Yes – Payroll Cards Are Slowly Maturing

1. Yes – Payroll Cards Are Slowly Maturing A plethora of employee payroll services existed long before someone came up with the idea of the payroll card. So when the payroll card first came onto the scene, it was considered a novelty that may not have the legs to survive in the era of direct deposit. For a while, that looked to be the case. Yet the outlook for payroll cards now is a lot more positive. They are slowly maturing to become a legitimate and viable option for getting paid. BenefitMall offers payroll cards along with processing that includes paper checks and direct deposit. We would be happy to discuss all three options and how they fit into your current payroll strategy. And as always, we would be more than happy to review all our services with you in hopes that we can make payroll and benefits administration more efficient for your company. Payroll Cards and Legal Issues Getting back to payroll cards, there were some legal issues that the financial services industry has had to work out in a handful of states. Chief among them were the fees associated with using payroll cards. These fees were an issue because many states require employers to guarantee that their employees receive every penny earned regardless of the payment method chosen. In their earliest days, payroll cards presented a problem in this regard. Some employees complained that the fees associated with payroll cards meant that they were not getting the full value of their pay. The courts agreed in quite a few cases. That led to states enacting laws that said employers could not force employees to receive their pay by way of payroll cards if fees were attached to those cards. The payroll card industry is gradually adjusting their fees to bring them more in line with state expectations and standard business practices. Fees and charges are becoming less of an issue as time goes on. BenefitMall

2. Employee Access to Funds The maturity of payroll cards is also being observed in terms of employee access to funds. An obvious advantage of the payroll card is that employees have access to their pay on the same date payroll is processed, or within 24 hours. That was not always the case in the early days of payroll cards. Technical glitches sometimes delayed the access to funds by more than a day or two. Now that those glitches are mostly ironed out, it is rare for employees to run into problems when accessing their pay. Electronic Payments Integration An exciting new area of payroll card development is the integration of this technology with electronic payment systems. For example, one payroll card provider has just rolled out a brand-new program through which employees can use the system to cash paper checks and have that money automatically added to an existing payroll card. This is a great program for employees who work one or two side hustles to make ends meet. Where their primary employers may pay with a payroll card, the other companies they contract with might pay using paper checks. A worker can cash those paper checks through the payroll card account and then have instant access to the funds. The payroll card is not a good solution for every employer and every employee. Still, it is an option that is now available through more and more payroll processing companies like BenefitMall. As it matures, we expect to see a more widespread adoption of the payroll card among America's workers. The cards represent a convenient, secure, and efficient way to get paid – and pay the bills too. BenefitMall