Comments on: ReliaCard Visa Targets Unemployed People

By: BP in Oregon

BP in Oregon — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 23:09:30 +0000

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!!

By: BP in Oregon

BP in Oregon — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:52:11 +0000

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!!

By: sean

sean — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 01:22:53 +0000

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?

By: bubba

bubba — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 01:35:24 +0000

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!

By: dan

dan — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:06:15 +0000

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.

By: david boyle

david boyle — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:08:24 +0000

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

By: Johnny

Johnny — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:50:08 +0000

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!

By: dan

dan — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:31:26 +0000

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..

By: jen

jen — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:50:17 +0000

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.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:52:41 +0000

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.