Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The bill, which also intends to protect consumers' funds if cards are lost or stolen or if the deposit holding company goes bankrupt, would require:
Part of the disclosure requirements is that prepaid card providers issue wallet-sized summaries of fees associated with programs. The bill - S. 2030 - prohibits a number of fees from being charged, including annual, overdraft, usage (at the POS), dormancy, balance inquiry and customer service fees.
Additionally, Menendez wants debit card consumer protections extended to prepaid cardholders, namely Regulation E to the 1978 Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protections.
Consumer advocacy group Consumers Union, as well as the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, came out in favor of the legislation.
The 2010 bill failed to gain traction in Congress. A spokesman at the senator's Washington office told SellingPrepaid that the 2011 bill is not materially different from the 2010 version.
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