Unemployment - debit card vs. direct deposit?

[JackFrostMI]

I just received a notice today that a judgement has been awarded against me even though I didn't receive a notice to appear and I haven't filed yet for BK.

I am currently unemployed and after seeing the threads on here about how they can clean out a joint bank account after a judgement I was wondering if I should just close my husband & my current accounts and if I should just have my unemployment issued on a debit card instead of direct deposit? Can they attach an unemployment debit card or just bank accounts?? I'm in Michigan if that makes any difference.

THANKS!

[treehugger1]

Your unemployment should be exempt from seizure. However, I would certainly not have it deposited into your current checking account.

There are other options available for "banking." Walmart Money card, capitalone prepaid debit, bankofamerica cashpay, netspend, freedom bank, etc. The list for optional prepaid cards is getting longer every month. As you will certainly notice, if you spend some time doing research, even the big financial institutions are beginning to offer prepaid cards. Many of these clearly state that the card does not represent a bank account. some of the agreements clearly state that the card is not connected to any type of deposit account. (This is clearly BS as the money has to be parked somewhere. But, who's to complain?) I noticed that the fees associated with Walmart, capone, BoA, and a few others are quite reasonable when one realizes that many traditional checking accounts will eventually have their own fees that could rival prepaid debit card fees.

It is hard to say how a creditor could attach an "account" where no account legally exists under federal banking regulation definitions of account. I suspect there will be some lobbying in the future in order to regulate prepaid cards, but for now I don't see any move toward such regulation.

Just my opinions...

[catleg]

Hopefully this will make somebody laugh.

Work the Lobby

[lookingforward]

My husband has his unemployment benefits deposited on debit card.
No problems with it, other than the fact that for some reason it doesn't work
on outside gas pumps. Have to pay inside.

[catleg]

Here's another opinion about having UI benefits put on a Chase debit card:

Blog

[JackFrostMI]

I'm in Michigan & I just changed my unemployment to a debit card that I should have with my next payment. It IS issued by Chase. How will I be able to get CASH from the card to pay bills that don't take credit cards? Are they going to charge me a fee to do that? It's only a few hundred dollars so I need every single penny.

Maybe I should just have it deposited in my husbands account that doesn't have my name on it??

[newbie2]

I'm in Michigan & I just changed my unemployment to a debit card that I should have with my next payment. It IS issued by Chase. How will I be able to get CASH from the card to pay bills that don't take credit cards? Are they going to charge me a fee to do that? It's only a few hundred dollars so I need every single penny.

Maybe I should just have it deposited in my husbands account that doesn't have my name on it??

I'm pretty sure you can go to any Chase branch and use their ATM to withdraw all the funds.