US Direct Express DirectExpress New to Direct Express, On Social Security Disability Benefits, Was Reffered to Use Direct Express for Direct Deposit Purposes By Social Security, I REGRET IT... Austin, Texas

Direct Express is an ATM credit/debit card that Social Security uses to have your monthly Social Security benefits (SSI, Social Security or Social Security Disability benefits), GO FROM being MAILED to you on the 1st or 3rd of each month, AND START being DIRECTLY DEP0SITED on to the Direct Express ATM Debit or Credit Card.

Social Security will provide you with all of the information on what to do and what all is needed to START or CHANGE Direct Deposit. If you are currently receiving Social Security Benefits directly deposited into a checking or savings account through a bank you already have it set up through, then DON'T CALL SOCIAL SECURITY TO INQUIRE, SIGN UP AND ENROLL FOR A DIRECT EXPRESS CARD so that you're check from Social Security gets directly deposited on to the Direct Express card they send you after enrolling.

It is NOT mandatory that you sign up for direct deposit!!! You have to specifically ask or inform Social Security to have your monthly benefits directly deposited. If you don't already have a checking or savings account with any bank, then Social Security have your benefits directly deposited

I currently receive Social Security Disability Benefits on the 3rd of each month. In an effort to help the government from having so many problems with the paper checks they issue each month, getting lost in the mail, mailed to the wrong address or accidentally double mailed, etc, I decided to start direct deposit.

I thought this would also benefit myself in case my monthly disability check were to get lost in the mail or mailed to the wrong address, because it's happened to me before, especially whenever you move.

So in order to have direct deposit, it's required that you have at least a checking or savings account with a bank. Well i'd fall under the category of one of those kinds of people who either, don't like or trust banks or have bad credit and cannot even get an account at a bank.

Social Security, which is a government agency, referred me to use Direct Express (America Bank) so that my monthly disability check would start being directly deposited on to the new Direct Express card that they were in the process of sending me, because I chose to enroll.

I regret ever doing it. Whenever I receive a monthly statement or check my account history online, there are ALWAYS transactions I don't understand or know anything about, which leaves me NO CHOICE, but to have to contact Direct Express.

Whenever I call the Direct Express Customer Service Department, I find myself laughing, because there IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! The automated agent who handles the incoming calls will tell you your balance and recent transactions, but there's ALWAYS some random credit transactions that don't show up on your statement or account history online, which after talking to a real live agent, you find out those credit transactions are actually fee's .

The statements that come in the mail are Not Professionial, in fact they look like something anybody could do or create themselves on a computer, especially with the increase in Identity Theft, which has gone up %30 since 2010 alone.  There's no email address, fax mumber, or any other kind of contact information on the statement in case of any questions you may have.

I have tried calling the ONLY number that Direct Express provides and when i do, it doesn't matter when i call or who i talk to, THEY NEVER KNOW ANYTHING as to what's going on!