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" This is simply appalling. If we&amp;#039;re going to have another Gilded Age, I guess we might as well owe our souls in one way or another to a new, efficient, and convenient company store. For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee. And those fees can quickly add up: one provider, for example, charges $1.75 to make a withdrawal from most A.T.M.&amp;#039;s, $2.95 for a paper statement and $6 to replace a card. Some users even have to pay $7 inactivity fees for not using their cards. These fees can take such a big bite out of paychecks that some employees end up making less than the minimum wage once the charges are taken into account, according to interviews with consumer lawyers, employees, and state and federal regulators. Gee, I wonder how the big banks make out on this deal, and only five years after they wrecked most of the world economy and stole whatever was left, too. Funny I should ask. For banks that are looking to recoup billions of dollars in lost income from a spate of recent limits on debit and credit card fees, issuing payroll cards can be lucrative - the products were largely untouched by recent financial regulations. As a result, some of the nation&amp;#039;s largest banks are expanding into the business, banking analysts say. The lack of regulation in the payroll card market, while alluring for some of the issuers, can potentially leave cardholders swimming in fees. Take the example of inactivity fees that penalize customers for infrequently using their cards. The Federal Reserve has banned such fees for credit and debit cards, but no protections exist on prepaid cards. Cards used by more than two dozen major retailers have inactivity fees of $7 or more, according to a review of agreements. In other words, rather than do business, you know, honestly, the banks decided that their priority upon being denied previous methods of gouging their customers would be to devise new and more clever ways to gouge people who are not necessarily their customers. Look forward, America. Don&amp;#039;t look back. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18925/the-great-gouge-continues/>