Plastic Payroll

Visa International and five banks have joined to issue a new card that will be especially attractive to firms whose employees do not have bank accounts. It has been estimated that 12 million households do not have bank accounts. Under the plan, businesses can give these employees plastic cards instead of checks. Wages are then transferred to the cards. Employees can use the cards to pay for purchases or can access ATMs to obtain cash. The card is designed to cut into the estimated $8 billion annual volume of check-cashing firms, while saving their employees significant check-cashing fees.