Protect your company from schemers. Go electronic and quit sending paychecks out into the world. Direct deposit, with a paycard program to help all employees participate, is proven to reduce, and in most cases eliminate, paycheck fraud risk.

Far more common is for a crook to note your account and bank routing number and order new checks, or to “wash” the stolen paycheck and enter new information on it. Higher dollar amounts, new payee name – both are common ways to loot your company’s bank account.

How to keep from giving strangers your company’s banking information? Direct deposit, of course. And with a solid paycard program to allow unbanked workers to participate, you can cut your fraud risk in a single payroll period. It’s easier than you think to avert a paycheck fraud disaster.

Here’s a link to a story about some home-grown check fraud.

2. No credit check! Directo doesn’t check credit. All can participate in direct deposit.

3. Changing bank rules – A growing number of paycard users are dissatisfied bank customers, looking for the ease and security of a bank account.

4. The U.S. government mandates electronic payments only, and beginning this spring all benefits will be paid electronically.

5. Eliminate rising payroll delivery costs. Whether you use couriers, mail, or gas for your car, costs are headed skyward – end them with a Directo paycard program!

Daniel Ganziano used the account to store pay from his job. When the balance fell to $4.98, he received a letter telling him that a $9.95 low-balance monthly fee had been imposed six days earlier. That fee overdrew the account by $5.10, and daily $28 overdraft fees soon ballooned the amount owed. By the time he got the letter, he owed $229.10.  

Daniel’s mother Melinda, who had urged him to open the account, paid the fee and they closed the account. They eventually got the money back, after they complained to a local TV station’s consumer advocate. Lesson learned? Melinda says, “Banks are not the way they used to be.”

At Directo, we clearly communicate our low fees, and our customers find that they save hundreds of dollars yearly that would have gone to check cashers. Plus, they have the security of funds held in an FDIC-member bank.

Read the full story here.

It’s payday. Your job crews left your offices at 6:30am, and won’t return until 3:30pm. After you run the checks and get them signed, you distribute the ones in the office, then race to each job site to delivery paychecks. You return to the office just in time to go home. Meanwhile, back at the sites, the workers are chomping at the bit, desperate to leave and get to the check casher. This hectic tale doesn’t even take into account the next day, when you replace one of the checks because your employee lost it on the way home!

The solution?  Direct deposit, powered by Directo paycards. With Directo, every employee can participate in direct deposit, eliminating the distribution hassle. In addition, Directo paycards reduce your paycheck fraud risk. It’s simple, costs you nothing, and with Directo’s year-end special, your employees win, too!  Email today to find out how Directo can help your company!

Norma Garcia, manager of the financial services program with Consumers Union, noted that it’s rare for banks to back down on plans because consumers complain. Still, she also expects that banks will try other, less wide-ranging, measures.

“This is a victory today, but it doesn’t mean that they need to let down their guard,” Garcia said.

Garcia said consumers should pay especially close attention to whether banks are changing rules about minimum balances, and tacking on fees for people who fall below a certain level each month.

With new, perhaps hidden, fees on the horizon, Directo’s transparent pricing and simple-to-operate accounts continue to be a better choice for many.

Nearly two years ago, Arianna Huffington and some dinner companions dreamed up the idea for what came to be called the Move Your Money project.

Their original idea was political. Individual citizens, by moving their money from too-big-to-fail banks to community banks or credit unions, would be helping to make the financial system safer.

Today, the idea of switching banks is gaining momentum. A grassroots campaign on Facebook that has designated Sat., Nov. 5 as “Bank Transfer Day” now has more than 59,000 members.

But it is not clear how much the bank-switching trend is being driven by politics. Many folks seem motivated not only by the negative headlines they read about big banks, but also by their own personal frustrations in dealing with those firms. In other words, activism appears to be intersecting with self-interest.

It will be interesting to see how many people do switch. At Directo, we’re seeing an increase in accounts as the unhappily-banked come to us for our no-hassle, simple to use accounts. November 5th may not be a one day exodus, but it will happen, and banks will feel the impact before the end of the year.  Read Kevin Wack’s entire article here.

A survey conducted in October by The Research Intelligence Group (TRiG) indicates that people with increased debit fees won’t switch banks, they’ll just change behavior and start carrying cash. Sounds to me like inertia will be dangerous as well as more expensive.

Meanwhile, here’s yet another article, this one from Forbes.com, about the growing anger over debit fees.

For many, a Directo paycard account will eliminate the frustration. Easy to manage accounts are opened online at the workplace, and Directo paycard programs are free to the employer.