The State Department of Revenue Services said Monday it will not send you a tax refund check, instead, people who overpaid will now be issued a Chase Bank debit card if they do not accept direct deposit.
Tax refunds in excess of $10,000, or for people who have off shore bank accounts, will still be issued as checks, as will refunds filed on behalf of the deceased or for previous tax years.
The DRS’ decision to stop sending out checks follows similar decisions by the state Department of Labor and the Department of Social Services to issue debit cards for unemployment insurance and food stamps respectively.
While the state attempted to limit the number of fees Chase could take for servicing the cards, people could ring up charges if they use the wrong ATMs or fail to use all the cash immediately.
The cards must be activated and will require refund recipients to provide their Social Security numbers to Chase as part of that process. You will also get a personal identification number for the card.
All this is designed to reduce costs at DRS. This is the link to the Chase/DRS instructions on the debit card:
My DRS tax debit card has been a frustrating disappointment. I was able to use the card 3 times before it started being rejected. Now my balance is about $100.00 less than I expected. I can’t verify it and don’t know if it’s possible, but it seems like the charges were actually processed when the system “declined” the card. The card being declined, I paid cash as well. The dubious transactions amount to $100.00 or less so no real big deal but not happy with the system.
Dave