Comdata card / payroll

Does'nt that company have direct deposit or do you not have a bank account?Back when I had comdata,there was a fee and glitches in the card.It was more of a pain then anything.That was yrs ago but I still have the card believe it or not and is now one of my many rulers,lol.

 

That's the way May does. Your pay is on a separate "side" of the Comdata card and doesn't get mixed in with fuel/truck transactions. Yes there are a lot of fees unless it had changed. When money is first loaded into your card for payroll you have 1 "free" transfer/withdrawals so you can transfer it to yor bank account or withdrawal from ATM. Additional transfers/withdrawals usually cost $1-$3 which is taken directly off your card/out of your funds whether it be transferring more money to bank account or pulling money off card. Best to transfer all your money to bank account then use your debit/credit card. Comchek isn't that bad once you get used to it. They load money onto yor Comdata card, then you write out the check. Then you call Comdata and follow the prompts, enter in your card number and password and authorize the check. After you authorize check, it will give you a authorization code that you write down on the check. Write down the check number/amount/date/load number/truck and trailer on check stub receipt to send in with your BOL's to the company. It is fairly standard, EFS/TCH works same way for checks.

 

No, not in my experience. The company and personal accounts are completely different... they just happen to be linked to the same card.

I put some cash on the personal side every pay period for a couple of reasons. First, it's funded a day earlier than my direct deposit, and second if the direct deposit get's screwed up somehow, I have some access to cash. Yes, every time you use an ATM you get to pay a fee. It's the same with your bank account, so what's the big deal?

They are completely different accounts. Its done that way for your convenience.

It's only as much of a pain as your carrier makes it. When I need a Comcheck funded for something, I just send a QUALCOMM message to dispatch, and in a few minutes it's done. One call to an automated line at Comdata funds the check. How is that a pain? It's done that way as a security measure to protect you and the carrier. Do you really want to be carrying large amounts of cash making a delivery in downtown Detroit at 2 AM?

Is it common? You betcha, almost all the carriers do it that way using Comdata or a similar service. It makes it a lot harder for the crooks to rip you off.

 

Wow , that's gonna be something I have to look into as well , I have seen where some companies say they will split your pay like put some in your bank acct via direct deposit , and then put however much you want on your comdata card is this true ? Does anything ever get messed up ? I guess all companies are different so those are maybe loaded questions .

 

Ditto what Ironpony said. My company does it the same way, the only difference with me is my payroll is direct deposited every other week into my checking account. As far as lumper fee's or any other truck related expense it all gets loaded on the card. I can either use it as an ATM card, like at a lot of food D/C's that have an ATM on the property, or just get a comcheck registered and use the check. I don't take cash advances, use the card for payroll issue, it's used just for truck expenses, so the questions you bring up have nothing to do with my pay getting mixed up with truck expenses.

 

Lots of carriers will split your pay into different accounts, institutions, etc. I've never had a problem with it. You have to have access to cash for a lot of little expenses on the road... toll booths don't take plastic or checks. Make sure you keep your receipts.

 

Sorry if a company told me they where going to put my pay on there Combata card or what ever card they use, I would have thanked them for the consideration to work for there company and left, Direct deposit for me, My They just have WAY to much control if its on their card. not happening

 

I'll say if you play the ATM game and check fees you can easily spend over $500 a year. That's money I like to keep.

Whether you use a home bank or they even have these Visa debit cards you can load even with direct deposit. Either of them is a much better option than a Comdata Card. You can't use the Comdata card like a debit card and they've been promising that since I started driving in 1995.

Once you have a debit card you can pay for all purchases with plastic. You can use it online. If you need cash you can get cash back for FREE. If you need larger sums of cash you can go to a grocery store customer service desk and get $200 or more for FREE. I have gotten $500 before at a grocery store.

Your company can't force you to use a certain banking institution. Ask about direct deposit options. That sounds like a lazy lying payroll person to me since they do Comdata over their computer with a few clicks.

I played the Comdata game when I first started driving and learned there is much better options. What woke me up was watching a guy withdraw his payday at a fuel desk. He had six Comdata checks written out because there is a limit. Attached to each check was a $3 fee. 18 x 52= $936. That's just wasted money. ATM's do the same thing and the withdraw limits get smaller and smaller while the fees go up. It might not seem much at the time but it adds up quickly. You drive a whole week for free just to pay the fees.