Went to the local Walmart today and saw they had replaced the in-store McDonalds with one of those check-cashing places.

I realize they cater to various nefarious things and people on the fringe but wonder if anyone knows... if you cash a check through those places can you hide the income? Is it not attached to a SSN? Because if so they are going to be booming as people try to dodge taxes.

It is so obvious to me the whole thing is going to collapse.

Turns out they will cash gov't or payroll checks under $1000 for $3 fee which is way less then check cashing places charge.

You can get your money on a wal-mart cash card (smart business) and you can also pay your bills for 88 cents a pop (more smart business).

Definitely sounds more profitable then trying to sell burgers to me!

And healthier! Everyone knows eating McDonalds food is a coronary waiting to happen.

May not be able to hide taxes, but that is certainly the place I would go to if I just robbed someone on pay day!  (I don't steal, btw!)

Is that part of the bank that walmart created a few years ago or an independent place renting out space from them?

Sounds like a smart thing walmart did with the walmart cash card.

No, it walmart on it's own and quite brilliant.

Paypal is busting a move on banking / credit industry. If I read this correctly, you can access your paypal balance with a cash card but you CALL it a credit card and paypal collects commission from the merchant and kicks you back 1%.

most of ebay's revenue comes from paypal. I think you were on ebay too (& whatever they were called before then I can't remember) when it was still good, you've mentioned.

Jilly, I was. I also joined paypal when they were a start-up, not owned by ebay.

They launched by saying there would be NO FEES ever. They said they were going to make money on the "float".

This stuff is interesting to me. :) 

Separate but related - Jupiter Uranus is ahead almost always, like having the first astrology blog... mine predates the 2nd one by 4 years!!

Yeah me too.

"They launched by saying there would be NO FEES ever." snork

Well, the payroll check part might be a way to avoid taxes, depending on what they mean by "payroll."

If that only refers to checks cut by a payroll company, then those would be the larger companies who are going to report those expenditures to the IRS anyway.

But if small business checks can be counted as payroll (i.e., any check from a business checking account written out to an individual), then anything goes.

Apparently they require a ssn but I have no idea what kind of proof they want.

http://www.walmart.com/checkcashing

seems lax

My mom tried to get a payroll check cashed at Wal-Mart, she's been unable to get even a basic checking account for over a year due to some bad checking and credit history. They wouldn't cash the check because her SSN brought up the problems. Fucked every which way.

Yeah, but that is an ad, Jilly. I bet if you read the fine print, you'll find the ass covered. ;)