FoodShare Wisconsin

Using Your Quest Card

Your Wisconsin QUEST card is a safe and easy way to use your benefits. The following sections will explain how your QUEST card works and when to contact QUEST Customer Service.

Please Note: You can also watch an online video that gives you information about your card and how to use it. To view this video, go to: dhs.wi.gov/em/av/ebt-vids.htm.

When You Get Your Benefits

Each month your benefits will be added to your QUEST card account automatically. The exact date you get your benefits is based on the eighth digit of your Social Security Number. (See the QUEST Card mailer you get with your QUEST card for these dates.) Each month, as your benefits are added to your QUEST account, your balance will go up. As you use your benefits, your balance goes down.

Spending Benefits 

You may use your QUEST card as often as you want and spend as much of your benefits as you want each month. At the end of each month, you can leave as many benefits in your account as you want. Keep in mind that if you do not use your account for a year, any benefits 365 days or older will be removed from your account. 

Please Note: You must have your QUEST card with you every time you go to the store to buy food with your benefits.

You can use your benefits to buy foods such as:

• Breads and cereals,

• Fruits and vegetables,

• Meats, fish and poultry, 

• Dairy products, and

• Seeds and plants to grow food for your family to eat.

You cannot use your benefits to buy items such as:

• Nonfood items (pet foods, paper products, soaps, and household supplies, grooming items, tooth paste and cosmetics, etc.), or

• Beer, wine, liquor, cigarettes or tobacco, or

• Food that will be eaten in the store, or 

• Hot foods (example; food that is purchased and cooked at the store).

If you eat at a group meal site for senior citizens or have your meals delivered to your home, you can use FoodShare benefits to pay for these meals, if the site or provider is authorized to accept the QUEST card.

You can use your benefits at one of the following if the facility is authorized to accept the QUEST card:

• Drug and alcohol treatment center,

• Shelter for battered women,

• Shelter for the homeless, or

• Group home for people with disabilities.

FoodShare can replace food you bought with FoodShare benefits, if it is destroyed in a household disaster or misfortune. The amount of benefits the agency can replace is the actual amount of food that was destroyed but not more than the monthly amount of benefits your household gets. You must ask your agency for replacement benefits within 10 days of the day your food was destroyed.

Account Balance 

Always check your account balance before you shop. If you do not know your balance, you can: 

• Call QUEST Customer Service,

• Look at your last receipt, or

• Go to ebtedge.com. (Click on Cardholder Login then enter your QUEST card number (Click here to see an example of the QUEST Card.)

You should get a printed receipt when you buy food with your QUEST card. The receipt will show your account balance. If you do not get a printed receipt, ask for one. Keep all of your receipts after you shop with your QUEST card.

Purchasing food with your FoodShare benefits

*There is no cash option with the QUEST card.

1. Merchant's Name: This is the store information or where the swipe card machine is located.

2. Terminal Identification Number: This identifies the swipe card machine you used.

3. Merchant Identification Number: This number identifies who the merchant is or what store you shopped at.

4. Transaction Sequence Number: The is the number of sales made on the swipe card machine for that day.

5. Clerk Number: This number identifies the sales clerk who helped you at the check out line.

6. Transaction Date and Time: This is the date and time of your grocery purchase.

7. Card #: This shows the last 4-Digits of your QUEST card.

8. Posting Date: This is the date your transaction or purchase is posted.

9. Balance: This is your your FoodShare balances. It shows your balance before you shopped, the amount of benefits your are using for this purchase and the amount of benefits you have left on your QUEST card.

10. Transaction Type (FoodShare): This shows the amount of your FoodShare purchase and if your purchase was approved.

If you buy groceries that are more than the amount in your account, tell the clerk what amount you want to subtract from your QUEST card account. You will have to pay for the rest with your own money.

Keep in mind that you cannot get cash from your Wisconsin QUEST card. The Wisconsin QUEST card does not have this option.

You can find out what your last 10 purchases or deposits were online at ebtedge.com or by calling QUEST Customer Service. You may also ask for a written history of the purchases and deposits to your account for the past three calendar months, by calling QUEST Customer Service.

QUEST Customer Service is available, 24 hour per day, 7 days a week by calling: 1-877-415-5164 (voice) or 711 (TTY)/

If you find a mistake in your account balance, call QUEST Customer Service right away. When you speak with someone in Customer Service, make sure to ask for the name of the person you speak to and also ask for a “ticket number.” The ticket number is a code that will help you prove that you called and reported the mistake.

If a computer problem occurs that takes away or adds benefits to your account in error, a correction may be made to your balance. The correction could affect your current or future month’s balance.

You will get a letter in the mail if it will lower your balance. If you do not agree that the correction is right, you may ask for a fair hearing. (See the Fair Hearing section, for more details.) 

Back to Table of Contents

Next — Personal Identification Number (PIN) (QUEST Card)

Previous — Income Credits(FoodShare)

Last Revised: April 19, 2013