No EPPI Card Fees!

Welcome to noeppicard.com!

Do you receive child support, unemployment or welfare payments through the EPPI card or another government sponsored benefit debit card? If you do, you may be subject to predatory terms and conditions such as these. If you have another option, such as direct deposit, you should take it.

"In Missouri, for instance, 94,883 people claimed unemployment benefits through debit cards from Central Bank. Analysts say a recipient uses a card an average of six to 10 times a month. If each cardholder makes three withdrawals at an out-of-network ATM, at a fee of $1.75, the bank would collect nearly $500,000. If half of the cardholders also dial customer service three times in any given week (the first time is free; after that, it's 25 cents a call), the bank's revenue would jump to more than $521,000. That would yield $6.3 million a year." (see the Articles page for this and other articles about benefit cards)

According to a letter that was sent to me by the State of NJ when I wrote (through a lawyer) to complain about the fees, there are over 200,000 EPPI card users in NJ. NJ only issues cards for child support, so that figure does not include any unemployment users. According to the math above that means Comerica Bank (who holds the NJ contract) is reaping a cool million a month at least, taken from payments designated for children.

The justification for privatizing distribution of government payments is that it will save the government money on administration and postage. It might make some kind of sense if the government took the fees, but it all goes right to the banks.

The very same banks that are running these programs are receiving additional billions in the bailout.
I hope the information on this website will compel you to sign our petition to Congress asking for fair terms on government benefit cards.

You can also join our cause on Facebook.