Dayton Business Journal...
Ohio ending overdraft fees on unemployment-benefits card
by Adrian Burns, Staff reporter
Monday, July 16, 2012 

The state is ending its practice of allowing U.S. Bank    to sock the unemployed with overdraft fees on debit cards loaded with unemployment payments, the liberal Cleveland think tank Policy Matters Ohio    is reporting. 

“Beginning Wednesday, July 18, the prepaid debit card Ohio uses for unemployment compensation, the Reliacard, will no longer charge $17 per ATM or transaction-based overdraft,” the group said in an announcement Monday. 

The U.S. Bank-issued Reliacard is used by residents who don’t have their benefits automatically deposited in a bank account. 

The change will end a practice that hurts the unemployed, said David Rothstein, project director for financial wellbeing initiatives at Policy Matters. 

“Unemployed workers cannot afford to have any part of their compensation siphoned off. It’s critical that public dollars go directly to the families,” he said. 

The state’s move to end overdraft fees on the cards reflects a broader scrutiny on bank fees of late — and comes after 2010 rules that changed how banks can charge such fees.

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