June 5, 2020
The 73rd Year
Day 78
If you have not received your Covid-19 stimulus money yet, check your trash. Or your recycling bin!
If your trash and recycling have not been collected in the last week, that is where you will find your money, most likely hidden behind those coffee grounds you were supposed to put in the compost.
You will not recognize your money. It did not come in an official US government envelope.
It does not look like your tax refund check or those pesky notices from the IRS demanding an extra $10.26 discovered during a $1,000 audit of your 2018 return.
It does not look like anything mailed out by Medicare or the Social Security Administration.
It looks like junk mail. And you have to wonder if that is an accident. Is it possible someone, somewhere in government does not want us to get our stimulus money?
Do not rummage through your trash looking for a check. This week some four million Americans who do not have banking information on file with the IRS were mailed debit cards with their stimulus money embedded. The debit cards come from “Money Network Cardholder Services.”
Who!
Money Network Cardholder Services is a division or subsidiary of Meta Bank, a private financial agent contracted with the U.S. Treasury.
This private bank has a contract to issue the stimulus debit cards. Ours came in a simple white envelope and was indistinguishable from the hundreds of junk mail solicitations we have received from VISA and Master Card in the last three decades. All of those ended up in the recycling bin.
When you open the mystery envelope there is indeed a VISA debit card with your name on it, just like all the other credit card hustles that personalize their pitch in an effort to pick your pocket.
We had been wondering where our stimulus payments were. Our friends had all received theirs. We knew we were eligible. There was a notice online that SSI recipients would get their money in mid may. Mid May came, no money. June came, no money.
Our payment came this week; it sat unopened on the freezer for three days. We were not looking for a debit card from a private company.
Our youngest son is a journalist and yesterday I noticed an article about the debit card program on his employers website. I checked the mail on the freezer and there it was: Money Network Cardholder Services.
I never would have opened that envelope if I had not seen that article. I owe my son’s colleague a drink, perhaps two!
When the card and the accompanying material are spread out on the table it is clear this is the stimulus payment and not a credit or debit card solicitation. But I fear many Americans, especially seniors, may never get that far.
We regularly let our mail sit unopened for a day or two as a precaution against the Covid-19 virus. As we get our mail at the post office in town, I often toss junk mail out before leaving the building. The post office provides a recycling bin just for junk mail. Had I done that earlier this week, our money would be gone.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did announce weeks ago that debit cards would be mailed. If he made it clear that the payments would be disguised and sent from a no-name organization, it did not resonate for me and I imagine many others.
A debit card is convenient but it comes with transaction fees and limits. I do not remember Congress debating transaction fees. I do not remember Congress telling us how we could spend our money.
The IRS does not have my bank information but SSI does. Medicare does. We could have received our money by direct deposit if they communicated and avoided the bank fees and limitations.
Instead this administration decided to privatize the process.
Welcome to Donald Trump’s America where government is a for profit enterprise.
Check your mail.
Be safe.
The 73rd Year
Day 78
If you have not received your Covid-19 stimulus money yet, check your trash. Or your recycling bin!
If your trash and recycling have not been collected in the last week, that is where you will find your money, most likely hidden behind those coffee grounds you were supposed to put in the compost.
You will not recognize your money. It did not come in an official US government envelope.
It does not look like your tax refund check or those pesky notices from the IRS demanding an extra $10.26 discovered during a $1,000 audit of your 2018 return.
It does not look like anything mailed out by Medicare or the Social Security Administration.
It looks like junk mail. And you have to wonder if that is an accident. Is it possible someone, somewhere in government does not want us to get our stimulus money?
Do not rummage through your trash looking for a check. This week some four million Americans who do not have banking information on file with the IRS were mailed debit cards with their stimulus money embedded. The debit cards come from “Money Network Cardholder Services.”
Who!
Money Network Cardholder Services is a division or subsidiary of Meta Bank, a private financial agent contracted with the U.S. Treasury.
This private bank has a contract to issue the stimulus debit cards. Ours came in a simple white envelope and was indistinguishable from the hundreds of junk mail solicitations we have received from VISA and Master Card in the last three decades. All of those ended up in the recycling bin.
When you open the mystery envelope there is indeed a VISA debit card with your name on it, just like all the other credit card hustles that personalize their pitch in an effort to pick your pocket.
We had been wondering where our stimulus payments were. Our friends had all received theirs. We knew we were eligible. There was a notice online that SSI recipients would get their money in mid may. Mid May came, no money. June came, no money.
Our payment came this week; it sat unopened on the freezer for three days. We were not looking for a debit card from a private company.
Our youngest son is a journalist and yesterday I noticed an article about the debit card program on his employers website. I checked the mail on the freezer and there it was: Money Network Cardholder Services.
I never would have opened that envelope if I had not seen that article. I owe my son’s colleague a drink, perhaps two!
When the card and the accompanying material are spread out on the table it is clear this is the stimulus payment and not a credit or debit card solicitation. But I fear many Americans, especially seniors, may never get that far.
We regularly let our mail sit unopened for a day or two as a precaution against the Covid-19 virus. As we get our mail at the post office in town, I often toss junk mail out before leaving the building. The post office provides a recycling bin just for junk mail. Had I done that earlier this week, our money would be gone.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin did announce weeks ago that debit cards would be mailed. If he made it clear that the payments would be disguised and sent from a no-name organization, it did not resonate for me and I imagine many others.
A debit card is convenient but it comes with transaction fees and limits. I do not remember Congress debating transaction fees. I do not remember Congress telling us how we could spend our money.
The IRS does not have my bank information but SSI does. Medicare does. We could have received our money by direct deposit if they communicated and avoided the bank fees and limitations.
Instead this administration decided to privatize the process.
Welcome to Donald Trump’s America where government is a for profit enterprise.
Check your mail.
Be safe.
Spot on
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