About a year ago, I had a bad experience with Verizon FIOS so I cancelled my subscription with them. I was owed a refund and Verizon delivered my refund to me on a Wirecard debit card. They claimed it was cheaper to issue a plastic card than to refund me directly to my card or issue a paper check. I find this claim extremely hard to believe. A pre-paid debit card is certainly NOT easier for the customer than a check. There are strong business cases for prepaid debit cards, but this was not one of them.
More likely, by issuing the refund via debit card, Wirecard and Verizon are able to extract every last possible penny by way of debit card fees and people who simply didn't bother to get their money off the debit card, by virtue of the friction they created for the customer with the debit card.
Pretty scummy if you ask me.