Social Security prepaid debit card pushed

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by Betty Beard - Sept. 4, 2008 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic
The U.S. Treasury Department is making a special push this month to let about 119,000 Arizona Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, recipients learn about a safer way to get their payments: prepaid debit.

About 2 million recipients in Arizona and 11 other Western states will get information on the Direct Express Debit MasterCard card this month with their monthly checks.

The cards are touted as a more convenient and safer alternative to paper checks, especially for those without bank accounts.

Nationally, about 10.3 million recipients rely on paper checks and about 4 million lack bank accounts. Last year, about 700,000 paper checks were reported lost or stolen.

"In some places check-cashing places can charge $6 and some even charge up to $20," said Abbie Loftus, deputy director of the San Francisco regional financial center for the Treasury Department.

"So we wanted to find a way that they could go in and get a safer, more reliable and less expensive way to use their benefits more effectively."

About 83,000 people in other states have signed up for the cards since April. Recipients do not need a bank account or credit check to enroll.

Details: Call 877-212-9991 or visit www.usdirectexpress.com.

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