In NYC you could walk into a CVS or DuaneReade and use cash to purchase a prepaid Visa card that works anywhere Visa cards are accepted.
The card itself costs just $1, but there is a $6.95 per month fee. So it costs me $7.95, minimum, to use one of these (13%).
There are also fees for reloading the cards without EFT. If you keep the card all year it costs $83.40.