Comerica Bank, MasterCard, and the U.S. Treasury Department teamed up in 2008 to create the Direct Express Debit MasterCardprepaid debit card. The federal government uses the Express Debit product to issue electronic payments to people who do not have bank accounts, who are often referred to collectively as the “unbanked”. Usually the funds appear like clockwork at 00:01 EST on the first of the month.
On July 30th my partner telephoned "DE" to let them know he would be using his card in Guatemala (we're moving there). He was sitting across from me while I was painting a new bowl and I could hear every word he said. It was alarming when he started to stutter and his arms were flailing and he was clearly having a rough time not yelling at the party on the other end of the Skype connection. He then got hung up on - the first time.
Apparently he answered an identity verifying question wrong because he couldn't hear what was being asked of him due to a bad line and crackly connection, and suddenly his card was suspended. Yikes! Once that decision is made there is no amount of pleading and apologizing to reverse that decision - the wheel is in motion. He was told that he had to fax 2 pieces of ID to this number: 1-877.234.2345. It didn't matter that he now had no cash with which to do this because his funds had been cut off. "Deal with it" is basically what he was told. He was also informed that once they received a fax, the card would be reinstated within 24 - 48 hours.
We scrambled to find a way to fax without cash. I remembered that back in the eighties I used to fax from my computer. So I Googled it and came up with Hellofax. It's a cool little operation that sends faxes from your computer to a regular fax machine and gives you a bunch of freebies to start before you have to pay for the service.
I'd like to say that we waited patiently for the 48 hours to expire, but we didn't - well of course we didn't, only a fool would do that and we needed the card to work ASAP.
Every time we called we were told that nothing was showing on their computer. We couldn't get a confirmation of any fax being received and most people were curt and short, if not downright rude. My partner was hung up on twice. I kept begging him to give me the headphones because I thought he was being too nice and I was dying to give them a piece of my mind. It wasn't until many conversations and five faxes later that we were told the faxes received (at first we were told nothing had been received) were too dark and we needed to resend his ID, This was 67 hours into the whole ordeal.
What really gets me, is that you get no information from them until at least 48 hours is up and then if your fax wasn't received or somehow thrown in the toilet, or is illegible, the whole 24-48 hour time period starts from scratch and you have no recourse. To the back of the line you go. You are at their mercy. We started faxing the accounting department instead of calling the main customer service number in hopes that they would move this along if they got sick of our bleating. Can you imagine how long a real business would last with this kind of service? About as long as it takes to snap my fingers would be my guess.
Yesterday morning at approximately 10:30 am we were told by a Level 2 rep. (a higher-up) that the suspension had been lifted. The ID was good and we were good to go. Oh, but we weren't. Apparently it would take up to 24 more hours for the card to be activated. OK. I swear, the man I live with has the patience of a saint sometimes. He thanked them profusely (I wouldn't have) and we hunkered down to wait another day to get some food. Yes, we had no cash to even buy a taco at this point.
This morning we went to the ATM at 10:30. You guessed it, no luck. Another call back to Direct Express and we were told that by 4:00 pm today the card should be active. Finally at 4:00 pm it worked. There was no reason given why the card wouldn't work after the said 24 hours and would miraculously work after 29 hours.
Now, a few days later, it's a bitter memory that we survived and I suppose it could have been worse. However, now that I am in Guatemala and plan to stay here for a while we will be getting a bank account and leaving Direct Express out of the equation. I am dumbfounded that they have such a poor customer relations policy. Actually one can only speculate what their policy may be. To me it seems the "unbanked" are the "untouchables" without the politically discriminating context. According to Victor Premasagar, the term expresses "weakness, poverty and humiliation at the hands of the upper castes in society." And that is precisely how you are made to feel should your debit card get suspended because of a poor phone connection with Direct Express. Heads up people!
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