Social Security recipients can now get monthly payments on a prepaid debit card. If you don’t have a bank account, your days of dealing with paper checks are over, including fees involved like there are with paper checks. The Direct Express Debit MasterCard is being rolled out in all 50 states (the initial roll out was 10 states) by the Treasury Department and Dallas-based Comerica Bank.

You can sign up online at The Direct Express website for the service or call (888) 741-1115 to sign up for an account.

The benefits are many: you can use it like a Mastercard at any store in the world which accepts Mastercard. You can monitor your balance and have low-balance alerts sent to you. Your money is available through an ATM, and you can get cash out at any bank in the U.S. without a fee, avoiding any check cashing fees. Check cashing fees can be extraordinarily high, as much as $40 per check, according to the Brookings Institution. We’ve written about the best (and cheapest) ways to exist without a bank account, but if you have free options, why pay anything?

But as with every financial product, there is some fine print. Here’s what you need to know about the Social Security prepaid debit card. Here is a list of the FREE benefits of using Direct Express (source: the The Direct Express website):

Standard Free Services
Service	Fee
Purchases at U.S. merchant locations	FREE
Cash-back with purchase	FREE
Cash from bank tellers	FREE
Customer Service calls	FREE
Web account access	FREE
Deposit notification	FREE
Low balance notification	FREE
Card replacement-One free per year	FREE
ATM balance inquiry	FREE
ATM denial	FREE
ATM cash withdrawal in the U.S. including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands. Surcharge by ATM owner may apply.	One free withdrawal with each deposit to your Direct Express® Card Account.*

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