Beacon Journal | 10/25/2005 | State goes to all-electronic support payments
To me this is a good/bad thing. It is good that they are finally doing something that is electronic based. The USA, in general, is so far behind the times when it comes to banking. We are about the last country in the world to still make large use of checks. In fact I heard that Germany completely eliminated paper checks, although I would find that hard to believe. If nothing else companies that do business with Americans would need to have checks.
My concern would be with the Ohio e-QuickPay debit card. Aside from the problems of using debit cards at some places, how much access does the state have over where you spent that money? Granted they are taking into account people who don't have some kind of bank account (which typically is the poorest of society), but do the same rules apply to the debit card as to people getting the money direct deposited into an account? It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
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I've had a mandatory e-QuickPay debit card since October.
In November, about $70 was removed from the account w/o my approval. The automated account system allowed me to establish several transactions I had no receipts for. My local CSEA office said they could review transactions (that's card services area) so nothing could be done by them. Was told by the card service that my records couldn't be discussed due to the sensitivity of my account (being that it was a CSEA account), also they could only access the last 10 transactions. They referred me to my local CSEA office.
I changed to immediately withdrawing cash after every deposit. aside from the occasional problem with card machines (dropped signal, typo's, etc.) this works well for a couple of months.
In March, a credit was added without explanation, but this time, I was told that I could receive online detailed statements. Cool... problem solved.
Yesterday, @ a bank, I tried to withdraw cash & was told the transaction was denied all 3 times the teller tried to process it. The denial caused me to recheck my balance & find that the exact amount I was trying to withdraw was no gone from the account. Reviewing my online statement showed the money missing, but showed no transaction to account for the funds.
Another round of calls to all 3 offices, this time, not only do I want to fix the missing funds, but I want to know who is in charge of oversight for this program. Who is in place to guarantee that 'service fees' aren't charged to this 'free service', that people have access to their records, etc.
I am told that there is NO ONE and/or NO OFFICE currently in a position to review or enforce the e-QuickPay debit card system. There is NO COMPANY in charge of the program. This is a joint venture between MasterCard & the Ohio CSEA.
I was told the bank teller had erred, & I had to go back to the bank & request the same teller send a fax to prove I hadn't received any money. Fax done, money is 'supposed' to be available again within 1-2 hours.
I realize that it is my choice to use the debit card as opposed to direct deposit. I have however never had a major problem with any other debit card I have owned and minor problems were taken care of easily by contacting the issuing bank.
I can only imagine the number of people that could potentially lose portions of their support payments to fraud & never know. Not everyone has internet access (gasp). Not everyone is patient enough to wait on hold for 30 minutes to speak to a human (card services). Not everyone knows how to decipher a bank transaction list w/o a 'running total' (there are some pretty stupid people in the world).
I fully expect the complexity, complications, & lack of oversight to be cause for legal action.
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