Posted on 10/05/2021 3:41:54 AM PDT by fluorescence
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Postal Service quietly began offering paycheck-cashing services at several East Coast post offices last month, testing a plan that financial experts say has the potential to transform how low-wage and underserved Americans access their money.
Postal customers can now redeem paychecks in Washington, Baltimore, Falls Church, Va., and the Bronx, N.Y., for Visa gift cards topping out at $500, an agency spokesperson said. Postal officials expect to expand the pilot into a fuller study with more locations and financial products, such as bill-paying services and ATMs, according to three people involved with the program who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive business strategy.
Postal banking has become a Democratic hobby horse in recent years, with activists and politicians saying it solves two problems: the Postal Service's precarious financial condition and the barriers many U.S. households face to building wealth and accessing their money.
For the nation's 14.1 million unbanked and underbanked adults, the plan presents a government-backed alternative to paycheck cashing stores and payday lenders, which target vulnerable populations with outsized fees and interest rates. Democrats embraced the idea years ago: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., made postal banking part of his 2016 and 2020 presidential platforms, and it was adopted by the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force as part of President Biden's 2020 campaign agenda.
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Union officials said they expect the program to reach other post offices nationwide after the holiday season. The Postal Service will soon begin advertising the paycheck cashing service, and will use the increased foot traffic during the agency's peak season to gauge consumer interest and effective price points.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
AMERICANS MASK:
they INTERFERED with the election [Post office FRAUD]
and are GROSSLY unable to deliver mail timely
and at low cost,
so why now do they have a new job when they
cannot even do what they are supposed to do?
Paycheck “cashing” into bank-cartel cards isn’t really paycheck cashing at all. It is funneling the little guy’s income into Big Tech/Banking micro control.
Yeah, because they do such a great job delivering mail.....
Let them handle money transactions.
I've worked in the financial services industry for 20+ years. This is a load of horse manure. There are no traditional brick-and-mortar banks that restrict access to money. You put your money in, you take your money out. Credit might be a different story, but that's not what they're discussing in this article.
This is a Federal power grab. They're consuming every industry in this country to federalize it. In other words, they're implementing socialism/soft communism. First the student loan industry. Then healthcare. Now the financial services sector.
So when they decide to adapt chicom social scoring, they can turn off your ability to access commerce easier.
You nailed it. There is absolutely no need for the fed gov to be offering retail banking services to anybody. The notion that we have unbanked, underbanked, and underserved people is ridiculous. Those are fed gov vague justification words for a power grab. Just like “food desert” means fed gov needs to open its own food stores for the “underserved” people.
Has anyone seen the lines at the PO today?
No thanks.
Walmart cashes payroll checks for a $3 fee. You can load a Visa card there. Money orders are less than $3. If for some reason you can’t get a bank account, Walmart is affordable. In many Walmarts there are second chance type banks, too. They are for people who have unpaid fees and charges at regular banks.
USPS is just more gov’t tracking your money.
This comes from the folks in government who love Europe. All of their POs act as banks as well.
Of course anyone in Europe with any “get up and go” got up and left 200 years ago.
They should work on getting mail delivery right first.
there are a lot more post office locations than Walmarts.
My concern is security. Post Office employees can steal activated Visa cards, this would become a big issue.
That’s a defacto national bank and unconstitutional. Literally.
“Unbanked” people are those who operate only with cash and don’t want their money tracked. If you haven’t a bank account, it’s harder for the IRS or divorce courts to get hold of the money.
I can see many people avoiding PO check cashing for just that reason. The PO would keep electronic records accessible to courts and IRS, and would eventually be called upon to garnish wages — AFTER all the other competitors had been driven out of business.
As if standing in line wasn’t enough of a hassle. Now I have to stand in line with people who aren’t good with money
I think FDR had an idea for postal banks too. Just like all socialists they cannot keep their hands off your money.
Dittos
Exactly. Well said.
visa gift cards have fees that deduct from the funds on the card on a regular basis. Its essentially a negative interest rate. Stupid people will be the prey of this setup.
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