The main problem I see is that, unlike a credit card, if somebody makes unauthorized charges against your account, you have no recourse.
Not that I don't think it's a great idea, you just have to be aware of the differences.
Yeah; that would be a problem.
It think it would be useful as a fall-back resourse in addition to regular banking. Just keep a small amount in it for emergencies.
Also, I could see the possibility of having a card for my mom in NY, with “us kids” adding money to it long-distance as needed. (Not sure if that will be a feature, but it would be a good one.)
Wrong. They offer $0 fraud protection just like a regular american express.
I picked up a card for myself and my wife today. I am replacing an old walmart green dot card and she is dumping US Bank after they reversed a posted deposit and made the account negative then hit her with 15 35 dollar over draft fees.
The check was good and “we’re so sorry. we don’t understand what went wrong. It was not the check, or the account the check was drawn on. (check writer and casher both bank at US bank) bring the check in once you get it back in the mail and we’ll post it right away. What? OD fees? We’re sorry, we can’t do anything about that. would you like to sign up for ready reserve to prevent that in the future?”
The check was posted to the account. I am not done with them and the 525 dollars they think we owe them. It would be one thing if the check was bad, but it was not. It was verified by the ATM when deposited. Even the branch manager said “it should have cleared. We don’t know what happened”
Long story short. eff the banks.
I paid 12 dollars total this year in “bank” fees with the walmart card. Those 12 bucks where ATM fees I could have avoided if I went to a walmart (didn’t care. just give me some money) Wife was paying 8 bucks a month just to have an account at US bank because we are currently unwilling to let 2000 bucks sit in an account to keep them happy and wave the fee. In other investments 2000 bucks returns far more than 8 bucks a month.