January 14,2007

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  Payroll Cards?

  Up until recently, employees the world over were issued their salary in one of three ways: cold, hard cash, a paper check, or –most currently- by having their paycheck direct-deposited to a bank account. With the new millennium has come a new way to get paid: payroll cards. As with consumer account direct-deposits, the employer deposits the worker's wages into a bank account without the intervention of a paycheck. The account, however, can be accessed with a payroll card, which pretty much acts as a debit card. It can be used at an ATM to get cash, or as a form of payment at any place that accepts debit cards. The payroll card is touted as the solution for those employees who either can't or won't open a traditional banking account, but still want the security and convenience of not having to carry cash all the time.
  
  Payroll cards are a win-win situation for employers and employees without bank accounts. The former can do away with the cost of printing payroll checks, and the latter needn't worry about costly check-cashing fees. Visa has estimated that over 4 million payroll checks are lost annually, and that each check costs between $8 and $10 to replace. The advent of payroll cards stands to eradicate the days of lost paychecks, and all the stress and headaches that those cause.
  
  
  
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