Balance Financial Mastercard by Walgreens

"Balance Financial Prepaid MasterCard" from Walgreen's/Duane Reade.

https://balancefinancial.walgreens.com

Balance Financial is currently offered to customers of more than 250 Walgreen's locations in Detroit, Milwaukee and Nashville, with a nationwide card roll out expected before year end and additional financial services in 2014

Has some fees which for the most part can be avoided.

No monthly fee when $1,000 a month is loaded - $2.95 a month otherwise.

Free ATM withdrawals at participating Walgreen/Duane Reade ATM's - no explanation of what that means though.

Bill Pay is 95 cents. They mention an expedited Bill Pay also.

Cash reload at Walgreen's/Duane Reade stores is $2.95.

Daily spend limit of $2,500.

Daily withdrawal limit of $500.

This already has IPhone and Android apps.

It sounds as though they will have special kiosks in stores just for this card.

Apparently Walgreen will begin cashing checks as part of this offering. Maybe they already do in some locations. Probably using Certegy just as Walmart does.

https://balancefinancial.walgreens.com/content/part/nm/MDAxNkUPFfRrPxlbiTCbXhdkw7gK

There is a 'rewards' aspect of this deal that combines Walgreen's purchase, prescriptions and some social/health through their 'Balance' reward program. It looks like every 1,000 points is worth one dollar at Walgreens. If you are a frequent Walgreens shopper this may be for you. Their prescription sales though are more expensive than Walmart by far.

My advice to Walgreen's is to either eliminate the cash deposit charge or lower it to $1.

ObamaCare Mandates a Debit or Credit Card

To those that have no type of bank card, in order to receive Obamacare benefits you MUST have a debit or credit card.

Read the details here:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-29/pre-paid-debit-cards-accepted-anywhere-obamacare-is-available

PayPal Making Moves Towards Becoming a Bank

PayPal has been acquiring companies with what looks like an eye to becoming a full service financial company. They just bought Braintree Systems which is a card transaction processor.

This is the same thing Greendot did before they bought a small bank.

PayPal just needs a small bank to complete the change.

Webster Bank Prepaid Visa

The first area Bank in Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts to come out with a prepaid Banking card.

Not the cheapest though. $3 a month, $3 to reload at Webster Bank. Free Webster ATM use - $500 daily withdrawal limit. Only 1 free account alert to your phone 25 cents per after that. $2,000 daily spending limit. $3,000 limit maximum on deposit.

The funds availability is more than a little shaky with them saying funds from cash deposits will be available the 'same day'. Card reloads are always available within minutes of a cash deposit in my experience.

https://www.websteronline.com/resources/pdf/personal/FIS_Terms_Conditions.pdf

https://www.websteronline.com/resources/pdf/personal/FIS_FAQ.pdf

GoBank Open to Everyone

This is the best prepaid hands down.

Free cash deposits at any Walmart. Free ATM use - MoneyPass or Cardtronics.

https://www.gobank.com/signup/signup

Watch Out for Your ATM Usage & Fees

I use GoBank and they have deals with Cardtronics/Allpoint and MoneyPass for free ATM usage.
However the Allpoint ATMs are in small business's like Dunkin Donuts, Walgreens etc.
Last week I used three Allpoint machines and they all came back with fees plus a fee from GoBank.

$12.50 in total. Customer service credited me for $10 and I'm still waiting for the other $2.50.

The MoneyPass machines seem to be in Banks and Credit Unions and they recognize the card and do not charge any fees.

50% of All Liquid Cardholders were Unbanked/UnderBanked

http://www.paymentssource.com/news/half-of-chase-liquid-prepaid-card-users-are-underbanked-3014352-1.html

"Jonathan Wilk, the head of product marketing for Chase, said today that 30% of its Liquid customers "are never-banked or unbanked … when you add in the underbanked, it brings it up to 48%.""