View Full Version : Debit card without bank account
What is the simplest way to do this, i have a parent in my program whomhas always paid cash and now we won't accept that. He also needs to get email. I called my supervisor for support last night and he just kept talking about how parents need to be accountable, so there isn't going to be a way around this. I would consider it rude to ask too much about why he uses cash, so just wanted to give him an idea.
What is the simplest way to do this, i have a parent in my program whomhas always paid cash and now we won't accept that. He also needs to get email. I called my supervisor for support last night and he just kept talking about how parents need to be accountable, so there isn't going to be a way around this. I would consider it rude to ask too much about why he uses cash, so just wanted to give him an idea.
I could be completely off base on this, but I would not be giving this kind of advice to parents, especially when your supervisor seems to not want you to do this.
Do you have a school social worker you can refer him to, and tell the supervisor you have done so?
How can you get around not accepting cash? You aren't a private business are you? Its my understanding only "privately owned" businesses can make that stipulation. If Fed. grants are at all in play with your programming you may risk fallback if parents can figure out who to complain to.
That's true, Float, but whenever ZG tries to do something sensible or helpful to parents, it seems like she gets punished by supervisor for exhibiting independent judgment. Thus my suggestion to avoid the situation and pass it along to her supervisor.
it seems like she gets punished by supervisor for exhibiting independent judgment. Thus my suggestion to avoid the situation and pass it along to her supervisor.
So so true, Tybee! +1
Another situation where supervisor or whoever above him hasn't done his research.
ApatheticNoMore
4-26-18, 11:49am
Well there is the option of prepaid cards, fees and so on but. If you are serving a poorer clientele it hardly needs to be asked why they are using cash, that demographic - and frankly often stretching into the middle class but it depends - often doesn't have a bank account (which makes forbidding cash really dumb if it's a demographic you hope to serve but ...). Supervisor is confusing class markers for "accountability". Really dumb and clueless. But if for whatever bureaucratic reason they need to use something other than cash then prepaid cards and the like are an option.
Cash basis takes it out of your role. There may be other ways of dealing with this that you know nothing about. Refer the problem to your sup but cc his sup as it not just you that will encounter this challenge and the organization needs to resolve a response.
Can you accept money orders? My MIL who didn't have a checking account or a debit card used those.
Didn't understand your comment about email: do you mean that your program requires an email address?
Thank you all, yes all parents must have an email account. They are recommending that I assist him in setting up a free gmail account. I have already walked 2 families through this process, plus provided a lot of assistance in applying for the state childcare assistance program. They are fine with me recommending a few ways to get a debit card also, however they will NOT register him without both.
My area is gentrifying so I am not really under much grant funding any more. They have our grant sites also requiring email addresses however they may have more flexibility about accepting the nominal fees they are now allowed to charge.
Funny that he is confusing accountability with equity, he is a Spanish speaking immigrant.
mschrisgo2
4-26-18, 1:41pm
Wow! Just WOW!
Requiring email and use of cards for payment is illegal in California, for Anything related to public schools, including after-school and out-of-school programs, sports, enrichment, remediation, etc.
These practices have been deemed discriminatory and as contributing to the achievement gap, and transgression is swiftly and completely dealt with- licenses and use permits withdrawn, with no recourse on the part of the transgressor.
iris lilies
4-26-18, 1:51pm
Cash basis takes it out of your role. There may be other ways of dealing with this that you know nothing about. Refer the problem to your sup but cc his sup as it not just you that will encounter this challenge and the organization needs to resolve a response.
This.
ZG cant be the only one in her organization that runs into this brick wall. Her supervisor didnt make the policy.
It will not be news to the Finance people in her school system that a small number of parents will not be able to pay unless they are providing options that ZG has not mentioned. .
Her role is to carry out the organization’s practices.
I would never get into the role of counseling a member of the public I serve about how they should go about opening money accounts and etc. It is her role to list the methods of payment that are accepted. It is common to not have a bank account, often because the person cannot get one due to financial mismanagement in the past and the bank says “no.” This is confidential stuff.
Teacher Terry
4-26-18, 2:46pm
ZG, you are a lot like me which means you enjoy helping people and see it as part of your job. I think it is great that you are looking for alternatives to help the parents out.
ZG, you are a lot like me which means you enjoy helping people and see it as part of your job. I think it is great that you are looking for alternatives to help the parents out.
Yes, but it does seem every time she tries to help parents by thinking independently, the supervisor seizes on it as some sort of insurrection. That she goes outside the lines (and he keeps redrawing the lines!)
Thanks all, I have had enough of trying to push to help my parents. I am just going along with the plans they have, I guess I am finally ready to suck it up and just do it. I have a reputation now of defiance, not helping serve students and families. This is still in some ways a better job than some (hours suck). I get to work with kids, am not sitting at a desk, and get to play.
Going through a major re-adjustment, still applying for other jobs and meanwhile just need to accept that I have not authority and a lot of responsibility. My inner punk kid is done having a tantrum.
iris lilies
4-26-18, 4:03pm
Zoe, your supervisor didnt make this rule about “ no cash payments” did he? Who did?
What are all of the alternative ways that parents CAN pay?
Zoe, your supervisor didnt make this rule about “ no cash payments” did he? Who did?
What are all of the alternative ways that parents CAN pay?
Parents have been able to pay by check, money order or cash if they go to the main office. I don't accept payments. So I think this may be a change going forward. I also don't know who made the rule or if he understands my question, another person who was looped into this said they can register without paying the registration fee at the time of registration, which means they can bring another form of payment to our main office (at least according to previous policies). At our training we were told that paper forms would be available for specific circumstances.
I am wondering about our grant funded sites, they will have very low enrollment this way. The tuition based sites have a history IMHO of not serving everyone in a range of socio/economic factors and those who need a lot of support (low literacy for example)
iris lilies
4-26-18, 7:12pm
Parents have been able to pay by check, money order or cash if they go to the main office. I don't accept payments. So I think this may be a change going forward. I also don't know who made the rule or if he understands my question, another person who was looped into this said they can register without paying the registration fee at the time of registration, which means they can bring another form of payment to our main office (at least according to previous policies). At our training we were told that paper forms would be available for specific circumstances.
I am wondering about our grant funded sites, they will have very low enrollment this way. The tuition based sites have a history IMHO of not serving everyone in a range of socio/economic factors and those who need a lot of support (low literacy for example)
I still do not understand from your answer quoted. When you say “I think this may be a change going forward,” it seems you dont understand either. Didn't you present this entire thread as a change in practice with cash at your shop? How exactly did you learn that parents may not use cash? What specifically is the change? That YOU may not NOW accept cash and prior to this, you could?
I dont mean to pick on you but this discussion seems circular and I suspect this kind of communication feeds into your problems with your boss.
Your response Zoe raises so many questions for me.
From what you've told me, your team handles registrations for programs. It sounds like a pretty major change to how business is done to no longer allow parents to use cash for payment and to require them to provide an email address. I would have expected them to provide at least a couple of announcements on this with a date in the future this would be effective, and perhaps allowing you to ask some of those "what if" questions (what if a parent doesn't have a bank account....) Was this never communicated to you? That seems like a huge oversight. From what I'm reading between the lines here, you were never told about this change when it was being planned. Is that correct?
ToomuchStuff
4-27-18, 9:42am
How many of your students parents, have a smart phone? What operating system? If this is either a prepaid phone or a "Obama phone" doesn't matter for the question. I know there are low income people without a computer (see project Reglue), however even prepaid Android phones, require you to sign up for an account (that should give email) for their "play" stores.
If they have a phone like mine, it doesn't have that ability, and that is something that needs to be discussed/addressed.
Yes, it all seems very circular and confusing at times to me too. Basically in our training we heard there was a paper option for registration but we were strongly discouraged from using them. I have supported 2 families through the process to do this on line. We also were told how parents could easily pay, change schedules, etc. in our new system It was not part of training to say that no other forms of payment would be accepted.
I am at our camp day for the teacher walk out and there is another PS here, seems like we are all in the same boat. This was not part of our training or sent as a new policy to all of us. Sometime in spring we were told individually that we could not accept cash. However I was not sure if it was just me or everyone. Now it seems it is everyone, and we all found out the same way. That makes me feel better. Still frustrating to have it presented in the tone that of course I should know, when the other PS's also were surprised as well.
Dude, sup just texted and asked if the family still needed help. I am running the full day camp so I sent back the parent contact information immediately and said YES!! He called and actually said there is a way to do paper in a few cases !!!! Of course now the deadline is at 4 and the parent was here 2 days ago to do registration and my sup could not help over the phone, but it is getting taken care of with a good attitude now.
I think sometimes his thought processes just need at least 48 hours to remember sh**
funkynassau
6-2-18, 1:30pm
Hi, I live in Canada and it costs about $7.00 to buy a money order, so for a person with not much money that's out of the realm of sensibility. I may be missing something, but why would a person not have a bank account? We have several no fee account options here.
iris lilies
6-2-18, 2:55pm
Hi, I live in Canada and it costs about $7.00 to buy a money order, so for a person with not much money that's out of the realm of sensibility. I may be missing something, but why would a person not have a bank account? We have several no fee account options here.
Criminal misuse of banking priveleges will get you no banking priveleges in the futures, as one reason why.
Cultural values that distrust The Man’s system is another reason.
ApatheticNoMore
6-2-18, 3:25pm
Are there really that many no fee options? There are no fee with a balance. Do you imagine keeping $1000 or more in an account is easy if you are poor? There is no fees with regular direct deposits, even with a regular paycheck, a lot of the types of places poor people might be working for (say a really small business) might not have direct deposit it seems to me. Then there is online banking, but that's a whole other thing and inconvenience.
Money orders here from Walmart are less than $1
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.