Figures as much, and then if you DON'T use them, the "inactivity fees" will eat through your balance as well.

BTW: Gotta register to see the linked article.

@Oranges w/ Cheese needs guidance: FWIW there are tools to deal with Web sites that require registrations ... e.g. BugMeNot.

@Oranges w/ Cheese needs guidance: Gah -- try this link.

[www.nytimes.com]

The NYT offers all its current articles without requiring registration--I just grabbed the wrong link it looks like. I've updated the post.

no kidding.

my credit union's BoD charged me with finding/implementing a prepaid debit program earlier this year, but i've yet to find a program that isn't just designed to steal people's money.

i did actually find a few good programs that don't charge transactional fees or inactivity fees inside of 1 year, but b/c of tough CT banking laws, i can't offer them to my members.

so why can i offer these fee-heavy programs but not the consumer-friendly ones? b/c the trap cards are offered by national banks & nationally-chartered banks don't have to follow our state banking laws. BOO!

@Chris Walters: Thanks Chris! :D

@PsiCop: Or, you can support the website that you want content from and register like they ask.

What you are doing is essentially stealing a service (yes, you cans teal a free service) which is being a terrible consumer.

I recommend buying a money order for the full balance, then depositing it in your bank. I can understand the frustration, though, as the article is about those w/o bank accounts.

FWIW, The Wells Fargo prepaid Visa I received last Christmas had no fees when used with a pin on the transaction. It also had no inactivity fees or expiration date. The person who got it for me didn't bank there, and paid with cash. I think it was $3 or so to activate at the time of purchase.

@mac-phisto: ...so go ahead and put up the appropriate signage to educate your clients as to why you aren't offering them and what better options exist for their use...

BTW... Yeah Credit Unions!

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: and how does my registering help them?
if i were to register for nytimes, i'd either give them a disposable email account (like mytrashmail.com) or an email account that i only check when i register for a site.

What I want is a postpaid debit card.

@robdew2: That is called a credit card...

@Xerloq speaks Portuguese, too...: What does that accomplish then? For what group of people would that do anything?

@xtc46 - thinksmarter on twitter: and the damages are exactly what? How much are they losing?

I recently got a "prize" at work of 50 bucks (for doing a good job). Sadly, the "prize" was a 50 dollar Visa Debit Card. I read the terms carefully (which, as an avid Consumerist reader, I am wont to do), and I was very disturbed by what I found.

There was a 3 dollar a month fee that was charged for inactivity and a 15 dollar "over the limit" fee. The 3 dollar a month inactivity fee is charged on the first of every month or waived if you used the card in the past 3 months or if your balance was exactly $0.

The part where it gets extra disturbing is that I got the card on the 25th of the month and the first fee would get charged on the 1st of the next month (less than a week later). But it wouldn't actually be charged against the card until 6 months later. Because the inactivity fees from months 1-6 are all paid on the 1st day of the 6th month.

So my nightmare scenario looked like this:

If I didn't use the card in 6 days, I would queue up an inactivity fee. Then, I would spend the money on the card, and 6 months later, I would get a 3 dollar inactivity charge for month 1, bringing the account into the red, and triggering a 15 dollar over-the-limit fee. So I'd be 18 bucks in the hole on the card that I might have totally forgotten I had (plus an extra 18 bucks every month after that). Then they'd got to my employer (the funding source of the card) and ask for the 18 bucks. My employer would certainly decline to pay, in which case, they'd send it to collections against me. And (as an avid Consumerist reader), I have no black marks on my credit at all, so that would be a huge issue.

I immediately did two things:

-I emailed customer service and asked if I was reading the card rules correctly.
-I went out and bought a new AC adapter for my MacBook Pro.

It was a Friday afternoon and I'd left my power adapter at work. I had been meaning to buy an extra one to carry in my backpack, so I was able to use that as an excuse to head to the Apple store and buy one. It was 85 bucks, so I put 50 dollars on the card (to bring the balance to 0) and the rest on my normal debit card.

I eventually (2 weeks later) got emailed back by the company. They let me know that the inactivity fees are only applied to the balance on the card and do not trigger an over-the-limit fee. This is NOT explained on the conditions of the card. So while it's nice that it works this way, I still don't feel totally satisfied. But at least now I have something in writing from them I can use in court if they screw me somehow.

Anyway, these pre-paid debit cards are the worst financial instrument ever. Who pays someone to hold on to their money?! That's stupid. It brings to my mind images of Tom Sawyer charging his friends to help him whitewash the fence. It's just stupid. They should be paying ME to hold on to my money. That's the way every other account I have works.

In fact, my other relationship with Visa is through a credit card, where, ironically, I pay THEM to borrow their money (while with this card, they expect me to pay them money to borrow MY money!).

The whole business is nothing but a scam to snatch money from unwary or uninformed people.

I have a meeting with my boss tomorrow. I'm going to tell her that if she wants to give me a cash award for something, she can put it in my paycheck. If she can't manage that, she can just keep it. Because having to find a way to immediately spend any award I get is just not worth the trouble.

Plamoni: I agree basically with the above.

My whole issue with the banking/credit card industry is when did they TRULY decide we are nothing but money to suck from instead of people that have a need to be provided a reasonable financial service?

They basically insult our intellegence.

*UGH*

If I were president of the United States of America, I'd personally fix the banking, legal, and health care system.

I know I would get it done.

And as soon as it was done, I'd be dead because each of those three groups would not stand for it.

We need a revolution!

Bye.

@gStein: It affects how much the site can charge for advertising.

One of my instructors in college started editing a new magazine and gave all his students free subscriptions. The advertisers don't need to know what subscribers pay for a subscription, they just want to know how many subscribers there are.

@plamoni: By the way, I realize that my card is pretty tame when it comes to these cards (no transaction fees... it can't be used at an ATM, so no fees there either). But it's still a raw deal. I shouldn't have to pay someone to hold onto my money.

I also understand that some bank accounts charge fees for low balances and whatnot. However, those bank accounts accrue interest and are regulated very strictly. Also, you don't generally have to pay money to get your money out of a bank account (as long as you're willing to walk to the nearest branch to do it).

These things combine everything bad about a savings account (minimum balance and monthly maintenance fees), with everything bad about a debit card (transaction fees and very little theft protection), and everything bad about a credit card (no interest and binding arbitration).

In fact, I have yet to hear one single advantage to these cards over normal banking that isn't related to who can get one. If a large group of people can't get bank accounts, we need to find a way to help them do that. We shouldn't create an entire financial product designed to screw them. That doesn't help anything.

And yes, pretty much all of that also applies to payday loan services, too.

@plamoni: If you don't want the prepaid debit card(s) your boss gives you, I'll be happy to take them.

I've had a Wired Plastic prepaid Visa for years. They charge a service fee of $2.00 per month, and only if you use it. Only account management, texts and emails for account activity, I love it.

I have gotten a few of these as gift cards, but they are the kind you can't add additional money to. Most of the time they are pretty tame, just make sure you use them before you hit the period where they charge you monthly fees. You just have to read the fine print.

If you don't think you can spend them in that amount of time, you can use them to purchase an amazon.com voucher/gift card. This is what I do sometimes if I get close to the expiration and I have not used it. Amazon will email you the code instantly, then you just deposit the money into your Amazon account. You just email the gift code to yourself. Amazon credit doesn't expire and they have tons and tons of products to choose from.

@kateblack:

Magazines are required to print that information once a year.

@plamoni: The card isn't tied to you, there's no way it would go on your credit report. Any charges over the balance get declined. Once it goes to $0 or less from inactivity fees I'd imagine they just consider the card closed.

God, no kidding. I was given a $25 dollar Walmart Moneycard as a wedding gift, and the person who got it for me mistook it as a "use anywhere" giftcard. He had to pay an extra 3 bucks just to get it (which should have thrown up warning flags in the first place, but I can't really tell that to a person giving me a gift), and then before I could use it I had to basically sign my life away to Walmart (they needed my name, address, phone number, AND social security number). And before all that I had to track down the original receipt for the thing, because it could not be activated without a number from the receipt.

And then after all that was taken care of and I was finally able to use my dang 25 bucks, I had to pay 3 bucks because during all the hooplah the month rolled over and they charge 3 bucks a month, regardless if you've used the card or not.

It was absolutely ridiculous. Walmart must think that all of it's customers are criminals for the amount of bullcrap you have to go through just to use a card you've already paid money for.

Am I wrong in assuming that the only people that don't have bank accounts are illegal immigrants? That's the only reason I can think of why someone would want to have a debit card that their employer can make deposits to. Because bank accounts are free, I'd be willing to bet immigrants are their biggest money makers and probably would stay quiet about the bogus fees. If that's the case isn't this borderline extortion?

@Triterion: You're also forgetting the extremely paranoid.