Consumer Confidential: More refunds are being made with prepaid debit cards. Is that a good thing for consumers?
by David Lazarus, Los Angeles Times
Mar 12, 2019
4 minutes
Tom Hazelleaf of Seal Beach, Calif., canceled his 90-year-old mom's Spectrum cable service after she moved recently to an assisted-living facility.
He schlepped all her cable gear to a Spectrum store, where he was told that because the company bills in advance, his mom was owed a refund of just over $60. The rep, he recalled, said the money would be restored to her credit card.
It wasn't. Instead, Hazelleaf, 70, received in the mail a prepaid Mastercard debit card worth the amount due. It says it "can be used everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted," which acknowledges there are places it can't be used.
And a close look
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