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If you've not heard of this card, It's a prepaid reloadable debit card. The attraction of this is that the only fee is $3 a month. I read two articles about it and think it sounds like a handy alternative and flexible too.
The card still has many of the advantages of a bank account, such as ATM withdrawals and direct deposit.
"I've been using it since last year," says Stacey Nixon, a child care provider who sends her paycheck right to Wal-Mart. "[You] fill out a form and your money comes directly on the card."
Nixon says it's possible to do everything she needs to with the MoneyCard, like buy things online, pay bills, even buy movies from Redbox. "You can basically do anything with it," she says.
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142599130/wal-mart-lures-bank-customers-frustrated-by-fees
For a flat $3-a-month fee, consumers get a prepaid debit card that they can reload at their convenience. Free direct deposit is also available, and comes with a $10 bonus. The card requires no credit check or bank account, and there's no possibility of overdraft fees, since -- as one enthusiastic user told NPR -- "You can't spend what you don't have, so you can't go over. You don't get in trouble with it."
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I had assumed those cards were like gift cards and didn't know you could do so much with them. That's good to know! Thanks Zoey.
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Your usage of their debit card isn't going to help your build up your credit score though, is it? With them not having a bank charter? Or is it?
"The banks lobbied very hard to prevent Wal-Mart from getting a bank charter and in a lot of ways I think ... their worst fears came true in that Wal-Mart is still competing with them," Jackson says.
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Your usage of their debit card isn't going to help your build up your credit score though, is it? With them not having a bank charter? Or is it?
I wouldn't think so...but I am guessing. I would have thought only a financial institution would count for that rather than a retailer.
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Anything that costs you less than your current bank charges and does the same job sounds like a good deal to me!
That could be interesting. I was reading about a survey that said many billions of dollars will be withdrawn by customers looking for a change of bank.
Read it here.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. - Cree Indian Proverb