Originally Posted by skizz (Post 19968359)

I have the permanent version of this card and successfully used it to pay my county property taxes about a month ago.

It looks like this functions as a true debit card; I was charged only $3.95 by the county to use it to pay. However, MVD charged me 2 separate $0.50 debit transaction fees -- one for the actual tax payment and one for the convenience fee :rolleyes:. So the total cost was $4.95, plus the cost of the VRs.

I've also used this card to buy money orders at Walmart. It costs $0.70 for the money order, plus another $0.50 transaction fee. In comparison, the ATM withdrawal fee is $1.95, plus whatever the ATM charges. It seems rather costly to liquidate funds from this card, compared to some other cards. IMO, the only advantage for this card is paying the $3.95 debit fee vs. a 2-3% credit card fee for certain transactions. For my purposes, Bluebird is better for just about everything else.

Originally Posted by Happy (Post 19967963)

...Now we have a very hard time to get this back to our account due to the fraudulent tax return AND IRS astonishing weakness in Tax Refund process, paying out refunds in Prepaid Debit Cards (largely due to the stupidity of our Congress) and the super incompetence in handling the aftermath. :mad:....

Originally Posted by Global1Flyer (Post 19982840)

I tried to pay property tax with My vanilla Debit Card, but online tax realized My vanilla Debit Card as credit card and tried to charge me 2.1% + $5.95, so I did not proceed.

Do you have any tip as debit card transaction?

Originally Posted by DL172 (Post 19954411)

This is a great way to get on the money-laundering watchlist. Cash-advances on prepaid cards, come on?

What a stupid idea.

Originally Posted by Happy (Post 19967963)

This would be enough to stop messing with IRS with a not-so-fool-proof payment method.

Let me tell you, dealing with IRS is absolutely a night mare. Someone filed a fraudulent tax return on DH's SSN. IRS actually caught it because we never ask refund check (all overpayments went to next year's estimate payment) but the frauster asked a few K's refund. It was caught. Yet, DH the victim had to file the affidavit Form 14039 and other documents to show he is he.

We mailed that in July, and again in Sept because IRS did not have any records of receiving it. Finally in Mid Nov IRS showed both packages were scanned in the system on Oct 23, with the July package received 2 days after our mailing and Sept package 3 days after our mailing.

We were given 12/20 as our earliest date to call back should we not hear anything from IRS (which withheld a $xxx refund from 2011 that we had it to apply for 2012 est tax payment.).

We haven't heard a blip still but I forgot the 12/20 date. Now Jan 15 for the last 2012 est payment is coming up, I guess we would have to call about where is our $xxx refund!

The mistake I made was overpaying IRS for 2011's est tax payment, not a lot but still overpayment. Now we have a very hard time to get this back to our account due to the fraudulent tax return AND IRS astonishing weakness in Tax Refund process, paying out refunds in Prepaid Debit Cards (largely due to the stupidity of our Congress) and the super incompetence in handling the aftermath. :mad:

I think paying local taxes such as property taxes and such is OK. Paying Federal Income Tax using this mechanism is risky.

Originally Posted by Dad to GO (Post 19985879)

... is there another benefit to doing a money order at walmart that is much more point lucrative? I.e. you can do X amount of dollars at one time with a cheaper cost, etc. Interested in others opinions and experiences with both methods.

Originally Posted by NYBanker (Post 19985730)

I asked one particularly friendly (and cute) Chase teller what her limit was on cash advances. She said they must be under $10k (presumably to avoid the LCTR requirement). She said "some people will get a $5k or $7k advance" (though this wouldn't be possible on an MVD), adding, "it's no problem at all."

Originally Posted by Andy2 (Post 19986168)

You make very good points NYBanker and thanks for the information. This is exactly what we all did with the Charter Bank gift cards before that deal got ended largely as a result of a Wall Street Journal article. The fees were less on the Charter One gift cards, though. I wonder if the risks are less if a person takes that cash and immediately deposits it into the bank that took the money off the card, if the amount of cash is very large. It is hard to know what to do with large piles of cash and it seems like the fees are more manageable if the cash advance is large.