ConveniaLoad, an affiliate of Western Financial LLC has introduced a service that allows a consumer to make a cash deposit at a local branch of a major bank and have that deposit credited into a prepaid stored value account provided by a third party. ConveniaLoad isn't in the business of providing prepaid accounts - they're just providing the funding mechanism to third parties who actually provide the prepaid accounts.

Once the consumer enrolls in ConveniaLoad, they are sent a booklet of deposit slips to use when making the cash deposits at a local bank branch. Checks cannot be deposited - only cash. The consumer doesn't need to have an account at that bank - presumably ConveniaLoad's account is the one into which the funds are being deposited by the consumer.

ConveniaLoad currently lists Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Bank One, US Bank, and Wachovia as the banks where deposits can be made. Presumably ConveniaLoad has an account at each of those banks and the deposit slips are encoded to ensure deposits flow into their account.

ConveniaLoad says they will credit your deposit to the third-party prepaid account provider within 24 hours in most cases although it can take up to 2 business days.

While enrollment in ConveniaLoad is free, they charge for each deposit booklet they send the consumer - and probably also collect fees (typically passed on to the consumer) from the third party prepaid account provider.

All in all, ConveniaLoad appears to us to be an interesting way to utilize existing bank branch infrastructure as a cash intake mechanism for funding prepaid accounts! Note that we've not talked to the company directly and don't know anything about who's actually behind the service as their web site isn't very forthcoming in that regard.