Statewide Iowa — The government has sent out nearly 150 million Economic Impact Payments (a.k.a. coronavirus stimulus payments) to Americans, most of them through direct deposits or paper checks.
But a small portion of those people — roughly 4 million — are getting their payment a different way, through a prepaid debit card that arrives in the mail.
Heidi Brown, Executive Vice President at Citizens State Bank, talks about why some taxpayers received their stimulus as a debit card.
(As said, “Some people got ACH or automatic clearing house and electronic deposit into their account. because what the treasury leaned on was they went back to the last tax return, where there was, if you either received an electronic refund or you made an electronic payment, they relied on that bank account information. If that hadn’t happened and you were never an electronic filer, and you didn’t receive those things electronically, then they went out and there was a round of checks. That started taking quite a long time and so these EIP prepaid cards have gone out. I really can’t give you a solid answer as to why they decided to do part in checks. They sent out, the information that I got, said there were approximately four million of these VISA debit prepaid EIP cards sent out. They’ve been out, the earliest customer I’m aware of has had theirs in their hands for about two weeks already. So they’ve been sending them out in rounds. )
Brown tells us how one goes about activating the card.
(As said, “If you get one in the mail, it comes in a welcome packet. It’s a VISA, Metabank VISA prepaid card and it’s got the taxpayers name on it. That’s going to be based on filings. So some of them are coming, you know, if you filed single then it’s coming in your name, and if you are married and filing jointly, it’s got two names on it. And in the welcome packet, there are instructions because you do have to activate it. So you call into the 800 number that’s listed in that welcome packet. You set your four digit pin during that activation call, then you sign the back of the strip per the VISA, that’s just a VISA rule that if cards aren’t signed, they’re not valid. So you call the 800 number, you set your pin number, you sign it, and you can start to use it”)
The Visa Debit Card is good where ever Visa Debit Cards are accepted
(As said, “You can use it anywhere VISA Debit Cards are accepted, and you can use it in store, online, or by phone”)
For those who do not want the money on a card, Brown says there is a way to deposit the stimulus to your bank account.
(As said, “In the welcome packet, again, that you get there are instructions. For instance the customer that I talked to didn’t want it on her card, she just wanted to get it all transferred into her checking account, and you can do that. There’s instructions but they tell you that you need your banks routing number and then your account number, but you can make a transfer, and just put it all in your bank account if you prefer to do that”)
For more information, you can visit the official stimulus debit card website at EIPcard.com.
