Tired of check cashing fees? Ask your employer for a payroll card

If you are an employee without a bank account or someone who uses check cashing services, you may be paying a steep price for speed and convenience and check cashing costs continue to rise. Checks cashed at check cashing centers can incur an average of 3-5% of the check amount in fees, regardless of the nature of the check.

If you do not have a bank account and you want to stop paying check cashing fees….

A Payroll Card is your solution:

• Easy approval process, no credit required
• The same fraud liability protections as a standard debit card
• Easy to use for online or phone purchases
• Access cash from ATM machines
• Cheaper than cashing your check

There are a number of different Prepaid Cards on the market, and they usually fall into two categories: Prepaid Debit Cards available to consumers in retail locations (these are the ones you hear about a lot in the news) or Prepaid Payroll Cards offered directly through Employers as an Employee Benefit.

Prepaid Debit Cards that can be purchased at retail locations like Wal-Mart may be your only option if your Employer does not directly offer a Payroll Card. With this said, before you go purchase one, you should ask your Employer to look into getting payroll cards. There are several reasons this may be a better option: It will likely cost your employer nothing to offer a Payroll Card as an Employee Benefit, the card will have many more benefits and features than any retail products and employer offered payroll cards will come with lower costs and less fees.

Companies like ReadyFUND$ Payroll Cards (www.readyfunds.net) specialize in offering Payroll Cards through Employers. Simply by asking your Employer to call ReadyFUND$, not only could you have a feature rich and lower fee Payroll Card, your company will thank you for introducing them to a tool that will allow them to move to 100% electronic pay and convert all of their employees to direct deposit. Your Employer will save money by not printing paper checks, be able to streamline their payroll process and help other employees similar to you have access to their own “bank on a card”. You will save money by not having to cash your payroll check and pay check cashing fees, save time by not having to wait in line to cash your check or pay bills and get to enjoy the convenience of a prepaid debit card. Good Payroll Card companies also offer great features like an interest bearing savings account, short term loans and online bill payment access.

Talk to your employer if a Payroll Card is what you think you need. Many employers don’t think about payroll cards as an option until an employee brings it up. For information about payroll cards, visit www.readyfunds.net

Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Web …Does it matter to me?

Mobile apps are the latest craze in the mobile device market.  And it’s no wonder why, businesses are developing custom programs designed to perform very sophisticated services through a person specific device market. Everything from games to financial transactions to GPS driven locater services are now available, largely at no cost to the user.  The three primary “smart” platforms for mobile apps are the Android, iPhone and Blackberry.

Mobile web sites on the other hand are designed to function on any device with a web browser. This includes the three mobile platforms above, but also includes millions of other mobile phones that have web browsers for internet access.  A mobile website is simply an alternative version of an existing website designed to deliver an effective display of features to the mobile screen.  When accessing a standard website, the platform will typically recognize the incoming mobile device and automatically redirect access to the mobile site version for a better consumer website experience, with or without a “smart” phone platform.

The bottom line:  Whether an app or just a mobile site, most mobile platform web access has some limitations when compared to the accessing from a full screen computer.  With that in mind, both mobile aps and mobile websites can be very handy and helpful for accessing certain types of information.  For example, maybe I’m out and about and looking for a specific ATM network for using my debit card or ReadyFUND$ payroll card.  It’s nice to pull up an app (if I have a smart phone) or a mobile website (works for any web enabled phone) and it will tell me exactly where to go.

Does it matter to me which one I use?  Not at all, as long as it gives you the information you need in an easy to access and easy to read format.