Customers who have had problems with their prepaid debit cards might have a payday soon.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced it has fined the payment companies MasterCard MA, +0.79% and UniRush — whose co-founder is entrepreneur Russell Simmons — for “breakdowns” on reloadable prepaid “RushCards” that left their customers unable to access their money.

The problems for customers happened in October 2015, when UniRush started to use MasterCard as its new payment processor. Because of some “preventable failures” during that switch, tens of thousands of consumers were negatively affected, the CFPB said in a statement, resulting in about 830 consumer complaints from RushCard users to the agency.

“The RushCard fiasco stopped people from accessing their money to buy food and pay rent,” Lauren Saunders, the associate director of the nonprofit National Consumer Law Center, said in a statement. The CFPB’s action will put $10 million back in the pockets of working families struggling to make ends meet.”

The payment companies will pay $10 million in restitution to customers because of these problems, according to the CFPB’s action. The amount customers will receive varies, depending on what problems they had with their cards; those who had their paycheck deposits delayed, for example, will receive $100, and those who had their paycheck deposits wrongfully returned to their employer will receive $250, the CFPB said. The two payment companies also have to pay a $3 million fine to the CFPB.

Many customers use their RushCard to receive a direct deposit from an employer or for government benefits. Prepaid cards, such as RushCard, are popular among consumers who don’t use traditional banking services.

During the change in October 2015, some consumers were not able to access their funds for days or even weeks, the CFPB found. UniRush also posted some deposits multiple times, allowing customers to think they had more money in their accounts than they actually did. And MasterCard did not send accurate information about consumers’ account balances to UniRush, which meant some consumers were wrongly told their accounts did not contain any money, the CFPB added. Customers did not receive sufficient service at the time either, it said.

UniRush will contact customers individually about their payments; those who still have accounts will receive direct payments to them, and those who don’t will receive a check, a CFPB spokeswoman said. The CFPB is requiring UniRush to establish a plan to alert customers; if that plan isn’t sufficient, the agency said it will follow up.

“We understand the critical role prepaid cards play in how people manage their money,” said Seth Eisen, a spokesman for MasterCard. “Today’s agreement with the CFPB provides RushCard customers adversely affected by the October 2015 event with an opportunity to be further compensated for inconveniences caused during the service disruption.”

“RushCard welcomes our settlement with the CFPB,” the company said in a statement. “We maintain that our company did not engage in any wrongdoing, and do not admit to such in our Consent Order with the CFPB.”

“This incident was one of the most challenging periods in my professional career,” Simmons said in a statement. “I cannot thank our customers enough for believing in us, remaining loyal and allowing us to continue to serve their needs.”

UniRush previously agreed in 2016 to pay $19 million in restitution to users affected by that 2015 “breakdown” after a class-action lawsuit was filed in a New York court. The CFPB’s action against the company is separate, and any users who received money as a result of the class-action suit may still receive a payment now, a CFPB spokeswoman said.

UniRush made the news earlier this week, after the announcement the company was being sold to Green Dot Corp., one of the largest prepaid debit card providers in the U.S., for about $147 million. The CFPB said the timing of its action against the company was coincidental.