Recently, they've changed their fee structure. You are no longer charged for checking your balance by any means, and if you make 30 purchases or load over $1000 over the course of a month, they waive the $4.95 monthly fee as well. Now if they'd just get rid of that pesky ATM fee...

@PencilSharp: ComData is still really popular in the OTR Trucking market. I spent a small chunk of my life selling cell phones next to a fuel desk at a truck stop. Lots of times I would hear truckers tell me "Gonna go cash a ComChek so I can get this."

The thinking behind this is innovative. Why can't innovative thinking be used to create something, manufacture it, and sell it to the world. That is why this country is taking a hike.

So for awhile I had one of those Walmart Money Cards. It cost $3 a month and $3 to deposit my paychecks in it. You can't overdraw it and so there are no overdraft fees. It cost me $6 - $9 a month to use. I could look up my balances online or by phone for free. When my balance got over a grand, they stopped charging monthly fees.

On the other hand, I had to go to Walmart to do my banking, and the online card statements were difficult to make sense of. And human customer support was nil. Overall it was pretty good.

@Ginseng108:

Tufte rocks.

The story behind VDQI is pretty excellent too. He couldn't get a major publisher to take it on, since they said that, in order to meet his requirements for look and feel (printing quality, paper quality, etc.), the printing costs would be so high that the book would be unprofitable.

He mortgaged his house and self-published it. Made him a wealthy man. The "Graphics Press" that publishes his book is run essentially out of his garage.

If you don't mind updating the card number when the balance runs out/low, you can get the Visa or American Express "Gift cards", which is the route I went. My local mall sells them, and there was only a $2 fee on top of the value added to the card to get it. You can get them online, but they charge a "processing" fee which goes up with the value of the card. Walmart sells $100 Visa gift cards for a $5.94 purchase fee ($50 card is $4.94).

@WatchOutNow: Yow! don't blame you there. The one I use is (i know, i know) from one of those funky check cashing places. Bout the only use I have for em, as I have no interest in loan sharks or paying a huge fee to pay a bill that they then hold for 3-5 days anyway.

@squinko: Right on! That is why there is a demand for this prepaid service. I don't see these companies going anywhere anytime soon and I bet banks will throw their hat in this game soon.

@jamar0303: You can find some bank accounts that are absolutely free-no minium balance or needing to use a debit card a certain times a month types, they usually are at credit unions.

Yes, I'd say 90% of US banks are fee-draining vampires!

So I went over the Duane Reade, and looked at the display case housing the cards. It turned out that I if I purchased a $20 card it would cost me $25 to purchase/activate. On top of that I had to register it with a state I.D., my social & name. What The FUNK?!?!?

RipOFF city!!! Population ZERO! Thieves!

Some solid, obvious advise which is almost always, haphazardly overlooked.

I use one of these for online purchases, anything that requires a credit card. After the "lovely" experiences I had with the ex and my credit cards, I'll never willingly have another one. This works just as well for online, and if someone manages to get ahold of my number, not much they can do with it, as I only put on the amount I plan to spend right away. They have their uses, yeah, they're abusive to folks without bank accounts, but I don't see much alternative out there. Perhaps the people on here who are always holier than thou my credit is perfect and yours should be too should start their own service with fair fees. That'd allow the rest of us to enjoy our time on consumerist.

@floraposte: Also, the concept of a national bank was hotly debated. At that point, a national bank was less necessary since the individual states operated as independent entities under a federal umbrella. They weren't nearly as united as we are today.

(Embiggened is not a word...)

@triumph110: Can't shop online with it
Once it's lost/stolen it's gone
Can't pay rent with it (My complex doesn't accept cash)
It's icky (Seriously, look it up.)
Can't send it in the mail (Or you'd be stupid to do so.)

I'm sure there are other reasons.. but those are just off the top of my head.

Whats wrong with good old cash?

@NeverLetMeDown: Those colors are starting to hurt my eyes too!

@oblivious87: Some people can't get a checking account because of their credit. More banks have been looking at that now.

@NeverLetMeDown: Agreed. It's harder to read.

It's also not even close to scale.

$119 billion is more than 13 times larger than $8.7 billion, yet the graphic appears to represent $20 billion at most.

(The pink boxes labelled "Size of Prepaid Market").

I occasionally teach my students about the uses and abuses of visuals; this particular visual would serve nicely as a "what not to do."

between inefficient check cashing and prepaid debit cards and bank debit cards we deserve o be in the fix we're in.

get a checking via credit union or bank account. pick on either near your home or your job.
do direct deposit
learn to use your credit card like free cash by paying your monthly bills with it.

make one electronic payment a month in full to the card company.

DO NOT USE THE BANK DEBIT CARD EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

put yourself on a cash allowance for the month.
take it all out in one withdrawal and spend as you want but don't go back to the atm no matter what

review your credit card bills to see where you "wasste" money like jamba juice 4 times a week on a low wage salary.

live within your means but don't be afraid to enjoy life either.

don't get caught in the christmas, birthday gift trap of costly is better.

I don't have to pay atm fees or a fee when making a purchase. So why is it that people will simply deposit their paychecks onto these things when they could put it into a checking account?

The answer is simple, don't get a debit/checking account with a major bank. Use your local bank and when you travel carry cash and if this scares you (you don't want to be mugged) conceal it in your sock or something. It is my personal opinion that all major banks should be boycotted. Our founding fathers knew this, how come we don't!

I do a lot of rebates, and a lot of vendors use these instead of checks nowadays. I usually use them immediately to buy a Target gift card, before the inactivity fees kick in and so I don't have to keep track of how many cents are left on them.

That graphic is awful. The pseudo-3D view makes it incredibly difficult to actually compare column heights, columns of similar height and size reflect entirely different things (total $ issued vs. fees vs. # of transactions), etc.

Four simple excel charts would have been much much more useful.

@Brazell:

Did you even read the headline?