Treasury Announces New Stimulus Payment Method

The U.S. 💵Department of Treasury is announcing a new method of payment in an effort to fast-track Economic Impact Payments (EIP) to American workers and families.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin released a statement confirming its intent to incorporate the use of prepaid debit cards for direct stimulus payments.

“Treasury and the IRS have been working with unprecedented speed to issue Economic Impact Payments to American families,” Mnuchin said in a statement on Monday. “Prepaid debit cards are secure, easy to use, and allow us to deliver Americans their money quickly. Recipients can immediately activate and use the cards safely.”

According to Mnuchin, more than 4 million payments will be disbursed via prepaid debit cards. It has also been confirmed that cards will be mailed to recipients this week.

This payment method will likely be available to Americans who do not have bank accounts. The prepaid debit card will be offered in place of paper checks.

The Treasury and U.S Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has partnered with MetaBank to distribute EIP cards for payment disbursement.

“EIP Cards are being distributed to qualified individuals without bank information on file with the IRS, and whose tax return was processed by either the Andover or Austin IRS Service Center,” the statement said.

The latest announcement comes as millions of Americans are still waiting to receive economic relief payouts from the government.

Although the Treasury has noted that “140 million Economic Impact Payments worth $239 billion” have been paid out to Americans, there is still a substantial number of payments that need to be disbursed.