WIC EBT

By now you have either heard of or in some states you are now processing, WIC EBT. What is WIC EBT? It stands for Electronic Benefit Transfer for Women, Infants and Children. This will eventually replace the paper vouchers which are now in use. There are two forms that will be used:

Online: Using a card with a magnetic stripe which needs a live connection to the processing host functioning much like a credit card transaction.

Smart Card: Which communicates to information stored on a card containing memory which connects directly to the POS terminal and then batch processes the data to the host at a later time. Each state is allowed to choose one of the two methods for processing the WIC EBT.

This map from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website shows the status of each state’s implementation for WIC EBT. http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/EBT/wicebt.htm