Scores of U.S. workers who deposit their earnings onto Netspend prepaid cards have been unable to access their most recent paychecks, sparking a wave of customer discontent this week.
Cardholders are taking to Facebook and Twitter to complain that their paychecks have not yet arrived. They have gotten few answers from Netspend, which is one of the nation’s largest prepaid card brands, or from Netspend’s financial partners.
Among the questions that remain unresolved: What exactly is causing the problems? How many customers have been affected? And when can consumers expect to receive their missing funds?
Netspend uses multiple banks to issue its prepaid cards, but customer complaints this week have focused on those cards issued by MetaBank in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The $4.2 billion-asset MetaBank blamed the situation on its processing partner, FIS, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based financial technology firm. An FIS spokesman said in an email: “We are working to remediate the issue as quickly as possible and return the operations to business-as-usual operations.”
Andrea Parker of Tampa, Fla., is among the Netspend card holders who have been unable to access paychecks this week.
Parker said in an interview that she spent much of Monday night trying to find answers, but remains peeved about how little information Netspend, a unit of Total System Services, and MetaBank have provided to affected customers.
“It’s frustrating when you don’t even have an estimated time when it’s going to be fixed,” she said.
Parker, who works in the human resources field, noted that consumers face adverse consequences when they overdraw an account or make a late payment to a financial institution.
“What is their responsibility to me? And how do they remedy situations when they’ve broken their agreement with me?” Parker asked.
Many consumers who rely on prepaid cards live paycheck to paycheck, which means that a late-arriving paycheck can cause significant harm.
Neatrana Wainwright of Charlotte, N.C., said in an interview that paychecks from the cleaning agency where she works normally arrive at around 10:40 p.m. on Sunday. By Tuesday afternoon, she still did not have access to her latest paycheck.
Wainwright started using a Netspend card to deposit her earnings earlier this year. “I wish I hadn’t now,” she said.
@Netspend I want my money I worked hard for it— Diana Thompson (@DisneyQueen1991)
October 15, 2018
netspend or metabank doesnt even notify customers that somethings wrong
https://t.co/82Reruol07 — Jonathon Williams (@JDW215)
October 16, 2018
We are not holding anyone's deposits, but we are experiencing delayed ACH files from MetaBank for some of our accounts. We apologize for any inconvenience, but please rest assured that our bank is working to resolve this technical issue as soon as possible.
— Netspend (@Netspend)
October 16, 2018
A Netspend spokesman referred questions to MetaBank, which in turn put the focus on FIS.
The FIS spokesman said that the problems stem from an issue with an application involving automated clearing house payments, but did not elaborate. He added that the issue is impacting the ability of a small number of FIS clients to service their customers.
The situation at Netspend is reminiscent of earlier payment processing fiascos at other prepaid card companies.
In the most high-profile example, many RushCard customers were unable to access their funds during a transition to a new payment processing platform in 2015. The company eventually agreed to a $20.5 million settlement to resolve thousands of claims in a class-action lawsuit. Regulators ordered RushCard’s parent company and Mastercard
In 2016, processing problems involving Pasadena, Calif.-based Green Dot Corp.
