DirectExpress Debit Card - Don't Do It!!

The VA has a policy of converting everyone to electronic payments for your benefits and travel per diem payments. One of the choices for electronic deposits is the DirectExpress Debit Card. I was, but no longer am, a user of this card. I discovered it has way more negatives than positives. I would like to share those in hopes that no one else will select this ill conceived option for getting your money.

This so called Debit Card is lacking in most features that any other normal card would have. One cannot use it to pay-at-the-pump for gasoline purchase anywhere in the US. I travel frequently and have tried that. One cannot get another card issued for their spouse or other authorized user. You cannot simply stick it in any ATM machine and get an account balance number. Many ATM machines won't even recognize it for something other than getting money. And, in order to get more than one withdrawal, there is a substantial charge.

The fact that you will never get a paper statement, that allows one to reconcile your account, could lead to fraudulent charges that cannot be efficiently refuted.

Their website ( www.usdirectexpress.com ) is basically a commercial site to advertise numerous other financial institutes and unrelated companies that have nothing to do with accessing ones account.

I cannot remember the last time I called an American company whose first automated voice response was to ask me to "Press one for English." You can take that as you may, but I'm an American Vet whose native country speaks English so that did not impress me.

If you have a problem with the card and need help, the toll free number for DirectExpress does not actually give one the option of connecting to a representative to discuss account issues. One must select a totally unrelated response, like stolen card, to be switched to a human representative. Having called them a few times, I found that all of the representatives of DirectExpress to be lacking the talent to provide basic customer service. And I am being kind in that statement. They all had an attitude that I was a bother to their normal routine.

If the holder of this card wishes to have their compensation money moved to another financial institution then it most likely will take two or three months to accomplish that task. Part of that time involves jumping thru the hoops that your regional VA Financial Center may place on such changes. It actually took me 96 days to get rid of this card and have the money placed into my bank account

Along that same line, other companies are jumping into the "Debit card" rebate. We bought a couple cameras and a printer ... got our "CASH REBATE" in the form of a AM EX card instead of a check. And, many places don't even take it due to the fees. And, you need to keep track of it as well, and the company hopes you'll get down to a few bucks which stores have now a minimum to 'charge' ... and so, when it gets less than ten bucks, it's suddenly becomes worthless.

If this"debit card" fiasco hits enough folks, read that say, 100,000 rebate cards that invalidate at $10, that's a million bucks that tumbles into their pots, and they don't even give you anything for it.

Whenever we get one now, we go directly to the gas station, and put in the exact amount - then toss the card instead if "refilling it" like it asks ... it ends up in the trash can fast as it can get there.