denying these cards because they are so "suspicious" (meaning, in code, the people using them are brown and therefor not to be trusted despite the transaction processing just like every other card transaction).

Well, R17, these debit cards from Meta Bank have been used to provide various types of payments to Americans since 2016, so there's that.

Anyway, the point is: anyone who is expecting a stimulus payment and hasn't yet gotten it, pay attention to any mail you get that's from Money Network Cardholder Services and/or Meta Bank. THAT will be your stimulus payment, in the form of a debit card.

R18: And those cards are marked (usually with something that identifies the user as the recipient of SNAP benefits... so there is that), arriving with clear identification of what the card is for, how and where it can be used, and a list of terms and conditions. Which, not coincidentally, include the processing and other fees charged by the government's choice of "banks", which are egregious and usurious (grifters gotta grift.... so there is that).

No, these cards are so unmarked and unexplained that many people are throwing them away thinking they're another scam. And [italic]that[/italic] was intentional. All Treasury had to do was print on the forms the cards were attached a simple one-sentence statement: "This is your Coronavirus stimulus payment. Do not discard."

And when recipients figure out their mistake, they're charged another fee to obtain their stimulus payment. And if they need it in a hurry so they can feed their kids, they have to pay an expediting fee, cutting further into their meager assistance. It's a never-ending vicious cycle designed to make being poor harder.

[italic]So there is that.[/italic]

R20:

My card is not marked with SNAP. There is nothing on the front of the card excerpt VISA DEBIT and the number. On the back of the card, it says "Money Network. This card is issued by MetaBank. EIPCard.com."

Underneath that, it has the logos for MetaBank, PLUS, Interlink, and STAR.

As for the letter (all that it came with), it only had a few paragraphs that read: "You acknowledge that you have read the materials..." (the only materials the card came with was the single piece of paper the card came stuck to), "You request that MetaBank open the Account...," "You acknowledge that any terms of the Cardholder Agreement..."

In other words, it was all credit-card-speak. As I said, a very faint, gray Treasury seal on the upper right, very easy not to notice.

Underneath where you pull up the card, it says it's an Economic Impact Payment Card that "you are receiving as a result of the Coronavirus Aid." That's after you lift up the card that you see that.

Whether or not this was planned to fool people, I don't know, but they already mailed out or direct deposited 140 million payments, so why would they try to screw a mere 4 million people out of their payments through nefarious means?

Anyway, whatever--I'm not going to engage in conspiracy theories here. I just wanted to let anybody here know what this piece of mail is.

So there's that.

[quote]My card is not marked with SNAP.

Why would your stimulus payment be marked with SNAP? You misread my comment. Nevertheless, you prove my point when you state

[quote]where you pull up the card, it says it's an Economic Impact Payment Card that "you are receiving as a result of the Coronavirus Aid." That's after you lift up the card that you see that.

So, the purpose of the card was hidden? How many people, like me, who have received real- and official-looking "cards" in the mail from every organization from the WWF to AARP (yes, I'm old), throw them away without removing the card from the paper attachment?

I'm usually not one for conspiracy theories, but forgive me if I'm acutely aware of Republican hijinks designed to separate poor people from what little money they have. This just pisses me off, and what makes it all that much worse is that the entire stimulus bill was implemented by the Trump administration in ways to hurt poor people in any way they could. For example, the first people who received the stimulus payments were people who had their checking account linked to their tax returns, a practice that is predominantly performed by professional accountants and tax consultants. Who pays for professionals to do their taxes? Oh, that's right, the wealthy, and sometimes, middle class. But poor people? Not so much. Then there is the fact that you have to own a checking account in the first place, in order to have one on file with the IRS.

Then they mailed out tens of millions of paper checks. Which you must either have a checking account to cash, or pay one of those horrible payday loan/check cashing places an exorbitant fee to cash a check that is backed by the full faith and credit of the American people (as in, it's not a check that is going to bounce). Zero risk should result in a very, very low fee to cash a check, if at all.

If the payment was lost or delayed, did Treasury charge someone who received an electronic deposit a fee to research the payment? Does Treasury charge people who lost a paper check a fee to replace it? No and no. But they do charge people who lose or discard an unmarked debit card a fee to replace that.

[quote]so why would they try to screw a mere 4 million people out of their payments through nefarious means?

Because Republicans get hard when they shaft poor people (with apologies for the sexual analogy, but it's the most apt). It is that simple, and to suggest otherwise simply indicates you're not paying attention. These EBT-style cards are just another nail in that coffin.

Okay, R22, I agree with you essentially. I mentioned SNAP because you mentioned "those cards are marked (usually with something that identifies the user as the recipient of SNAP benefits"). I think I misunderstood what you were saying, which wasn't clear to me.

Anyway, yes, agreed: there is no identification of what this is for, until you pull the card up, and it's printed there. It definitely should be in big black letters at the top of the page, and the US Treasury seal should be black, not faint gray.

Another thing I'm not totally clear about from your post: are you suggesting that poor people are the ones who are getting these EBT-style cards and have to deal with this debit card business (fees, etc.)? That may be so. All I know is I'm not poor, income wise, yet somehow this is how they determined I should get my allotted stimulus payment.

Anyway, again, not interested in being adversarial. I just figured these debit card stimulus payments are not that well known. And they don't make it any clearer when it arrives in the mail.

I'm not suggesting that poor people are the ones who are receiving these cards, I'm flat out saying it. Further, I'm not suggesting or impugning you personally, and I can certainly comprehend why some random person would receive their stimulus in this method, but the vast majority of people who could receive stimulus via more direct (and fast) methods, did. I felt it was discriminatory at the time, and I still do; the people who needed the money the most had to wait the longest. The IRS should have simply mailed checks to everyone and Treasury (the people who are [italic]supposed to{/italic] oversee the banking industry) should simply regulate the cashing of an official government check to make it free of charge (ie. remove the profit margin for despicable payday loan whores).

Sorry I wasn't clear. And thank you for bringing up this topic. I agree, everyone should be aware of how the Trump administration fucked up another critical matter.

[/italic]And now I apologize for failing to correctly close my italic tag.

R24/R25, I agree--we need edit functions!

If that's the case, then I certainly deserved to be one of the last people to get a stimulus payment. I have no problem with that. And if these debit cards are the last way they're paying people and the majority of those are (unlike me) very much in need and had to wait this long, yeah--it's just more of the same from this vile regime.

But yes, please with the edit feature, Muriel.

I got the card in the mail yesterday! I was shocked. The only reason I didn’t throw it away is because of this thread.

So. I opened it and there was no indication of the amount. I jumped through the hoops to register it online. It took about 15 minutes and several different email and text verification codes, SSN verification and on and on. Finally, I was able to log into my new account and access my...$10.30.

Remember the OP on here who said he didn’t have a bank account because he didn’t have the need? He also didn’t have any credit cards. His partner filed the taxes, etc? I wonder how he fared.