Got unemployment insurance? You may want to load your monthly payments onto a Reliacard Visa, a prepaid, reloadable US Bank card through which the Department of Labor distributes insurance funds. Huliq has the details:
The Reliacard functions as a debit card and can be used anywhere that Visa is accepted. Consumers receive their funds directly to the card and avoid most of the common credit card fees. There is little risk of over-extending yourself because the funds go only so far as the money that you’ve allocated, though in some cases a charge may slip through and a $20 fee will be given. As long as customers utilize U.S. Bank ATMs there are no fees for balance inquiries or cash withdrawals; and the monthly fee of $2 only applies if the account is left inactive for more than 180 consecutive days.
Users cannot add additional funds to the account, as it is strictly for the depositing of unemployment insurance. Only the state can deposit funds to the Reliacard Visa. Also, in order to reduce fraud, U.S. Bank places daily limits on the amount of money that can be withdrawn from the card. If a consumer has to withdraw a large sum of money they will have to go straight to a bank teller.
Funds within the account do not accrue interest. Also, more than one card cannot be requested even for close family members. Still, in an unstable economy and with unemployment topping 7.2 percent in December the Reliacard Visa may be an option worth exploring.
How does the Reliacard visa beat getting unemployment funds deposited directly into your bank account? It doesn’t. But if you don’t have a bank account, and your state doesn’t offer a direct-deposit UI program, the ReliaCard system works well. Some more perks, from US Bank’s website:
* U.S. Bank provides government agencies with all of the necessary materials. Contact us today for more information.
* Cost savings – reduces disbursement expenses by replacing costly paper checks with an efficient electronic payment solution. Customers avoid the high cost of check-cashing facilities.
* Automatic approval – No customer credit approval or bank account is required.
In other words, the ReliaCard Visa targets those with horrible credit, no bank account, and who receive unemployment insurance benefits. They should have called it the HardUp Visa.
Reliacard is just one way for a company to take your money. There are fees that will chip away at your small unemployment funds. This is just another reason our economy has gone to crap. People who are just barely making things meet have fees when they use there money. Whats next are we going to start asking bums on the onramps to our freeways to start paying fees. What a ridiculous world this has turned into.
I was happy last year to recieve my little $126.00 check instead of a reliacard. I could cash the thing using my husbands bank account and not pay a dime. Now, I have to waste what little bit of money I’m getting to have access to it. What a rip off.
what are you people crying for I go to thier atm and draw all I can out as soon as it posts do’nt lose a dime
I did not receive my first Oregon unemployment check on time. When I called to ask about it. The first lady I had to talk with started firing questions at me like I was being interrogated for a crime. When I told her I was uncomfortable answering her questions she threatened to deny my unemployment. I asked to speak with someone else and she put me on hold for 30 minutes and denied my benefits before I got to speak to the next operator. Thank God I finaly get to speak to a nice person. She fixed my claim, but then she told me I had to use the reliacard until my direct deposit kicked in. I all read have to pay one overcharge.
I have paid over $200 in fees plus was robbed of $100 from my account through an ATM while I had my card in my purse. They are forcing this on me and this is my child’s money going down the drain. It’s hard enough to get these deadbeat parents to pay and now the bank is taking the childs’ money. People, we have got to stop taking anything that they try to choke down our throats!
This is how much fun I had with this piss-poor company today!
Called Marlene at 9:14 a.m. she told me that the
reason my card was showing a negative balance of
67.68 is because I went over my balance. When I did
the simple math it came up 33.95 not 68.67 before I
was able to tell her that she was incorrect about this simple math she transferred over to disputes.
(Now prior to this my card number was fraudulently used.
Thought this was all said, and done…..when one they issued the credit back onto my card…… and two they sent me a new card with the $72.21 ready, and willing to go!)
I was then speaking to Lee he gave me this little
song, and dance how 5-10% of the population does
not know how to send a fax, I have been sending
them for over a decade, I think that I know how to
do that. Then he proceeded to tell me that when
faxes come in sometimes that the ink is wrong so on
and so forth, rather than just telling me that he
will double check to see what happened to my fax. I
sent the fax twice on 5/27/09 the same day the
letter was dated from their office, also I received
confirmation twice that the fax was INDEED
RECEIVED. I kept trying to explain to him that I
did received confirmation twice, however he kept
being statistical with me. When I requested to
speak to a supervisor he told me that I could not,
then I asked could I speak to someone else he also
refused that option for me also. I since then
called back 4 times with both of them times
resulting in a hang-up in my face courtesy of Lee.
I have since then talked to customer service agent
and a supervisor twice, and received more
information about my option’s than I have from the
dispute department.
I called back one more time this time I spoke to
Marie lee’s buddy(in which she confirmed) I told
her the situation, I know that she informed Lee
that I was talking to one of his customer’s on the
phone because she was half listening to me.
I have worked in call center’s for most of my life,
I know all the trick’s of the trade, I have done,
and seen it all, in some cases at these call
center’s the customer is frowned down upon if they
are not nice enough to the person they are talking
to, and put at the bottom of the totem poll. Even
though this customer was put through the ringer has
done everything that was asked of them from the
company that they are trying to solve a problem
with, a quite frankly that is unfair however that
is the was the cookie crumbles in the call center
business.
Also good luck canceling the card, the just say let the balance run out, in other words they are going to nickel, and dime you to death until your balance is zero.
I hope USBank/ReiaCard burn in banking, and call center HELL!
“what are you people crying for I go to thier atm and draw all I can out as soon as it posts do’nt lose a dime”
Uh, the card issuer, US Bank, charges you to withdraw money from the account even from their ATMs. It’s incredible. Kick us while we’re down, won’t you?!
SVC CHG ATM WITHDRAW
US BANK PORTLAND
PORTLAND
Terminal: foobar -$ 1.50
I don’t understand why a government program such as unemployment would even deal with such a poor company like reliacard, when obviously it is so unreliable. Today my card has 300 dollars just sitting there, in my hand, goin to take the kids to the doc and stop for gas, use another card? Ok, try again, use another card this one is declined. Ok, call re lier card. Sorry we can’t take your call as we are experiencing high call volume, or in my language {we screwed something up keeping tons and tons of people from being able to access their money so we aren’t answering any phones} I think it is completely ridiculous. Either go back to checks that can actually be accessed or go with a company that doesn’t constantly have issues. Being a governmental issue that is approached by polotics, I can’t help but think, hey, is obama trying to prove something? Nah, its just the screwed up system screwing over its already screwed over people. I have worked all my life, hard serious work for the benefit of society, awesome the economy tears my job away, poof dealing with this crap.
humm.. so let me get this right, you cannot close the reliacard account.. say you stop getting unemployment, and 181 days later of not using it and its at $0.. on that 181′st day, you will get a $2 inactivity fee.. which will basically Overdraft for another $17.. then the next month, another $2 fee for inactivity, and bam another $17 overdraft.. so what i’m seeing is a way for the bank to Overdraft EVERYONE without thier knowledge mandated by the government??!?! or another situation.. you opt for the Direct deposit of your unemployment.. they send you this card anyways.. you dont activate it, but just leave it. 181′st day, $2 fee.. no money is in the account, because your direct deposit to your own, you’ll get a $17 overdraft.. WHAT THE HELL.. cant shut the card off.. cant Deny the card.. this is FRAUD plain and simple. why arnt people getting pissed at this? i know i am.. i about lost it when i saw the RATE/Fee Schedule when i got mine. and was told i couldn’t close it. then when unemployment agency said i didn’t have to use it, i totally new it was a FRAUD, cause it says right on the paperwork with the card, $2 fee for inactivity after 180 days, and $17 overdraft fee.
has anyone been overdrafted yet because of inactivity? has anyone thought of digging out their old reliacard to see if its balance is ok after 180 days of no activity?
i just got mine, and i’m staring at the writing on the wall saying, “BAD NEWS, RUN, RUN AWAY” am i right about this, or is it just bank mombojumbo that the state takes care of?
I haven’t overdrafted, but I am getting a monthly statement with an inactivity fee. Well, duh, I have a job now and am not using my card. A couple months ago, I tried to cancel the card. Reliacard wouldn’t cancel it. They sent me to the state, and gave me a number that was 100% automated. I’ve been ignoring the charges for several month, but got nervous about being liable for the charges, so am pursuing cancellation again. What a ridiculous system!
i dont know what state most of you are dealing with but i had an account for 3 months got a job and never was charged an inactivity fee after working for a year and a half and getting unemployment again they never took one penny from my new claim.
for those saying what are we crying for, your a moron if you cant see it.. INACTIVITY FEE’s.. if you dont use it, you’ll be FEED, and once you stop getting payments, then things get really bad.. inactivity fee causes overdrafts to happen, thus you’ll get screwed..
Apparently you CAN go over the limit especially at GAS pumps. When you insert your card at the pump the system checks to make sure there is at least two dollars on the card but you can pump as much as you want and it isn’t charged to your card until 48 hours later. I know this because one day I accidentally did this and then spoke with my sister in law who works at US Bank because I couldn’t understand why I can’t add money to this account myself. I guess reliacard is really owned by some bank in Georgia and Visa and US Bank are just partners in this scam. She says people come in to the bank all the time trying to add funds to their “account”. There is no account! It’s all a gigantic pool of funds like the foodstamp cards issued in many states and people are given their allotment based on the support paid by the parent ordered to pay. It may seem as if the money comes directly from the owing parent’s paycheck, but it doesn’t work that way. On top of it they charge overdraft fees that people are unable to remedy and now they are charging .15 for their little “notifications” that appear to be free (they don’t mention anywhere that they are going to charge you for these) I have eight notification charges and adding insult to injury these notifications were never sent to my e-mail or cell phone at all! This card is complete bullshit and I have complained and for the rest of you guys make sure you are complaining not just here but also to the right people= the people in your state who run unemployment and child support. ESPECIALLY child support because that is your CHILDS money that they are taking away from you=highly illegal! Ask any lawyer and they will tell you so!
I overdrafted from getting gas the first week I used my reliacard. And last week I overdrafted due to two 1.50 charges for taking cash out of US bank atms. Yet other weeks I am charged no fees for atm withdrawals. From what I read it charges you a dollar fifty after 3 atm withdrawals at us bank or three purchases. So pretty much if I get out cash to pay my cell bill at a tmobile store (because the website for tmobile won’t accept my reliacard, yay) then get gas, then get twenty dollars out of an atm to have a small bit of cash on me, any other purchase or withdrawal for that week will cost me an extra 1.50. So pretty much it’d be best yo just withdraw all the funds I can and use that cash to avoid fees. But then my money is obviously less safe out in paper form rather than digits in a computer somewhere so either way I’m risking losing money for using money. Not only that bothers me but federal taxes aren’t withheld and the Oregon unemployment website states that you have to specially request it to be. I know if you only end up getting like 2500 in unemployment benefits in a year you don’t have to pay the tax on that amount, that’s all fine and nice but it should automatically be taken after that point. I looked into it but I’m betting for every one person like me that looks there are ten that get slapped at tax time and get their federal refund eaten because they got downsized or became non essential or in my case someone with less experience and years invested in restaurant management would do it for 11 dollars an hour so I became over paid and essentially set up to be fired for something they told me to do when our checks didn’t come by friday for the third time in six months and they told us company wide to do small loans for employees who had bills like rent car notes etc that were due. But me taking one for my car insurance got me fired while my employees were not. Is it just me or is the whole system from top to bottom fatally flawed? I thought years of experience were a plus. And the more that you get in unemployment the more opportunity for fees. Not to mention income tax in general being an illegal system. P.S. my taxes were eaten this year. Plus waiting weeks and waiting a month for benefits passed the deadline of response from my previous employer just in case as my unemployment rep stated. I’m losing my car over having been almost a month behind when fired then waiting a month for benefits and a bad economy so bam I have to pay over a grand plus repo fees all upfront because my credit union is scared into no longer giving chances because of so many other people being given loans they couldn’t end up paying back for similar reasons and they don’t have the fall back money cushion of a bank like us bank who rapes a few states unemployment benefits. Thanks government. Thanks irs. Thanks Oregon. Unitus. And good old us bank.
Oh and I know emerald cards do the inactivity fees as well. It just takes I’d down to zero. I had 74 cents and it took that not a dollar fifty or whatever the fee was back two years ago. I’m guessing reliacard is similar? But even if it’s set up to overdraft once how will they ever get that inactivity money from a majority of people who get direct deposit next time, move states, or never use it again in general since we can’t add funds anyway? I’d like to hear from someone who has had an inactive card before I worry about that.
yes, i agree, top to bottom, the entire system is flawed, and screwed up.. it deserves to die.. us bank is making millions from this BS, and we are all getting screwed because of it. i haven’t activated my reliacard yet, and its been 3 months.. next month, i’ll check to see if i’m getting nailed for inactivity fee’s.. it shouldn’t because i have not activated it, nor have i accepted the terms for which it was issued. by activating it, you accept the liability of its use, this is what was explained to me by my lawyer. if i see any sort of inactivity or overdraft charges, i’ll be following it with a law suit against the state and usbank both. let them try to screw me, i’ll throw the biggest fit you’ve ever seen, and i’ll drag it through ever news media known to man.
I just recently “closed” my reliacard account. All you have to do is go to your bank or credit union that accepts a VISA card. First, you have to know exactly how much is in your card, and it helps to know when you will be charged another $2 non-activity fee. Your bank needs to know how much to withdraw. You don’t even need your pin number as it is considered a credit card purchase/transfer. The reliacard people tell you that once you have zero balance, you have to call 1-877-877-1781 to close your account (keep the card in case you ever have to re-open it). However, the person at the end of that number will tell you that if your account is at zero, all you have to do is cut up, or put aside your card, as reliacard cannot bill you with further charges.
its been almost a year now, and i still refuse to activate mine because of this BS.. however, now that the new banking laws are in affect, they can only nail you 1 time a billing cycle with an overdraft if there is any..
in any case,its scewed up how the states are getting into bed with banks the way they are. all in the name of saving trees and saving operational costs.. all they are doing is making banks money and lots of it.
if using paper does so much harm to tree’s, then why not make the checks out of HEMP! sorry stoners, HEMP is not pot.. it has 1/100 of the thc as the Pot you smoke these days..
Reliacard is a joke and we keep getting this treatment from those people that are supposed to have our best interest- the state. Why in the world would we sign up for an inconvenience. People feel a certain way against unemployed folk…like we want to be unemployed. People who are unemployed are because they were unjustifiably fired from a job or due to downsizing. The misconception that we are welfare recipients are second class is wrong. If this were one hundred years ago, we would be going through the same problems. When is the state going to care about the little people….I guess never….This “hidden-fee-non-disclosing-good-for-nothing-company” has a problem servicing the clients (us) that keep them in business. Lose all the hype, “I want to work and do not choose to collect benefits forever”….For all the naysayers out there, shut your mouths before you are in the unemployment line!
ijust found out about relia card charged me 74 dollards for 20 dollards of gas then toll me i would have wait for the rest of my money that i pay in to
in 2 months this thing would have been going on for 2 years.. why do we put up with this BS, why dont we do something about it?!
its time to fight back people.. stop taking the bankers crap and throw it back at them.. i know your unemployed, but this doesn’t mean you dont have feelings.. it doesn’t mean you cant fight.
think of something and do it, the bankers are destroying our way of life.. its time to fight back people.
Illegal crime scams adding fees can not take out full amount listed. Shows can not charge for atm fee’s at any usbank. I will file to governer oregon and idaho. Another way to rip off the poor people. Who is profiting off of this? I will take this to the the news reporters for a story that will get this information to the public. And oh by the way if i can i will take this to a court issue!
I finally got child support from my daughters worthless mother (the way the friend of the court and whatnot is set up is rather sexist in my state. If she were the male payments would be larger and established long ago) and started getting $50/month from her.
I was never given any information by the courts on it and expected checks in the mail or direct deposit. Four months later I get this damn reliacard. It says you can transfer money off of it but I have yet to find out how.
Why can’t I just receive this money without the state and then some bank fucking around with it and taking their cut?
I’ve had my reliacard since October of ’10… I’ve overdrafted under $5 twice and haven’t been charged an overdraft fee, which is nice. Also, they allow two non-US Bank ATM transactions each month before they charge $1.50 each. I get around that by just getting cashback at freddies or safeway . However… some bullcrap is the $74 “holding fee” for paying for gas at the pump that they take out of your account for 5 business days (this being thursday I’m not getting it back until next wednesday, and there goes my night away from the house!). My scooter holds 1.1 gallons.. which comes to about $4 these days… they have to hold an extra $70 for that?! I didn’t read that anywhere in the fee schedule I was given… perhaps an oversight on my part… I am feeling a little ridiculous for getting more than a little insane on the gas station people after I got to the grocery store and my card was declined… can I sue for emotional strain?? Kidding… kind of. I’m getting very frustrated with this card!!
Also, many of the fees you are all whining about are commonplace with ANY debit card. I have a wellsfargo checking account, if I withdraw money from any non-wellsfargo ATM I will be paying the fee from that terminal ($2+), and will also be charged $2.50 per withdrawal by wellsfargo. There are ways around this… get cashback at grocery stores, buy a pack of dollar gum (or anything else you need) and the cash is free, as often as you’d like. $17 overdraft fee is the cheapest I’ve ever come across from a bank, so is the $1.50 atm fee (from the 3rd withdrawal on in any month)… operating the cards costs both the state and the banks money… there is no monthly account fee like every other bank. If you don’t want to pay an overdraft charge… dont overdraft, it’s really that simple. I don’t have any problem with those charges, they are more than legit in my mind, even on the side of “nice” as far as bank fees are concerned, so stop whining that they “don’t care about poor people” because for all intents and purposes we are getting a break because we’re poor and unemployed. Except for the pay-at-the-pump “$74 holding fee”… if I’d known I would have just gone inside and payed my $4 for my one gallon of gas… but yes, they are just trying to trick me into overdrafting, which I wont because thankfully I had enough in there to cover it, I’ll be broke until it gets reimbursed in 5 business days but that’s fine too. Be smarter than the card!!