Wal-Mart to Staff: Bye-Bye Paycheck, Hello Debit Card

Sept. 8, 2009— -- Say goodbye to the paper paycheck.

More and more companies are now forcing their employees to switch over to direct deposit or some other type of electronic payment as part of a larger cost-cutting effort.

The latest company to make such a switch is Wal-Mart. The nation's largest employer will now pay workers via a debit card if they decline to sign up for direct deposit.

And it's not just paychecks that are disappearing. Some major airlines are now only accepting credit and debit cards for purchase of meals or headphones on planes. And many states are now providing welfare and food stamp benefits only through direct deposit and debit cards.

"It's definitely part of a growing trend toward doing away with paper paychecks. That's true with some employers as well as government benefits that used to be given out with checks," said Gerri Detweiler, a personal finance author and credit advisor at Credit.com.

Wal-Mart would not say how much money it would save with the switch, but the world's largest retailer said that by eliminating checks in the United States it plans to save 257,572 pounds of paper a year.

Wal-Mart has more than 1.4 million employees in the United States and roughly half of them have not signed up for direct deposit, according to company spokeswoman Daphne Moore. The debt cards are being phased in over the next few months.

The cards will make it more convenient to workers who now have to come into their stores to pick up paychecks, Moore said. It also falls in line with the company's goal to "eliminate waste wherever we can," she said. Wal-Mart has, for instance, is asking its suppliers to start using less packaging.