EBT freeze

Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, card holders, beware. If you try to go shopping this weekend—from 11 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 19) to 11 p.m. Sunday—your cards will be declined. That’s because the machine contractors are being changed from JP Morgan to ACS State and Local Solutions. The cards and PINs users currently hold will not change.

That’s not the only news. Starting Sept. 21, a Web site will be available to EBT card holders at www.ebt.ca.gov, where people can check balances and monitor transaction history.

Also starting Sept. 21, Chase Bank will no longer offer surcharge-free cash services to EBT card holders. Instead, people will have to use a “cash back” option. A list of surcharge-free cash locations will be available on the Web site.