Don't throw away your stimulus check debit card — and what to do if you toss it

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Don't throw away your stimulus cheque debit carte du jour — and what to practise if y'all toss it

(Image credit: Coin Network Fiscal, LLC)

UPDATED with what to do if you threw out your stimulus-payment debit card. This story was originally published May 29, 2020.

Don't throw out that stimulus check. Unfortunately, that's exactly what some people are doing because they recollect it'south a scam.

The confusion arises because for some the stimulus payment comes in the grade of a generic debit card, in a plain white envelope, from a company called "Money Network Cardholder Services" of Omaha, Nebraska.

The card has a close-up of the American flag as the background image, simply in that location is no indication anywhere on the card or the envelope that it's an official U.S. government production.

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"My hubby looked at information technology, briefly read it and he said, 'Do you want this?' And I said, 'I don't need another fake bill of fare,' and so he cut it upwardly in picayune pieces," Bonnie Moore of Englewood, Florida, told WINK-Tv. "The side by side matter yous run into is I am in the garbage can trying to pull out all of the pieces together, which did non piece of work."

"I almost threw mine out with the junk mail," tweeted Zack Stanton, an editor at Washington, D.C.-based news website Politico.

No idea if this is whatever indication of others' experiences with their coronavirus stimulus money, just I almost threw mine out with the junk mail: 1. The render address was "Money Network Cardholder Services," no indication it's from the govt/U.S. Treasury. pic.twitter.com/Af2dBPl9oFMay 22, 2020

Come across more

Only believe it or non, the scammy-looking debit carte du jour is the real deal. Mayhap anticipating confusion, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a FAQ online explaining that "this is not a scam."

"Your Economic Impact Card will come up in a plainly envelope from 'Coin Network Cardholder Services' along with important information almost the menu, instructions for activation, fees, and a annotation from the U.S. Treasury," says the FAQ, although it sounds similar the notation might non always be there. "The card itself will take the words 'VISA' and 'DEBIT' on the forepart and the issuing bank, 'MetaBank, North.A.', on the dorsum."

Instructions on how to activate and apply your stimulus-payment debit card are at eipcard.com. Merely hither's the gist: afterward receiving the card, taxpayers volition need to phone call 1-800-240-8100 to verify their identities. Afterward setting your Pin and signing the back of the bill of fare, you should be able to use the stimulus payment carte as you would any other debit menu.

If y'all're yet unsure whether the card you received is your stimulus check, yous can use the IRS'due south Go My Payment app to rail the progression of your payment in the system. When you fill out a short form with your personal information, the costless online tool will tell you if your check has been sent or delivered.

Similarly the USPS'southward Informed Delivery service offers stimulus cheque notifications, so you tin know exactly when your payment has been placed in your mailbox.

What to do if you threw out your stimulus-payment debit card

Fortunately, in that location's an easy style to get another stimulus-payment debit card if you threw out or cut up the original menu.

Merely call the toll-costless number listed above -- 1-800-240-8100 -- and ask for a replacement card.

There's technically a $7.50 fee for this, merely a Treasury Department spokeswoman told The Washington Post that the fee would be waived for kickoff-time requests. Even so, y'all may have to pay $17 if you want the replacement card sent via Priority Mail.

It helps if you happen to know the card number on the original carte du jour when you phone call the price-free number. If not, you volition accept to expect for a human operator. One carte du jour recipient told USA Today that she gave upwards waiting for a man and instead wrote a letter of the alphabet.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom's Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He'south been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom'south Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown upwards in random TV news spots and fifty-fifty moderated a panel word at the CEDIA abode-engineering conference. You can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/stimulus-payment-card

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