just when i thought i heard it all....paycheck fees!

[Sagginit]

yup thats right, a banking institution trying to charge me fees on my paycheck. we had an error that occured to recent payroll changes for some people that resulted in us not getting our full checks deposited last week. not happy but wasn't going to bounce checks or anything, so fine. i get a pay card today, its like a debit card of sorts. they issue them so that you have cash acess instantly, ok again i would have rather had a check but fine i get it, they want me to be able to buy food or gas asap.

so my bank is close by so i take it over there. if i use at the atm there will be fee to take the cash out as it is not issued by them, i have to take out the money in $20 increments and there is a limit on what i can take out so i can't drain the thing and dump it into my account. i go to the counter. they can take the money off as a cash advance but the bank and the card's bank will charge me a fee as a percentage. (which someone pointed out isn't a cash advance as the cash that is on the card is my paycheck that has already been issued). great. so i have no choice but to wait until tomorrow to transfer the money electronically for free over the phone. and to top it all off when i called in, they wanted me to upgrade for a fee of $3 a month and then they said something about a fee for inactivity after a certain period. payroll also had no idea of these issues, they were like oh no one ever told us this. people were also like well then just use it like you would use cash then for the next few weeks and i was like uhhh i pay bills automatically from my bank account, i don't walk around with my entire paycheck in cash, i mean what if i lose the darn thing or its stolen? the card seems like such a scam for employees.

 

[jgates]

If you use a card branded with MC or Visa they cannot legally charge you a fee for a cash advance over the counter.

The bank CAN charge you a non-customer fee or something like that, but we have questioned many times if we can assess a fee to people who come in & get large cash advances, and have been told NO.

ATMs are a different story, but over the counter the bank should NOT be charging you a fee. We receive no income from a cash advance & have no fees assessed to us for doing it. They do NOT withhold the % fees that a merchant pays on a CC transaction. The card companies WANT banks to do it because the card companies charge the customer such a high fee for it. Now this card company itself may charge a fee & you are hung on that one.

If they gave you a PIN # another option is to do a small purchase at WM, Walgreens, etc. & get 'cash back' over the amount of purchase. Most will go up to $100 over and they charge no fees for that (unless the card provider charges) as it is still classified as a purchase. Check on that one.

 

[Sagginit]

the cash back at the store will still only let me get so much at a time, the thing is they put a limit on how much you can take out of the card at a time, so it may take days to drain it for cash this way. its just so frustrating that its my darn paycheck and the company that issues the card makes it so hard to get the money off of it. the guys at the bank were super nice, they didn't want me to get hit with crazy fees which was cool. although it is possible they did not understand the cash advance thing because it took two of them to try to figure it all out. i had a coworker who took it to a bank and they wouldn't even accept it at the counter and the atm didn't read it properly, so i guess it could have been worse.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

I have never heard of an employer doing this. The whole thing seems awfully sketchy. Why didn't they just reissue the pay checks the normal way? Better yet why wasn't the error caught in the first place?

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I was given one of those before. I was also not amused. They would not issue direct deposit or a paper check.

The thing had a fee to use it at the ATM.
It was branded as Chase but I could not transfer the funds from the card to my Chase checking account without a fee.

The only thing that was free was to use it at point of sale transactions. However, once you run low, you have to get it exact to be able to use the entire amount. (For example, if you had $18.47 left on the card and the transaction is $19.01, it would be denied.) So I knew the exact amount when it was low, then went to Target where I knew I could split a transaction among different payment options. I wrote in the exact amount I wanted to pay with the debit, then paid the difference in cash.

One thing I did do would be select cash back at the point of sale. Over time, I was able to get quite a bit out in cash (fee-free) this way.

I was grateful to get the money, but I do agree that the terms were cumbersome and sly.

 

[Mary Anne]

I have to agree with Mickeylover. I work in HR & Payroll. Errors happen and it's not always the payroll department's fault and sometimes it's impossible to fix before they hit on payday but why in the world did they not just run an adjustment payroll and direct deposit the difference within a day or so? The only way to fix it was to come up with these paycards? I hate to ask but could there be cash flow issues with the company?

 

[Halbleib1]

Seems that some employers are going to these cards unless you take direct deposit as well. My dh started a new job earlier this month and they offered one of these cards. We did not accept it because there are all sorts of fees attached. If you activate the card and decide to close it later on you are charged a 5.00 deactivation fee as well. These cards are similar to the cards that many states are giving out for unemployment benefits except limited on where you can withdrawl money out for free and with many more fees attached. None of the locations listed are banks but are atms at stores, gas stations, etc. The cards are through a place called global cash card. You have to go through them to receive your paystub as well.

 

[usnuzuloose]

When I was working up until 06 they wanted to start that in 05. I thought no way and if you do I will be leaving my job. Thank goodness they never did. All companys want to do is nickle and dime everyone to death. I would see if you have the option to go back to paper. I am so sorry.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

My husband's company does this but they put a little extra on it (if it was their mistake) so that it can cover fees.

We had it once and a coworker told my husband about the atm at Wawa. It has no fees. NONE.

When I worked for a payroll processing company it took 2 days to electronically transfer for direct deposit. Some employees can't wait 2 days. The checks come out of headquarters in another state, so they can mail a paper check but then you are at the mercy of the post office too.

Paycards are kept in the local HR and can be loaded instantly. That is why some companies offer them.

 

[JaymeC]

I get these every.single.week. I hate that card. I log on online and wait the one business day to transfer it over.

Ironically, I work for a local credit union but through a temp agency (first six months). The temp agency refuses to do direct deposit or issue paper checks, only these cards.

I've gotten into a habit with it now, but the fees on it are ridiculous and i know a few of the people I work with pay them instead of transferring because they want that money over the weekend (we get paid on Friday) instead of waiting for Monday to have it transferred over. It's something like $1/transaction if you run it as a credit/debit card, or $1 for the ATM. Luckily the electronic balance transfer is free (at the moment at least!)

 

[ancestry]

In my opinion, I don't think you should be frustrated with the bank but rather should be frustrated with your employer. It sounds like the fees are a legitimate business expense to the bank but if my employer gave me a paycard instead of a paycheck or direct deposit I would be livid. I also bet that the legalities of the employer doing this could be challenged in many states.

 

[eliza61]

1) many banks and businesses are going "paperless" almost exclusively. My company, which is a major fortune 500 chemical company does not ever give paper checks or cards. When they hire you, you must agree to get some type of bank account. Anyhoo, so if a bank has to use a vehicle or a transaction that is not normal, generally no matter what, there will be a fee.

2) At this point I would probably accept the fact that there will be some type of fee. pick the option that lets you electronically transfer the entire balance back into your checking account. dump the card.

 

[walkdmc]

That's an odd arrangement and hopefully won't occur too often but I understand the bank's position. It's not really a typical pay"check", it's a debit card not managed by them...so I get the fees, it's not shocking.

 

[3boymthr]

I was at the bank recently and was told that this is becoming more and more common. The teller told me it's in part because the client/employer doesn't have to pay the fees to the payroll company for processing payroll, instead the employee does.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

I was at the bank recently and was told that this is becoming more and more common. The teller told me it's in part because the client/employer doesn't have to pay the fees to the payroll company for processing payroll, instead the employee does.

When I worked for a payroll processing company (granted this was a few years ago) clients were charged just the same. In fact, the cards had routing numbers and account numbers just like a direct deposit of a checking account.

What it did save the clients was the hassle of reissuing a stale dated paper check and reconciliation of their books to take into account checks that were held and not cashed until a later date. It never crossed my mind that employees wouldn't cash their paychecks until I worked there. There was a particular case I was on where an employee didn't cash ANY of their checks for a year. Then one day he walked into the bank and tried to cash them all. Our checks were printed that they were good for 180 days. The bank refused to cash half of his checks and then he walked into his employers HR office and threatened to file a complaint with the Labor Board if he didn't have ALL his checks reissued within the day.

It was a doozie.

 

[NVDisMom]

OP, does your card have your name on it like a debit/credit card? Or is it a generic card more like a isa gift card? Ours has DH's name n it. Maybe that is the difference.

My DH's company has these available as well. We have some each paycheck deposited in our checking account for bills and some put on this card for play money and some put into our savings account. I can log into our HR dept before each paycheck and change amounts at my convenience. Its actually been quite nice.Our own little envelope system. BUT we are not charged a dime. No fees of any sort unless you some how manage to overdraw the thing(like gas that authorizes for a dollar and later posts the actual transaction amount) and then its less expensive of a fee than the bank. Go figure. I have transferred money from it to our bank account for free. I have withdrawn cash, to a certain high limit, without any fees too. And the limit can be removed. All I would have to do is call the customer service number and let them know I would be withdrawing the money and they would put in an exception. I wonder why yours is so prohibitive? Different issuing banks I suppose. I know that one of the "selling" points of these payroll cards to employers is the fact that "unbankable" employees can have a kind of direct deposit. The card even offers billpay, which does have a small fee attached to it. We had one paycheck that direct deposit got messed up on on the checking account side. When the error was discovered, they deposited it automatically to the payroll card and I transferred it to where it belonged immediately. The funds were available the next day. It was much quicker than waiting for the payroll company to issue a paper check and mail it or the time it takes for direct deposit to work through the system. It is an expensive proposition for most large companies to cut off cycle checks so this is probably their emergency backup. They were sold the product by their bank or their payroll company and may have been misled to believe it was a free product when in fact the cost was just shifted to the employee.

 

[seashoreCM]

I was at the bank recently and was told that this is becoming more and more common. The teller told me it's in part because the client/employer doesn't have to pay the fees to the payroll company for processing payroll, instead the employee does.

The employer must provide some method that the employee can use to get his pay with no processing fees and not requiring reporting to a particular office or bank.

 

[scrapquitler]

In my opinion, I don't think you should be frustrated with the bank but rather should be frustrated with your employer. It sounds like the fees are a legitimate business expense to the bank but if my employer gave me a paycard instead of a paycheck or direct deposit I would be livid. I also bet that the legalities of the employer doing this could be challenged in many states.

I agree with this. The OP shouldn't be mad at the bank, the OP should be mad at the employer who issued this stupid card.

 

[anabelle]

I have never heard of an employer doing this. The whole thing seems awfully sketchy. Why didn't they just reissue the pay checks the normal way? Better yet why wasn't the error caught in the first place?

It is a new service that is being offered by some of the payroll processing companies. If you choose the debit card option, it is cheaper for the company.

 

[Sagginit]

it was an ER thing. i think its new to the payroll dept because they couldn't answer all the questions i had about it. technically i can get the money with no fees by depositing it directly which is what i chose to do. it is offered by the company that does our payroll, i was just shocked because when i called in they tried to get me to upgrade for a fee like a credit card. hopefully i won't ever have this error again.