Are Amarillo Businesses Paying Employees With Prepaid Cards?

The best days of the month are when that magical paycheck hits your account. All your hard work has officially paid off, and now you can afford to put gas in your car and put some food back in the fridge.

It's gotten even better with the introduction of early payday with some banks when you have direct deposit setup. Some people have reported getting their paycheck 2-3 days early.

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Don't have direct deposit? No problem, they'll cut you a check and you can cash it as you wish or deposit it into your bank account. For the longest time, those have been the two ways any legit employer pays their employees.

About a week or so ago, I saw someone mention that they just got their pay, but it didn't come in one of those traditional forms of payments. It came in the form of a prepaid card. Yes, a prepaid card.

This is something that happened right here in Amarillo. I haven't been able to confirm who paid out a paycheck on a prepaid card, but it was something the employee had stated.

So is this the new wave of getting paid? Companies just handing out prepaid cards and saying have fun? If it is, I'm hoping my employer never goes to it. I understand people will say hey, it all spends the same.

Actually, it doesn't. There are a lot of places, especially online, where you can't pay for something with a prepaid card, whether it has a fancy Visa, Mastercard, whatever logo on it. They simply don't accept them.

The worst part is, there is NO way to get the funds off those cards aside from spend them via the card. I've never had a prepaid card I can take to an ATM and pull cash out.

Are there a lot of employers doing this in Amarillo now? I'm curious, because I'm actually afraid that this is going to become the latest trend.