What I Just Learned About WalMart Money Card

[jacko]

You can open up a Schwab one account with a min first deposit of only $100.00. No monthly charges, free bill pay, postage paid deposit envelopes and ATM fee reimbursement. The bank side is located in Nevada. So your creditors will not find it unless you tell them. My deposit is made available for my use same day they receive.

My account has not shown up on my Chex system report except as a inquire, even though I ordered checks.

I had been planning to start using a Walmart Money Card, to have an alternative to banks in the event I have to close bank accts to avoid bank levies from CC company judgments in the future.

On this forum and others WalmartMoney Cards are discussed quite bit. ...and on the surface they may work for many, but there are some drawbacks I wasn't aware of.

A Walmart asst manager explained that they will only cash/or load onto these cards, checks from the government or PAYROLL Checks. Walmart defines a payroll check as one that has NO HANDWRITTEN INFO ON THE CHECK, including the signature area...

.....which is fine if you work for a giant company I suppose but tons of small companies employing millions of people do their payroll in a much less sophisticated fashion. They have someone write out checks by hand and sign them - how quaint! ...and if you are self-employed receiving checks from your customers/clients, checks must also contain no handwriting.

So, unless I'm missing something, the self-employed and employees of smaller firms can't reliably load walmart money cards by check.

Yes, they could separately go to a currency exchange and attempt to cash the check or if the issuing bank is local go there first and see if they'll cash it (some require you open an acct to even cash ONE CHECK) and then go Walmart with the cash to load onto the card...

Not exactly convenient though.

[OHBOY]

Thanks for the info!

Please allow me to add to your quote:
"Yes, they could separately go to a currency exchange and attempt to cash the check or if the issuing bank is local go there first and see if they'll cash it (some require you open an acct to even cash ONE CHECK) and then go Walmart with the cash to load onto the card..."

............. MANY banks now charge $ 5 EVEN though the check is issued from THEIR bank !

[ryan]

I had been planning to start using a Walmart Money Card, to have an alternative to banks in the event I have to close bank accts to avoid bank levies from CC company judgments in the future.

On this forum and others WalmartMoney Cards are discussed quite bit. ...and on the surface they may work for many, but there are some drawbacks I wasn't aware of.

A Walmart asst manager explained that they will only cash/or load onto these cards, checks from the government or PAYROLL Checks. Walmart defines a payroll check as one that has NO HANDWRITTEN INFO ON THE CHECK, including the signature area...

.....which is fine if you work for a giant company I suppose but tons of small companies employing millions of people do their payroll in a much less sophisticated fashion. They have someone write out checks by hand and sign them - how quaint! ...and if you are self-employed receiving checks from your customers/clients, checks must also contain no handwriting.

So, unless I'm missing something, the self-employed and employees of smaller firms can't reliably load walmart money cards by check.

Yes, they could separately go to a currency exchange and attempt to cash the check or if the issuing bank is local go there first and see if they'll cash it (some require you open an acct to even cash ONE CHECK) and then go Walmart with the cash to load onto the card...

Not exactly convenient though.