Business Blog
FTC says NetSpend decked consumers with deceptive claims for prepaid debit cards
From the perspective of consumers, the whole purpose of prepaid debit cards – their reason for living, if you will – is to give consumers immediate access to their money. Those cards are an especially important financial lifeline for people who don’t have traditional bank accounts. In pitching its reloadable prepaid cards, NetSpend Corporation promised consumers “immediate access” to their funds with “no holds, no waiting.” But according to an FTC complaint, the defendants’ business practices rendered that claim and other representations deceptive.
“Immediate access”? Not so fast, alleges the FTC. NetSpend’s ads were replete with claims like “No Waiting!” and “Use your card immediately.” But the FTC says many consumers experienced delays in accessing their funds both in the initial activation process and later. For example, despite the company’s “use it today” claim, consumers have to go through an identity verification process required by law before the prepaid debit card can be activated – a process with requirements many people have difficulty satisfying.
The upshot? People who loaded funds onto NetSpend cards often had to wait – and wait and wait – to access their own hard-earned money. The FTC says those delays resulted in severe financial hardship to consumers, including evictions, repossessed cars, and late fees on bills.
The complaint also alleges that many customers who closed their accounts and asked for refunds had to wait several weeks to get their money back. In other cases, NetSpend imposed fees that depleted the funds from cards after consumers were unable to activate them.
The complaint takes on other instances in which NetSpend’s business practices were at odds with its marketing claims. For example, the lawsuit challenges as misleading NetSpend’s representation that consumers are “guaranteed approval” for a card. The FTC also alleges that NetSpend said it would grant provisional credit when consumers dispute charges on their cards, but often failed to live up to that promise.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Atlanta. If you work in the financial services sector or have clients interested in alternative payment methods, this is a case to watch.
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.
In reply to I bought a NetSpend by Guest
In reply to I have bought a Netspend by Guest
You can report this to the FTC at www.FTC.gov/Complaint. The information you give will go into a database that the FTC and other law enforcement agencies use for investigations. The comments you put here on the blog don't go into the enforcement database.
In reply to I bought a net spend card to by Guest
You can tell the FTC about a problem you have with a business. Go to www.FTC.gov/Complaint. The information you give goes into a secure database that the FTC and other law enforcement agencies use for investigations.