General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: People who choose not to have bank accounts are being discriminated against in the stimulus package. [View all]Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The disadvantages of that is they are not as secure as a bank checking account, so the person should not go around sloppily using the card in a way that it can get compromised, gas pumps that are not secure are bad places to use it, as are ATMs in convenience stores and drive up bank ATMs. The second disadvantage is that a fee normally is charged for cash withdrawals. If the person only used the card to buy groceries and at pharmacies, the transactions are usually free, as are online purchases. The cards are debit cards, so they can't be overdrafted.
Regular banks, like SunTrust here is Florida issue cards that come with tracking on each transaction, so transactions that have strange patterns to them immediately get flagged, say that you normally only spend maybe a couple hundred at the most for the biggest transactions, suddenly a $15,000 transaction shows up. The bank puts each transaction in a "pending" state, which means it does not get paid instantly until the bank confirms that it's legit. In the case of the big transaction, the bank contacts you and ask whether you made the transaction, if not, it rejects payment. Of course that protection comes with a bigger fee, but if a person has a lot of money in an account, like company funds, the fee is worth it, given the protection against fraudulent transactions that can drain accounts.