How to Get Your Tax Refund on a Prepaid Card

Are you expecting a tax refund this year? If so, you may be thinking about the best way to quickly receive your money. In this post, we will show you how to receive your tax refunds on a prepaid debit card, and the best-prepaid debit cards to use.

This post will cover:

Getting Your Tax Refund on a Prepaid Card
Setting up Prepaid Card Direct Deposit
Best Prepaid Cards for Tax refund

Getting Your Tax Refund on a Prepaid Card

There are two ways to receive your tax returns.

First, you can receive your refunds by check. However, this is slow and there is fear that checks could get lost in the mail, further delaying your refunds.

Second, you can receive your IRS or state refunds electronically through Direct Deposit into an account. This is the fastest way to get your refunds and the money could be in your account in as little as two weeks.

If you have a bank account, you can set up a direct deposit when you file your taxes and have your refunds deposited into your bank account.

However, if you do not have a bank account, the other option of receiving your refund is through a prepaid debit card. We will walk you through a step by step process on how to receive your refunds using a prepaid card.

Why Tax Refunds on Prepaid Card is Better than a Check

Here are the reasons why getting your tax refunds via a prepaid debit card is better than receiving a check in the mail.

First, you can get your refund much faster, typically in about 8 to 10 days when you set up your refunds to be direct deposited on your prepaid debit card versus a check in the mail.

Second, a prepaid debit card is more secure than getting a check in the mail.

Each year, thousands of refund checks are returned to the IRS each year as undeliverable due to address issues. That is why the IRS recommends e-file with direct deposit to an account.

Third, if you do not have a bank account, getting your refund through a prepaid debit card helps you avoid expensive check-cashing fees.

Finally, with a prepaid debit card, you can get access to your tax refund faster than waiting for a check to clear.

Setting up Prepaid Card for Tax Refund

Setting up direct deposit of your tax refund to a prepaid card no different than setting up direct deposit of a paycheck to a bank account.

Here’s the step by step process to get your tax refund via a prepaid card.

Step 1: Purchase or Request your Prepaid Debit Card

The first step is to get a prepaid debit card. You will need to purchase a reloadable prepaid debit card, with your name printed in front of the card.

A reloadable prepaid card is a prepaid card that you can add money to after the initial amount loaded on the card is spent.

For a list of reloadable prepaid cards, click here.

Where to Get a Prepaid Card

You can pick up a reloadable prepaid card at retail stores like Walmart, Target or Best Buy or at Pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and grocery stores like Kroger and Safeway.

If you are purchasing a prepaid card from the store, you will purchase a temporary card, which you will have to activate online. Upon activation, they will mail you a permanent card with your name on it within 7-10 business days.

You can also visit the prepaid card’s website and request a permanent card, which will have your name printed on it.

Step 2: Activate your Prepaid Debit Card

Whether you have a temporary prepaid card or a permanent card with your name printed on it, the next step is to activate your prepaid card.

You can do that online at the prepaid card’s website or via the prepaid card’s mobile application.

If you have a temporary prepaid card, upon activation, they will mail you a permanent card with your name on it within 7-10 business days.

Once you receive your permanent prepaid card, you can perform step 3 below.

If you have a permanent prepaid card with your name printed in front of the card and you have activated your card, proceed to step 3 below.

Step 3: Locate Prepaid Card Account Number and Routing Number

To set up direct deposit of your tax refund to your prepaid card, you need the following information about your prepaid card:

The routing number of the prepaid debit card
The prepaid card account number

Note that the prepaid card account number is different from the card number listed in front of your prepaid card.

In addition, the prepaid card account number and routing number are not listed on the prepaid card itself.

To get this information, you will have to log into your prepaid card account online or call customer service.

Here’s how to get your account number and routing number.

There are two ways you can get this information:

Option 1 – Log into your prepaid card account

If you have online access to your prepaid account, log in and look for a menu item that allows you to transfer money to your card. This is where you are likely to find the routing and account numbers for your prepaid debit card.

If you need help logging into your prepaid account or need help setting up online access to your prepaid account, click below for a step by step login help for the following cards:

Walmart MoneyCard
Paypal Prepaid Card
RushCard
American Express Bluebird Card
TurboTax Debit Card
Jackson Hewitt Amex Serve Card
H&R Block Emerald Card

Option 2 – Call your prepaid card customer service

Another way to get the account number and routing number for your prepaid debit card is to call your prepaid card customer service number.

When you call, explain to them that you are trying to add funds from your bank account to your prepaid card and need your prepaid card account number and the bank routing number to complete the transaction.

Step 3 – Add Prepaid Card Information to Tax Returns

When filing your taxes, put your prepaid card Routing Number and Account Number in the designated fields and indicate ‘Checking’ as the account type as shown below.

However, if you are using a professional tax preparer for your tax returns, provide them with your prepaid card Routing Number and Account Number.

Let your tax preparer know that know you would like to receive a direct deposit of your tax refund on the prepaid card.

Congratulations!!! You have successfully set up to receive your tax refund via a prepaid debit card.

Best Prepaid Cards for Tax refunds

Here are the 5 best-prepaid debit cards for receiving your tax refund. We picked the following prepaid cards based on three factors:

- Low or no monthly fee
- Free Direct Deposit
- Free ATM withdrawals or low ATM Withdrawals fees.

In addition to the list above, there are three debit cards that are issued by tax preparation companies.

Specifically, H&R Block, Turbo Tax and Jackson Hewitt have their own prepaid debit cards that can also be used to receive tax refunds as listed below.

Be sure to check out their fees before signing up.

Turbo Tax Debit Card
H&R Block Emerald Card
Jackson Hewitt American Express Serve Card

Getting Your Tax Refunds on a Prepaid Card Summary

We hope this post on how to get your tax refund on a Prepaid Card was helpful.

If you have further questions about Prepaid Debit Card and tax refunds, please let us know in the comments section below.

Be sure to check out our other articles on Prepaid Cards, including Jackson Hewitt Amex Serve Card Login, HR Block Emerald Card Login, and TurboTax Prepaid Debit Card Login.