Did You Know Covid Relief Debit Cards Have Fees? Sure do
Heads Up: We’re Gonna Need to Siphon-Proof Relief from Banks
Rating: Between a Side Eye and Slumlord.
It’s past time U.S. laws and government practices effect everyone equally.
A simple start can be found in the dispersing of government Covid-19 “relief” funds. How so? You probably thought they were distributed to people equally. Sadly, that would be wrong.
Most people receive monies via direct deposit or a check, but when funds are dispersed by debit card — as 8 million this second round — they come with debit card fees.
Fees that can add up if you aren’t careful or simply lucky to avoid.
The fees are in small print, and feature many if-thens, so it’s tricky for people to ensure they do everything right to not have their money siphoned from a bank — or two — before it even touches their hands. The worst part, in some cases it is unavoidable.
That’s crazy, right?
What’s crazier? No one is talking about it.
No critical eye from politicians or journalists. Authorities and oversight are just waving it on through.
Which is exactly how these ill-gotten gains get got and why they will continue to do so.
To change that tide let’s look at it, shall we? Especially before more funds get dispersed (Hi Joe and Kamala and Mitch and Janet and Nancy and Chuck!)
WHAT’S THE DEAL?
South Dakota-based MetaBank dispersed debit cards both rounds. Here are some of the fee basics.
· No fee for the first withdrawal at an out-of-network machine or bank. However, it will be $5.00 for an over-the-counter withdrawal after that — and there’s also “additional fees possible” from the bank used.
· While a fee is waived for the first out-of-network ATM used, it is $2.00 for each one after that. And again, there are “additional fees possible” from the ATM used.
· To view your balance at any ATM costs $.25.
Now, since many banks average daily withdrawal limit is less than $600, that means some people can’t get cash in their hands without paying something to MetaBank as well as the bank ATM they use. Crazy, right?
MetaBank has only a few branches in Iowa and South Dakota. And while their in-network ATM has thousands of locations, they aren’t everywhere.
It’s like the government and banks are our abusive parents with no boundaries; we need legal mediation to have a chance at a healthy life.
SO HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Having that journalistic trait called insatiable curiosity, I happened upon one of the debit card mailings and saw the accompanying pages indicated a fee schedule. My eyes bulged. The fees aren’t waived?
It was a grift in black and white. How is no one talking about this?!
Have we Americans gotten so used to malignant bank practices we just expect them?
Are we so amnesiac to the fact that a halfway decent government helps citizens — in part by keeping predatory business people from gouging on the regular — that we don’t even expect it? Governments are not amorphous things; they are made up of people.
That “help” has become a synonym of bad is proof of society gone mad. Helping is what every decent person does when they can, and what an advanced society has the benefit of being able to do easier than others. (Advance is an actual synonym of help for gosh shakes. It’s progress. It’s…good!)
Citizens have to wake from the brainwashed slumber of not expecting the government and people to do the right thing.
There are no George Baileys folks and Mr. Smith has not gone to Washington in several generations. (According to stats, these days they would likely be addicted to some sort of big pharma meds and wearing MAGA hats while mainlining white supremacy infotainment.)
BUT, BACK TO THE DEBIT CARDS…
In order for people to get the $600 with no money siphoned by banks, one needs to follow some steps. Laziness here, or an accidental “balance inquiry” there, will literally cost you.
“Leah,” some will say, waving away banks greed like a foregone conclusion, “it’s what banks do, charge for things like out-of-network machines and over-the-counter withdrawals.”
OK, but all citizens don’t have this fee. How is that fair? (We’ll leave the banks unconscionable practices for another day. Or for Katie Porter and her white board. Or the ghost of George Bailey.)
And, surprising as it may seem, this second round debit cards went to double the people; it was 4 million the first round. No one spoke up so they came for more. Wonder how many get it next round?
In early January the Treasury Department said that in order to “quickly disperse” payments in some cases debit cards were going to people who didn’t receive one the first round and vice versa.
Wonder why that happened? Who got on those lists and who didn’t?
Who in the federal government decided to give banks a bit of people’s Covid relief without ensuring no fees to access the money? Because this scavenger hunt through the card issuer and ATM bank rules seems more like a gift to banks than $600 to deserving citizens.
Any fees to access Covid relief payments is a problem. Banks should be required to waive any fees — and daily ATM limits — to allow equal access.
I can’t believe I need to write this but here we are.
But how was this allowed? How have the people in the U.S Government not made siphoning money off the top of the payment impossible?
SO NOW WHAT?
People will bluster about and name blame but how about we just change it. (Pillorying people is not helpful at all; it just encourages our basest behaviors and keeps us in the problem rather than the solution. Shame is an epidemic we must rid as well.)
Those with money don’t think much of a two or five dollar charge, but of course for someone who is unbaked or under banked, or who is simply struggling to afford food, housing and transportation, as millions more are post DT, it’s a cruel penalty.
Even if a person doesn’t need those few dollars to survive, that this happens at all is not ok. It’s not ok that some people have this issue and not others. And it’s not ok that the government allows banks to skim the top of people’s federal monies.
If people need to be investigated into illegalities that’s one thing, but let’s focus on seeing the systemic wrongs to change them to rights.
This dispersing of Covid relief seems an easy one. So let’s start here.
Heads up.
