Culture

People Are Throwing Out Stimulus Check Thinking It’s Junk Mail – Here’s What The Envelope Looks Like If You’re Still Waiting

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stimulus checks junk mail

Photo by Abstrakt Xxcellence Studios from Pexels


Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department and the IRS started sending out stimulus checks in plain white envelopes.

To thousands of Americans, these envelopes look remarkably similar to the typical stack of junk mail jammed into their mailboxes every day.

And what do people do with junk mail? Toss it out!

Yes, people are trashing their long-awaited $1,200.

While some people have already received their payments as direct deposits or paper checks in the mail, almost 4 million people — including those for whom the agency does not have bank accounts on file — will be getting their stimulus payments in the form of prepaid debit cards.

The only problem is that the debit cards come in envelopes that say “Money Network Cardholder Services” and do not bear any federal markings.

To be fair, the name Money Network Cardholder Services just SOUNDS like a bogus organization.

Here are just some of the complaints from people who realized, at the last minute, that they were about to throw $1,200 in the trash.

https://twitter.com/valerieflames/status/1265499140731084800

And here’s an example of the envelope in which checks and debit cards are sent in.

Some people are mistaking the debit cards as fake and cutting them here. Here’s one story from WINK-TV in Fort Myers:

“My husband looked at it, briefly read it, and he said, ‘Do you want this?’ And I said, ‘I don’t need another fake card,’ so he cut it up in little pieces. The next thing you see is I am in the garbage can trying to pull out all of the pieces together, which did not work.”

To avoid future problems, the IRS said in an FAQ that debit cards bear the Visa logo and are issued by MetaBank.

A letter included with the cards explains that they are the Economic Impact Payment Card. For more information, check out eipcard.com.

[via Yahoo! News]

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Chris Illuminati is a 5-time published author and recovering a**hole who writes about running, parenting, and professional wrestling. Reach out to him on Instagram & Twitter.