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Chase bank collecting hundreds of thousands in ATM fees from welfare clients

A Chase ATM
Austin Jenkins
/
Northwest News Network
A Chase ATM

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kplu/local-kplu-967715.mp3

Public records show JP Morgan Chase is collecting more than $100,000 a month in ATM fees from welfare recipients in Washington. But the bank doesn't disclose the fee at the cash machine. This is happening at the same time the state has cut the monthly benefit for families on welfare and individuals in the Disability Lifeline program.A few months ago Therese McLeod went to her local Chase ATM to take out some of the cash assistance she gets each month from the state. She swiped her Electronic Benefits Card and punched in her PIN. Out came the money and a receipt.

"And I looked at the receipt and there was no indication of any fee of any kind."

But McLeod had heard there was an 85-cent transaction fee charged by Chase for ATM withdrawals using an

"So I went to the library and I looked up the account, which I had never done before and sure enough..."

Her online account showed an 85-cent charge. McLeod is outraged that Chase can levy the fee without warning the cardholder at the time of the transaction.

"Sounds like a racket to me. Don't we have laws against that?"

A Chase spokeswoman responds the bank is following a contract negotiated by the state of Washington. That contract has two parts. The state pays a monthly maintenance fee of about $700,000. While the client also pays the 85 cents per cash withdrawal.

The Chase spokeswoman adds it's not "technically feasible" to program the ATM network to warn welfare recipients of the charge.

At Washington's Department of Social and Health Services, Babs Roberts notes EBT clients are advised of the fee when they get their cards.

"They are given a brochure and they are told their cash withdrawals, they will be charged an 85-cent fee."

Roberts acknowledges the fee is a burden to poor people living on just a few hundred dollars a month in cash assistance.

DSHS officials recently met with Chase to discuss ways to get the cost of the contract down. In the meantime, the fee is adding up.

In the first four months of this year, Chase collected more than $465,000 in ATM charges from Washington welfare recipients.

As we reported in December, Electronic Benefit Card holders are also racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in ATM surcharges each month at non-Chase cash machines. Those surcharges totaled more than $890,000 in the first four months of this year.

Advocates for the poor wanted lawmakers to address this issue in the 2011 session, but that hasn't happened.

On the Web:

EBT card information:
http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/Publications/22-310.pdf

Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.