Target says that it discovered the problem on Dec. 15 and was able to take steps to resolve future problems. Target also said that the information stolen included customer names, credit or debit card numbers, card expiration dates and three-digit security codes.
Tag: tax refunds
Tax Refunds And Prepaid Debit Cards
Prepaid debit cards have recently become a favored way for states and the federal government to pay tax refunds. The arguments in favor of the use of prepaid debit cards over paper checks in states like Connecticut, Georgia and Louisiana are similar. Not only do citizens who lack a bank account – and therefore cannot take advantage of direct deposit – receive their refund quicker than if it came through the mail in the form of a paper check, but the governments themselves like prepaid debit cards because it save them money.Those are a few of the issues John Friedman took up in a recent story for Bloomberg Law entitled, “Policy Perspectives On Tax Refunds: An Economic Analysis Of Government-Sponsored Debit Card Refunds.” Friedman, an assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, does an in-depth cost-benefit analysis of the embrace of prepaid debit cards and arrives at some conclusions that go counter to many of the arguments policymakers have made.