The Social Security Administration, in conjunction with the Bureau of Fiscal Service (U.S.Treasury), dispenses Social Security payments on debit cards if recipients do not have bank accounts or simply choose to use the debit card (which is highly promoted by Social Security). Most of these recipients are financially poor and challenged, and the loss of half or all of a monthly check would be financially and emotionally catastrophic. There would be no money for food, rent, and medicine.
Many people have been victims of identity theft and loss of money from a bank account. You trust that the bank that operates your debit or credit card will recognize the odd activity and credit your account for the fraudulent loss. Banks have regulations they must follow for debit cards (Regulation E) and credit cards (Regulation Z). What would you do if your bank continually violated regulations, failed to give you provisional credit, denied your fraud claim while never investigating your fraud claim, and would not give you a copy of the investigation of that you were entitled? A federal court has ruled that Comerica Bank and Conduent (which runs the call center and administers the debit cards) have violated Regulation Z, and the lawsuit has gained class-action status.
The debit card promoted by Social Security is the Direct Express debit card.
Comerica Bank is not alone in this abuse of disadvantaged and uninformed cardholders. In order to operate the Direct Express debit card program, Comerica Bank had to become a Fiscal Agent for the Bureau of Fiscal Service, Department of Treasury and did so under suspicious conditions. The contract allowed Comerica Bank to manage the Direct Express debit card program dispensing Social Security benefits. One report from the Office of Inspector General of Treasury stated that Comerica Bank had submitted 'inaccurate" information on the application to first become the Fiscal Agent. Comerica Bank has also violated Federal banking regulations over many years. Not only were the conditions suspicious regarding how Comerica Bank obtained the contract, but every renewal also exposed inept investigations by OIG Treasury and other questionable behavior by many federal government employees.
My partner, Jackie Densmore, was instrumental in having a major Direct Express program shut down. I was able to expose the abuse of veterans using the Direct Express card, resulting in the creation of the Veterans Benefit Banking Program. We both worked to stop false and threatening information from being inserted into the envelopes of check recipients.
There were some disreputable characters at every level, including Comerica Bank, Conduent, OIG Treasury, Social Security OIG, Bureau of Fiscal Service, and the Veterans Administration. We attacked them all, and we won, not just for us, but for the thousands of persons harmed by the evil people within Comerica Bank and the federal agencies.
I named them all, with no hesitation or regret. You decide whom to believe.
I poured through thousands of emails and many are chronologically inserted, along with descriptive narratives.
The moral of the story is to get anyone you know using the Direct Express debit card to get a bank account or a different debit card. If not, they will eventually become a victim.
