Charged Fees to Access wages
 

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06...s-action-suit/

Outrageous Fees To Access Your Wages? That’s What Happened To Her
Author: T. Steelman June 17, 2013 9:10 pm

How do you get paid? By check? Direct deposit? Cash (under the table – shhhhh)? These are all legitimate ways to be paid for your work nowadays. Heck, direct deposit has been our method of choice for the past 20 years. But have you ever been paid by debit card?
That’s what happened to Natalie Gunshannon last month. The 27-year-old mother of one, took a job at the Dallas, Pennsylvania branch of McDonald’s in April. On May 15th, she received wages for her first pay period. But inside her pay envelope, instead of a check, she found a Chase Bank debit card. The accompanying note said that her future earnings would be deposited in this account and she could access it with the card. For a fee. That’s right, she would have to pay a fee to access the money she earned.

Gunshannon did not sign the card and, when she next returned to work, asked her supervisor about it and if she could instead be paid via check or direct deposit. She was told she had no other option but the debit card. She went to the franchise owners but was given the same reply. So she quit the job, which paid $7.44 an hour (19 cents more than minimum wage), and filed a lawsuit.

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Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06...#ixzz2aJ1VxiRh

What the fuck? All I can say to this.

That is a law suit that I sure hope the plaintiff wins.

Good for her.
Customers have no clue as to how much credit and debit cards cost merchants. It's not unusual for it to cost 5%, and American Express charges a lot more. That's why a lot of small merchants will not accept AE credit cards.
It's no big deal to WalMart or Kroger, but to a small merchant, like us, who has maybe 1 or 2 or 3 transactions a month, it's outrageous.

I read about this a little while back, and this is nothing new. I'm not saying it's right, but this kind of system has been used before..

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52366832/n...e-pay-options/

I guess that she is not being given a printed statement of her monthly earnings? If so, then how is she going to file her taxes? Will McDonald's still give her a printed W-2?

Burger King in this area has done this for several years. They gave a printed W-2... I had a couple of their employees as clients in my tax office.

For employees who receive their earnings via debit card, can they get refunded on their tax return the amount of money they were charged to access their money on the card? Can they file that fee as a business expense?

Most of those folks aren't itemizing deductions.

Moreover they cannot itemize as they don't make enough money to use a 1040, they have to use the 1040EZ.

So sad - they really are loosing hard earned money.

This is the nature of the ongoing cycle of poverty and low income living. These people will work hard, often more than one job, all of their lives and (with some exceptions) will always be poor and living paycheck to paycheck. These companies are taking advantage of people who they know are (1) grateful to have a job and (2) are not very competitive in the overall job market.

Also, unfortunately, there are people who do not know that their company's way of providing wages is detrimental. There are people who would think a debit card, gas card, Walmart card, or something of that nature sounds like a good idea. These people often haven't looked at their wage details and their companies know these are people who are just battling to find ANY job. To use a popular culture reference, those who are familiar with the movie Cadillac Records about Chess Records. Those poor Black artists were thrilled to get those new Cadillacs as compensation. Then along came Howlin' Wolf who refused to take the Cadillac. He took his MONEY, stayed in old truck, and was able to use his money however he chose. He and Muddy Waters had a rift for reasons including that. Waters ended up poor and Wolf was like "I told ya so...I can give you some money if you need it." :) Of course, some of this is accurate and much of it is Hollywood but the point remains the same.

At both my job (global automotive manufacturer) and Hypo's (Wendy's), we had the option of the pay card or direct deposit. In her case, she would have had to pay $18 for the card initially. I don't know if she would have had to pay fees to use the card or not. She chose direct deposit but she has a college student checking account with no fees. In my case, the card was free and there were no fees to get cash from it. I had to take my first paycheck on the pay card but had no problem getting the money off of it and had the option to transfer it to my checking account online, which I did. It took two extra business days.

There are a lot of people who get paper checks who go to the local convenience stores to cash them rather than deposit them into an account. They pay a fee for that and don't think twice about it. If they had a checking account, they'd pay a fee for that account too.

I'm not a fan of the pay card option at all. I found it to be a hassle when my money was on that card. If I could pay all of my bills from that card, it might not have been bad, but you can't pay the mortgage with it.

[QUOTE=AGDee;2227905]

There are a lot of people who get paper checks who go to the local convenience stores to cash them rather than deposit them into an account. They pay a fee for that and don't think twice about it. If they had a checking account, they'd pay a fee for that account too.

[\QUOTE]

It's expensive to be poor in America. I've always had free checking, but I've always had direct deposit, kept a minimum balance, or been a member of a credit union (with my parents as references). A lot of people do check cashing places because they can't get a bank account. It's tough and the debit card payment is just another form of that.

That's not true. You can ALWAYS file a 1040, but the 1040EZ is simpler. There is no minimum wage you must make to itemize or use a 1040. :) Most of them don't itemize however because they don't have enough expenses to make it beneficial. The amount of un-reimbursed business expenses must be over 2% of the total income before it even begins to count towards itemization. :-/

Precisely. I say this over and over and over. People with lower incomes pay more depending on where they live. Example: Why is that on my side of town gas can be 3-5 cents less expensive than on the South/West side? Ditto for grocery prices, and there are many other examples. Those pennies add up when you are on the edge.

Infuritating. The working poor cannot get a break. :mad:

Last holiday season, the Salvation Army in our area used this type of card for paid bell ringers. More people than they could hire signed-up for the employment opportunity.

This is the first ive heard of this payroll option. Does anyone know why an employer would prefer to pay their employees this way? It seems like it'd be more expensive than traditional payroll services but I'm probably wrong.

We have the option to pay by Pay card but the employees have to provide the card for themselves. We prefer that the employees are on some stort of direct deposit whether it be pay card or traditional checking. No checks to sign, and we mail the checks (or stubs for direct deposit), so we don't have to worry about the employees receiving them on time.

Pay cards work the same way as direct deposit is far is payroll fees and such.

Pay cards are used for lots of reasons.... companies can simply upload the wages to the card. No printing. No mailing. No checks getting lost or being stolen & cashed by someone else, etc. Cuts down on a lot of problems, but it does create others. Many companies have tried to go entirely to direct deposit, but a lot of people (maybe working here undocumented or those in poverty) simply do not have checking accounts.

the IRS also uses these cards for refunds to people who do not have checking/savings accounts and for SS recipients without them as well. It's a huge savings to not send paper checks. Our FHC also requires all the House Corp employees to have a checking/savings account or use a similar debit card for payroll.

For those without a bank account, this is robbery, but at least it's not also the rape that the check cashing places are. I wonder if these accounts can help a person establish credit. I've worked with people who got paid in cash and spent it all by Monday. For that person at least his money isnt cash in his pocket waiting to get mugged. Still, there should be an alternative.

Undocumented people can get paycards. The ones you pick up at the retail stores don't require personal information.

In North Carolina, you can legally require everyone on your payroll to be direct deposit. I'm sure there are other states as well, but most of my HR experience is from NC.

I only have a personal working knowledge of the banking industry, but I *thought* it was easier to get an account at a credit union vs. a bank.

Also, personally I'm all for direct deposit - faster, easier to manage, and safer, IMO.

You have to be a "member" of a certain group in order to use a CU, though (ex. teacher's union, service member, etc). It may be easier than getting accounts at the big banks, but not necessarily easy. Also, many people who choose not to get accounts do so because they don't trust financial institutions.

I have always seen the option to get money on a prepaid card, but never a requirement.

True and true.

I didn't know about getting your salary on a prepaid card until this thread. :o

Yep. After all the stuff that happened with banks recently, there was a huge increase in the number of folks using prepaid debit cards. I still find it weird that a company would force someone to use them, though.