I think some of the point is that the government does not want people to simply put stimulus checks in their bank. They want people out spending it on as many small businesses as possible. We did not get stimulus funds and that is fine as if we had, it would have just gone into our bank account and sat there with the rest of our savings.
I appreciate a debt card makes it a challenge to convert the stimulus into a rent or car payment, but for almost everything else it seems like a good way to spread the aid around.
Hopefully people were able to offset their checking account spending by paying for the things you could pay for with the debit card.
In case people are not aware, ProPublica tracks lobbying. Here is their page on MetaBank, who manages the stimulus debit cards authorized by the US Treasury:
I appreciate a debt card makes it a challenge to convert the stimulus into a rent or car payment, but for almost everything else it seems like a good way to spread the aid around.
Hopefully people were able to offset their checking account spending by paying for the things you could pay for with the debit card.