Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees

[ElNono]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/business/as-pay-cards-replace-paychecks-bank-fees-hurt-workers.html

[Wild Cobra]

Yes, you are at least a week late to the party. I did see this elsewhere, and I believe it is illegal to force the card on employees. They can optionally ask for it, but not be forced to use such methods of payment.

link: Feds investigating McDonald's franchise over payroll debit cards (http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/feds-investigating-mcdonald-s-franchise-over-payroll-debit-cards-1.1509690); June 23, 2013

[boutons_deux]

Why JPMorgan Wants to See More Americans on Food Stamps (http://moneymorning.com/2013/04/09/why-jpmorgan-wants-to-see-more-americans-on-food-stamps/)

Every time an American signs up for food stamps in one of 23 states, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM (https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AJPM&ei=wU9kUdimL6HL0AGpfg)) adds to its revenue stream.

That because JPMorgan Chase (http://moneymorning.com/tag/jpmorgan-chase/) contracts to operate as the processor of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards in those states. JPMorgan earns a fee for each recipient, ranging from 31 cents to $2.30, depending on the state, every month for the term of the contract.

JPMorgan's seven-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, the official name for the federal food stamp program) contract with New York state, for example, brought in more than $126 million of revenue to the big bank.

Florida has paid JPMorgan more than $90 million since 2007. Pennsylvania's seven-year contract exceeded $112 million.

It brings a whole new meaning to "corporate welfare."

A Rising Source of Revenue for JPMorgan

A decade ago, servicing SNAP recipients wasn't nearly so big a business as it has become in recent years.

The number of Americans receiving SNAP benefits has more than doubled since 2000, to an astounding 46.6 million people as of 2012, according to government data. That's nearly 15% of the U.S. population.

So it's no surprise that U.S. government spending on food stamp benefits has grown from $18 billion in 2000 to $85 billion in 2012 - a steep increase that has given JPMorgan a nice boost.

"This business is a very important business to JPMorgan," Christopher Paton, managing director of JPMorgan's public-sector payments business, told Bloomberg News in 2010. "It's an important business in terms of its size and scale... Right now, volumes have gone through the roof in the past couple of years. The good news, from JPMorgan's perspective, is the infrastructure that we built has been able to cope with that increase in volume."

A study released last fall by the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), a government watchdog group, estimated that since 2004 JPMorgan had collected more than $560 million in fees from just 18 of the states with which it has EBT contracts.

And the bank has taken steps to make sure the SNAP program remains a growing source of revenue. JPMorgan's political donations to the members of House and Senate agricultural committees, the ones with legislative responsibility for the program, soared from just over $82,000 in 2002 to nearly $333,000 as of 2010.

JPMorgan: Taking From the Poor to Give to the Rich

As if profiting from a program designed to help the poor were not bad enough, JPMorgan also makes money directly from the SNAP recipients.

The GAI said JPMorgan and the other two primary EBT administrators - a subsidiary of Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX (https://www.google.com/finance?q=xerox&ei=FF1kUZDiI7S30QHdFw)) called Affiliated Computer Services, and eFunds Corp., a subsidiary of Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS (https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AFIS&ei=rl1kUchl4dXRAaHeAQ)) - make money from food stamp recipients in other ways as well.

Purchases made by EBT cards can only be made with special Point of Sale (POS) machines, for which the states also pay JPMorgan a monthly fee. Arizona pays $14.95 per POS machine per month.

In addition, any time a SNAP recipient uses an EBT card at an ATM machine outside of JPMorgan's network, the bank charges a fee, just as it would any other customer.

JPMorgan also charges EBT users to replace lost cards, and for customer service calls (New York cardholders, for example, pay 25 cents per call.)

All those charges and fees come directly out of the pocket of SNAP recipients - people so poor they need food stamps to make ends meet.

You'd think a bank that needed a $94.7 billion bailout from U.S. taxpayers as a result of the 2008 financial crisis would have a better sense of civic responsibility.

But that's just not in JPMorgan's DNA.

http://moneymorning.com/2013/04/09/why-jpmorgan-wants-to-see-more-americans-on-food-stamps/

Anybody noticed Fox News, Repugs, tea baggers, Kock Bros fabricating a scandal about this ripoff?

[Capt Bringdown]

Ain't rentier capitalism grand?


Krystal McLemore, 22, makes $7.65 an hour at a Taco Bell in St. Louis. She said she was told to sign up for a payroll card. (Taco Bell says it “offers direct deposit and a voluntary option of payroll cards as an added convenience” for employees.)

But she grew tired of being charged $1.75, in addition to the A.T.M.’s fees, to withdraw cash. After a tip from a co-worker, Ms. McLemore realized she could reduce her charges if she took out all her wages once a month. Now, supplied with one of the most modern banking products, Ms. McLemore has a decidedly old-fashioned way of handling her pay: it is stacked in a shoe box in her closet in $10s and $20s.

“It costs too much to get my money,” she said.

[boutons_deux]

Virginia Outsources Taxpayer Refund System, Private Companies Profit (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/01/2229291/virginia-tax-outsource/)


http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Way2Go-e1372445147444.jpg

In 2012, Virginia’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted a budget provision that effectively forced the state’s tax department to outsource its refund system to a debit card company, claiming it would save the government hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. But the state’s deal with Xerox to replace tax refund checks with Comerica-issued debit card has meant headaches and fees for taxpayers and raised concerns about excessive outsourcing.

When the Virginia General Assembly passed its 2012 budget, largely along party (http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?122+vot+SV0041HB1301+HB1301) lines (http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?122+vot+HV1558+HB1301), it included a requirement (http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?122+bud+21-466) that “beginning January 1, 2013, the State Comptroller shall issue individual income tax refunds only through debit cards, direct deposits, or other electronic means unless the Tax Commissioner determines that a check is more appropriate for a transaction or class of transactions.” Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed the bill and his Department of the Treasury contracted (http://www.tax.virginia.gov/Documents/Debit%20Card%20Overview.pdf) with a division of Xerox to replace refund checks with MasterCard debit cards. Xerox agreed to provide the Comerica Bank-issued cards “at no cost to the Commonwealth,” but retained the right to impose a litany of fees (http://www.tax.virginia.gov/site.cfm?alias=RefundDebitCard-FeeSchedule) on the users.

Weeks after the first tax refund debit cards were issued, the problems started (http://www.timesdispatch.com/business/investment/virginia-s-new-tax-refund-card-hits-bumps/article_a1a6d66c-8d50-5d79-8608-514c3366732c.html). While the recipients were promised one free online transfer, anyone attempting to do so was informed that there would be a $2 fee (http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/GOCardFee.jpg). While Xerox acknowledged the IT problem, there were unable to immediately fix it. Worse, calls to the toll-free number were capped at two free calls per month, with a $2 fee for each additional call, making it risky for consumers to even ask for help — and access to a live human being to address problems was not easily determined on the voice activated phone system number provided with the debit cards. One Virginian, who encountered this Xerox system error and successfully got his fees refunded, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that his efforts were “a lot of headache for a couple bucks,” adding, “I am concerned this … ‘programming issue’ might be taking advantage of other Virginians who are not stubborn or maybe stupid enough to spend an entire evening to fight through this system.”

In response to a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request by ThinkProgress, the Virginia Department of Taxation provided a summary of other problems taxpayers had reported with the debit cards. They included Xerox incorrectly assessing fees on 14 debit card accounts “due to an algorithm that used card number sequences to apply fees to these accounts,” cards sent with a placeholder phone number (888-555-1212) on the printed version of the cardholder statement, and confusion with the interactive voice response phone system. Additionally, some MasterCard member banks improperly refused to process cash withdrawals and turned away non-account-holders. The department claims these problems have been remedied or will be.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/07/01/2229291/virginia-tax-outsource/

Can ANY of you Repug assholes list ANYTHING the Repugs have done FOR the 99%? We all know they have tons of shit TO the 99%.

[DMX7]

Big Business is just lookin' out for ya. Why hate?