“For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers. Employees can use these cards, which work like debit cards, at an A.T.M. to withdraw their pay. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, using the card involves a fee. And those fees can quickly add up: one provider, for example, charges $1.75 to make a withdrawal from most A.T.M.’s, $2.95 for a paper statement and $6 to replace a card. In 2012, $34 billion was loaded onto 4.6 million active payroll cards, according to the research firm Aite Group; it expected that to reach $68.9 billion and 10.8 million cards by 2017.”
