Wal-Mart Wants You To Give Them Money So You Can Reclaim That Money Later, Less Applicable Fees
| By Jesse Singal - Jan 17th, 2008 at 2:30 pm EST |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Via reddit, here are the details of Wal-Mart's MoneyCard -- which is not a debit card that can access a checking account, mind you, but rather a card you pay for so you can later "redeem[] the value of the card." Scroll down to the fees. $4.94 a month in "maintenance" fees. $8.94 to get the card. $0.75 to check your balance anywhere that's not a Wal-Mart (I belong to Bank of America and have never been charged just for checking my balance at any ATM. Has anyone?). This is gross, particularly when you realize that a card like this is clearly targeted at people who don't have a lot of money -- why would anyone with an active checking account and a debit card possibly get one of these?
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Most prepaid credit cards involve some sort of fee structure like this.
If they're not charging fees, what's the business incentive for them to offer the card?
And if the fees are too high, can't people simply choose not to purchase the product?
I think the price of brand-new BMWs is atrocious for the value you get -- so I don't buy them.
They're not trying to trick anyone. The cardholder agreement is written in reasonably plain English and it's actually rather short and to-the-point for an important financial document.
If the guy signing up for the card can't even be bothered to read the cardholder agreement before signing up, and a whopping 5-10 dollars in fees a month is majorly screwing with his finances... maybe those poor habits are a big part of the reason why he's poor in the first place?