I was wrong. I thought that using the NetSpend card for normal everyday purchases would be safe (see “NetSpend challenges the throne”). However, I tried to log into my account Tuesday evening and found “We’re sorry, there is a problem with your account”:
Uh oh. I knew from readers that this meant my account had been closed. I thought back to things I’ve done with the card in the past week. It was all miscellaneous small purchases. I bought pet food. I paid for movie tickets. I bought a few groceries. What could they have objected to? I didn’t take money out via an ATM. I didn’t pay any bills. I didn’t make any large purchases. I didn’t buy money orders or gift cards.
Was it my blog post? In that post, I recommended that people use the card as it is intended to be used. Did they read the post and see something they didn’t like?
I called the number on the screen and had an entertaining conversation. It went like this:
NetSpend: Mr Miler your account is already closed. You are no longer eligible for NetSpend services.
Me: Why?
NetSpend: Due to a bank request. The only reason we close an account is due to a bank request.
Me: Why did a bank request that my account be closed?
NetSpend: We don’t have that information. We are not the ones that closed the account. We have a department that is constantly monitoring accounts. We work hand in hand with with banks in monitoring accounts.
Me: What bank are you talking about? I didn’t do anything with my NetSpend card that had anything to do with any of my banks.
NetSpend: It was a previous bank, not NetSpend. They requested that the account be closed due to suspicious activity. We’re not even supposed to tell you that, but you asked.
Me: What activity was suspicious?
NetSpend: We do not have that information.
During this conversation, I racked my brain trying to think of what bank could have even known I had a NetSpend card. Finally, the fog lifted in my brain. I remembered that NetSpend cards are issued by a bank called Metabank…
Me: Is the bank you’re talking about, Metabank?
NetSpend: [long pause] Yes
I tried mightily to get more information, but to no avail. I spoke to a supervisor who gave me the same non-answers. I asked who else I could speak with that could give me more information. “No one.” Could I speak with the risk management team? “No. You can call back during business hours and ask for a supervisor and ask the supervisor to speak with the risk management team.” Great. Can I speak with the marketing department? “We don’t have one.” Can I speak with the sales department? “We don’t have one… I mean we do have a marketing and sales department, but we don’t have a number for customers to call.” And on and on it went.
While I couldn’t get any information about why I was shut down, I did get some information about what happens next. I was told that I would be sent a check in 20 business days. When I asked about a fee, the supervisor confirmed that there would be a $5.95 fee. I asked that it be waived, but he said that all he could do is make a note in my account to ask. I also asked about the $20 referrals. He said that once they’re paid they would go into my account and then I can request a check again. I’ll believe that when I see it.
Reader experiences
Hopefully others will have better luck than I had. If not, maybe this will work out as a nice, one time only, cash-out of Vanilla Reload cards. We could do worse.
Next steps
I’ll run out soon to get a Mio card if I can find one. Unfortunately, you can’t order them online without first buying one in-store. Also, of course, I’ll watch eagerly for the new OneVanilla card, coming soon.
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One of the comments beneath this blog stated that they had a Netspend card issued by Meta Bank. They were then asked if they would like to switch to the Netspend App Access account and shortly after the did, their account was closed. This stood out to me because I took had a prepaid Netspend card. I used the same account for years. I paid my monthly account fee on time each month. I used the card regularly, even having some of my earnings directly deposited into the account. I have been asked many times over the past year if I wanted to “upgrade” my account to the all new “Netspend All Access Account.” I declined. I didn’t see the need for it. My account already did everything I needed it to.
One day, I realized my debit card was missing. Not sure what happened to it, my fault. But, I went in the app and I requested a replacement card be mailed to me. It was and to me surprise, when I opened the card it now said Netspend All Access on the front. Well, I guess I made the upgrade. I didn’t really mind, just went on with my life. However, less than 2 mi ths later and my account is suddenly closed without notice.
I didn’t know until I attempted to sign in to the app to check my balance and realized my account no longer existed. Customer Support did not know why or give me any information. Like, none at all. They acted almost as though I had asked for it be closed myself. It was a strange conversation.
Thank you for sharing this. At least I know now (kind of) what happened and in the very least that I didn’t do anything wrong.
Disable veteran direct deposit to net they take my va account but. Wont let me take me money out what they asked if done no results. Can anyone help I guess I will have to take them to court
How long does it take for netspend, to send your check. Same thing happened to us. Waiting on a check. Does anyone know how long it takes, to get a check, from them?
Wow, there still at it. They just closed my account with $22 left in it.
Same nonsense has just happened to me plus i was told that I only $7.00 in my account and I lost it. Netspend was sued by the federal trade commission and had to refund millions of dollars in may of 2020, before this was done to me funny thing i had not used my card since February 26th 2021 i only used 10.80 now i have no money they have it plus i only have $7.00 in my account before all this happened they were not allowing me to log in my account refused to send the proper link to reset my password etc before i didn’t have any issues login in something is wrong with the this company, I am surprised that this allowed to continue i am going to the better business bureau and the federal trade commission with all of this.
There still at it. They just closed my account with $22 dollars left. What. Do I do?
My friend ..her husband passed away he was 1st on avct she was 2nd both of their ss checks are direct deposited and they told her she cannot even get access to her money tilshe gets death certificate,marriage license to them she was counting on at least her $$ to live on. Any suggestions
The exact same thing just happened to me. I was told that MetaBank wanted my account closed for fraudulent activity and or the fact that they cannot get my initial information About me, the person who open the account with their Bank. After a lot of digging on Google I found out that whenever you open a NetSpend card and then they give you the option to get the NetSpend access card through MetaBank MetaBank does not ask you those information questions about yourself. It’s literally a setup. they know that they’re not asking you these personal questions to prove your identity when you open this accounts Yes that is the reason or one of the reasons why they decide to just closed my account for no reason at all. I as well know that I did not have any fraudulent activity. Everything that I purchase is always in the same area. I go to the same three gas stations always. at first I thought maybe they thought there was fraudulent activity because I took $300 out of the ATM the day that my account was closed to buy a money order to pay a bill. Also, I only have this NetSpend account because whenever I got my tax return I went to a cash checking place and they did not have enough cash in their safe so they had no choice but to put the rest of my money on a NetSpend card they said. Once I was offered the access NetSpend card which gave me the ability to take pictures of checks and upload them through the app and the perk of getting $5 every single time I uploaded a check through a third party app called Ingo which MetaBank uses 2 Upload checks so you can do it through the NetSpend app or you can choose to make it Ingo account and upload your checks that way.
I have had this NetSpend account for at least four months and while having the NetSpend account the pandemic hit us and I ended up losing my job. Since I have worked my entire life I was able to receive unemployment and my unemployment was being directly deposited into my NetSpend account. So after desperately trying to find another way for them to transfer my money since it is everything to my name and I have absolutely no cash on me now, they said that there was nothing they could do because the account was already closed. So every dollar that is in my account now is going to be sent back to the government from my unemployment and like you mentioned they told me it would take 20 business days. that’s just 20 business days for the money to get back to the government. That’s not including the hell I’m going to have to go through trying to get somebody on the phone through Unemployment so they can send me all my money back. My biggest fear is that that money will never reach the government. Or somehow it will get lost or mixed up with all the other crazy things that are going on because millions of millions of Americans are already having tons of issues getting approved for unemployment, trying to receive their unemployment, figuring out how to extend your unemployment, etc. before I even started getting my unemployment every single time I tried to call the unemployment phone number I was never even allowed to stay on hold. There are so many people are ready waiting to talk to a representative that told me to just call back at another time.
So here I am, a single mother of three children that has a $10 Target gift card and about $14 in my wallet. I have not been approved for food stamps yet so I don’t even have a way now to feed my children. I only found out my account being closed when I was at Walmart with $300 worth of groceries already backed up and my card is being declined. that is when I realized I had received an email the night before stating that there was an emergency with my account and I needed to call customer service. So I immediately tried to log into the NetSpend app and like you, I was unable to and it also said to contact customer service. I spent three hours and seven different phone calls trying to get somebody “high enough up the chain” on the phone that could do something for me on transferring my money a different way.
I have no idea where to go from here now because they can’t tell me if the money has even started the process of being sent back to the government unemployment office. I don’t even know how to get ahold of anybody through unemployment about this. All I know is I’m terrified and within the next week I’m going to not have food in my home, have my phone disconnected, be unable to pay my $125 psychiatrist appointment to get my medicine and eventually my bills.
I feel like there should be some way to sue Metabank for this. But even if I could, I have no money for a lawyer.
The exact same thing happened to me today with Netspend. I ask to speak to a supervisor, but didn’t get to talk to one. Did you receive your money? I been a customer since 2002 and this is the thanks I get.
I had my stimulus money sent to an old Brinks prepaid card I no longer have is it possible please to have it transfer to my new NetSpend card
2 weeks i had the same experience with NetSpend. I went to place that deals with them and since I could not log into my account, this place was able to. They saw no fraudulent activity and even called NetSpend up to see why this happened. They got the same response, that due to security reasons, no information can be given. The young lady that tried to help saw that this is occurring to many people and told get boss that they should stop doing business with NetSpend. After her boss saw all this, he contacted the corporate office and filed a complaint. I don`t know what will become of this, but NetSpend has some serious issues in how they run their business (or scam).
The same thing happened to me today. They told me because of security concerns, they had to shut down my account and the other operator told me there were fraudulent activity that took place. I checked everything and I did nothing wrong. They would not tell me anything more and will not allow me to open another account.
I can’t leave my husband money over the online tigers contrary to Madison county Jail.. I want to know why
Okay so I had no choice but to use this as direct deposit for my job….And my accounts locked now? I made a purchase of about $30, and I had about 200 on it…And I called for balance which is now -3.56. And mind you my direct deposit from work should go into my account tonight. So what do I do if they closed my account
I’m not sure, but either they’ll accept the direct deposit and you’ll get that as part of the check that they’ll send for your closed account, or they’ll reject the deposit. If that happens, you’ll have to work with whoever paid you to get the money sent somewhere else.
Since they’re all the same I strongly recommend against using the paypal prepaid version of netspend. I transferred 260 dollars out of my bank account onto circle then from circle onto my paypal prepaid card then paypal locked my prepaid account because my funds were issued as a refund now they refuse to unlock my account or my funds until they get proof from circle that it wasn’t a refund at all and even then they’re releasing my money back to circle, who doesn’t support prepaid cards (which is why it was issued as a refund instead of transfer) and I no longer have a normal bank account so even when/if the money is released to them I won’t have a way of getting it back to me and the only way to unlock my paypal prepaid account is to have them reverse the transaction. So I either have $260 in a locked account or have my account unlocked but my money in an account I can’t cash out or even really use. So I guess I’m just all around screwed I don’t know what to do anymore. I needed this money days ago and even if everything goes faster than the 20 days paypal told me it would take it will be too late and I still won’t have access to my money. I would strongly recommend no one ever use paypal or netspend (where their prepaid cards come from) I hear their business card is better but honestly doubt it. I’ve also got a friend who’s bank account keeps being overdrafted because paypal keeps trying to send the same check through over and over again even after calling them repeatedly he’s having the same problem today, 3 months after the check was cancelled. So I’d say it’s all a scam. Honestly the first 3 or 4 years of having netspend I loved it and recommended them to everyone, but over the past year or 2 I’d advise against it.
Same thing has happened to me. After being a Netspend user for 3 years I decided to transfer funds out. I did one round of transfers and both my accounts were locked. I’m currently out of the country and their toll-free numbers don’t work on Skype. I’ve also been unable to get a response from their Email accounts. I had over $6,000 with Netspend / Brinks and I’m worried because I no longer live at the address that I signed up for them at. I’m hoping they don’t send a check to some random person at my former residence.
Avoid these scammers !!!
Actually, I was able to get a hold of support and had my account unlocked. All good.