Social Security Now Issued As Debit Cards
photo credit: DeclanTM
If you’re one of the 4 million Social Security or Supplemental Security Income recipients in the United States without a bank account, you have a new option in place for receiving your monthly payments. Instead of receiving a monthly check, the government is now prepared to disburse Social Security payments on prepaid debit cards.
One of the biggest benefits to the new debit card system is the elimination of the exorbitant bank fees required to cash the checks. In addition, Social Security recipients will no longer be forced to walk around with large amounts of easy-to-steal cash. Instead, they will be able to use their debit cards as a credit card, or withdraw cash from any compatible ATM. Another benefit to the new service will be the lack of lost checks. The debit card-holders will retain the same card every month, and like the 40 million recipients with direct deposit, their payments will be automatically deposited to their debit cards each month.
These new measures will be more secure, more reliable, and much less expensive for taxpayers. In fact, Judith Tillman, commissioner of the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service, says that the switch may save up to $42 million in check-printing and mail services.
This new service is already in place is several states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Caroline, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Over the summer, they will go active in all other states, allowing all Social Security recipients to benefit from the newly improved payments system.
Tags: Debt Card | Government | Saving Money | Social Security
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 3:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
