My favorite is the $2 fee for an operated assisted call.
“In a groundbreaking move to help Americans save money and live better, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced it will open 1,000 Wal-Mart MoneyCenters – covering a quarter of its stores – by the end of 2008. The company will also broaden its menu of financial products and services, beginning with the launch of the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, a reloadable prepaid Visa® rolling out nationally with GE Money and Green Dot.
The rapid expansion of its low-cost money services and in-store locations will help meet the needs of the millions of unbanked and underserved customers who visit Wal-Mart each week for their basic money service needs.
Wal-Mart MoneyCenters will assist customers who are outside mainstream banking with convenient, nationwide access to low-cost money services, including check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers.”
Standard Fees
One-time Temporary Card Issuance Fee at Wal-Mart store $8.94
Reload Personalized Card at Wal-Mart (No Check Cashing) $4.64
Reload Personalized Card at Wal-Mart (Check Cashing) $0.00
Reload Personalized Card at Green Dot Location (other than Wal-Mart store) Varies by Retailer
Additional Personalized Card Fee $8.94
ATM Cash Transaction – Domestic $1.95
ATM Cash Transaction – International $3.50
ATM Balance Inquiry $0.75
POS Cash Back $0.00
Wal-Mart POS Balance Inquiry $0.00
IVR (Automatic Telephone System) Balance Inquiry $0.00
Monthly Maintenance Fee $4.94
Operator Assisted Call $2.00
Teller Cash Transaction/td> $3.50
Lost/Stolen Replacement Personalized Card $8.94
Paper Periodic Statement Fee $2.00
PIN Debit Purchase $0.00
Signature Debit Purchase $0.00
Stop Payment Order Fee (see section 7) $5.00
Negative Balance Fee $0.00
Rush Delivery of Personalized Card $19.95
Foreign Transactions (see section 19)/td> 2%
As usual follow the money (into Walmart’s pocket):
From the NY Times version of the story:
I think “healthy margins” is business-speak for obscene profits.
[...] Of course we should all know by now that you can’t get anything for free, or for a seemingly low price. So besides offering this great new service which will no doubt make them lots of money (I mean, who is going to Wal-Mart just to cash their check when you could get all your shopping done at the same time?) and offering these snazzy new reloadable Visa cards, what else does Wal-amrt have up its sleeve? Oh, you mean the hidden fees. You know, suddenly $3 seems a lot bigger. [...]
We should have a $2 in-store fee for helping customers. Perhaps that’ll make them a little more likely to make an effort to find something themselves.
Seriously though, Green Dot cards are sold at tons of retailers – how does the fee pricing compare when it comes to a card purchased at Wal*Mart vs. a card purchased at RiteAid or wherever.
I’m left wondering, if Wal*Mart had gotten their banking approval, would they have offered similar services without having to pay Green Dot a share?
Interesting…
Reloading a GreenDot card through Wal*Mart looks to be about a buck cheaper than loading the GreenDot card through GreenDot.
ATM Cash Transactions are about 50 cents cheaper as well.
So… ummm.. yeah, it looks like Wal*Mart is offering lower prices than GreenDot themselves on these cards…
Shalom Uncle Bob,
So, the pickpocket who only takes your change is better than the pickpocket that takes your wallet too?
B’shalom,
Jeff
Well, of course.
But then again, no one is forcing anyone to use the GreenDot services. Typically, with pickpockets, you don’t have much of a choice.
[...] I guess “younger people” are too dumb to read the fee schedule on a Wal-Mart Money Card, I fear for the future. [...]
[...] Yet sometimes I wonder. The only thing that makes the Wal-Mart MoneyCard better than a CitiBank Visa is that Wal-Mart can’t charge you interest for spending your own money. Instead, Wal-Mart will make the interest, pay you nothing for the privilege and charge you $2 to call some one to get your balance or complain. [...]
[...] What I can tell, however, is that this is a major opportunity for Wal-Mart to push its MoneyCard full of ridiculous fees on people who aren’t likely to read the fine print. [...]
[...] And to think all I was worried about were the excessive fees. [...]