My Day Without Banks

[Loren Pechtel]

Of course you do.

Point is, it's easy and cheap to open a checking account. Not doing so has nothing whatsoever to do with poverty. So why don't so many people open a bank account and opt to spend much more time and money? I suspect it has to do with wanting to stay off the grid because of taxes, debts/judgments, arrest warrants or plain paranoia.

If its so easy then it should take you about 60 seconds to find multiple banks that give completely free checking accounts without requiring any minimum balance.
Oh, and they need to cash your check immediately without putting a "hold" on it, since you cannot wait 5-7 bussiness days to feed your kids.
Ready, set, go!!!!

Remember, one check was a payroll check. That means direct deposit--and at many banks that qualifies you for a free account. And direct deposits are ACH transactions, there's nothing to clear. Thus no holds.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

- Wells Fargo has a $10/month checking whose monthly fee is waived if you make at least 10 debit card payments/purchases per month or direct deposit $750 or more or maintain a $1,500 balance

Really, I do all this and they still charge me $15.

While the people in question certainly can't get it Wells Fargo actually has a very nice option for those with more. How about free check printing, free bill pay, free cashier's checks (and presumably money orders although I don't recall) and some other perks. It comes with a very hefty minimum but that minimum is based on combined balances--which includes loans. Such as your mortgage.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No, if you takes longer than 2 minutes to use google to find any banks that do this, that implies that there are very few banks do it, and thus a poor person without computer access or ability to go all over town to find a willing bank would have difficulty finding one. Thus, you are objectively wrong that it is "easy".

2 minutes? Try 10 seconds.

I decided to try a likely prospect. They don't have a lot of branches around but that's not that big an issue these days for most people, especially if you direct deposit your paycheck.

No minimum. No fees if you stay with their ATMs (and you don't really need others, use cash back if you want money, use your phone to access their website for balance inquiries.) Free bill pay (which saves you postage.) You do pay for check printing but how many checks do you need these days? (At this point we generally write 3/year, all stemming from her professional licensing requirements.)

 

[braces_for_impact]

Neither of you know what you are talking about. If you're poor you likely have bad credit from unpaid or late paid bills. Banks turn you down for checking accounts with bad credit.

I have never heard of someone getting denied a checking account for bad credit. What happens instead is being blacklisted for having your checking account closed for, as Jarhyn experienced, overdrawing the account and not resolving it in a timely manner.

Ah you never heard of that? Well, I'm ready to concede the topic to your impeccable logic and wide varied knowledge base right now, then.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

As someone wh has lived below the poverty line, and encountered exactly the problem of not being able to get a checking account... Here's my personal experience:

I was poor, making about 100 bucks a week working at mcdonalds while going to school on a loan. At some point, I got overdrawn on my account, and got hit with about 50 bucks in assorted fees. It was a choice I had to either not have food and transportation, and let a car get repossessed or pay off the fees along with the remainder of the withdrawal which over-drafted me. Of course I couldn't afford the 100 bucks at the time it would have cost to straighten it out. By the time I had the money, though, my checking account was cancelled.

After that, I paid off the remainder, but for the next few years, nobody would let me open account, due to something they called 'checking account credit'. In order to cash my student loan checks to buy supples and food, it cost me 150 bucks.

There are legitimate reasons that poor people cannot use banks.

This isn't because you were poor, this was because you stiffed the bank.

- - - Updated - - -

Perhaps the banks need to stop housing themselves in extremely expensive buildings with great lobbies filled with artwork and nice tile. Perhaps they need to cut back on the salaries they pay their executives.

I'm not feeling sorry for a bank having to pay money to make money. They make much more than they're paying out for overhead, otherwise they wouldn't be in business.

I've never seen a fancy bank.

 

[braces_for_impact]

- Wells Fargo has a $10/month checking whose monthly fee is waived if you make at least 10 debit card payments/purchases per month or direct deposit $750 or more or maintain a $1,500 balance

Really, I do all this and they still charge me $15.

While the people in question certainly can't get it Wells Fargo actually has a very nice option for those with more. How about free check printing, free bill pay, free cashier's checks (and presumably money orders although I don't recall) and some other perks. It comes with a very hefty minimum but that minimum is based on combined balances--which includes loans. Such as your mortgage.

I'm glad you mentioned Wells Fargo. They were the first to reject me when I got to Florida for a checking account.

 

[bilby]

America is weird.

I don't have a checking account, and nor do I need to cash checks, for the same reason that I don't have a slide-rule. It is the 21st Century.

A savings account with debit card and no fees (as long as you keep $10 balance and use only that bank's ATMs) can be had from any bank or credit union here.

There are few jobs that pay wages other than by bank deposit. Nobody pays wages by cheque, and only tax-evaders pay cash.

 

[Metaphor]

America is weird.

I don't have a checking account, and nor do I need to cash checks, for the same reason that I don't have a slide-rule. It is the 21st Century.

A savings account with debit card and no fees (as long as you keep $10 balance and use only that bank's ATMs) can be had from any bank or credit union here.

There are few jobs that pay wages other than by bank deposit. Nobody pays wages by cheque, and only tax-evaders pay cash.

bilby, I was about to say the exact same thing. "Cashing cheques" is something that Australians did in the 1980s. Is this how Americans are paid??? Cheques?!?

It's worth pointing out though that Australian banks used to be notoriously bad with account-keeping fees. I remember back in the day (the late 80s, I think) ANZ trumpeted their "$5 a month" account keeping fee as a fantastic innovation and unbelievably good value. Now, banks offer to PAY YOU MONEY to open an account with them. If any bank tried to charge me an account keeping fee I'd laugh all the way to another bank.

I think this happened sometime in the early 2000s with the introduction of HSBC and some actual, real competition in Australia.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Of course you do.

Point is, it's easy and cheap to open a checking account. Not doing so has nothing whatsoever to do with poverty. So why don't so many people open a bank account and opt to spend much more time and money? I suspect it has to do with wanting to stay off the grid because of taxes, debts/judgments, arrest warrants or plain paranoia.

If its so easy then it should take you about 60 seconds to find multiple banks that give completely free checking accounts without requiring any minimum balance.
Oh, and they need to cash your check immediately without putting a "hold" on it, since you cannot wait 5-7 bussiness days to feed your kids.
Ready, set, go!!!!

Remember, one check was a payroll check. That means direct deposit--and at many banks that qualifies you for a free account. And direct deposits are ACH transactions, there's nothing to clear. Thus no holds.

Actually, I've had banks hold a direct deposit. Also, where are these free accounts? Most banks have stopped offering those.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

America is weird.

I don't have a checking account, and nor do I need to cash checks, for the same reason that I don't have a slide-rule. It is the 21st Century.

A savings account with debit card and no fees (as long as you keep $10 balance and use only that bank's ATMs) can be had from any bank or credit union here.

There are few jobs that pay wages other than by bank deposit. Nobody pays wages by cheque, and only tax-evaders pay cash.

Not up here, and savings accounts pay no interest (well 0.01% APR) and charge $10-15/mo.

 

[Underseer]

Of course you do.

Point is, it's easy and cheap to open a checking account. Not doing so has nothing whatsoever to do with poverty. So why don't so many people open a bank account and opt to spend much more time and money? I suspect it has to do with wanting to stay off the grid because of taxes, debts/judgments, arrest warrants or plain paranoia.

You're kidding, right?

Living in poverty means that you're always one mishap away from serious financial trouble, and it also means you are less able to set something aside for the unexpected. Even if you do set something aside, get two mishaps in a row, and before you know it you're in a hole that keeps getting deeper and deeper as you start accumulating late fees with this or that billing entity. Once you let your head below water, things just keep getting worse and worse until they shut off your electricity, freeze your bank account and kick you out of your apartment.

Yes, there are poor people who get into things like this through bad decisions, but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to get into deep water even when you don't make bad decisions.

Not that you care, of course. It is natural for rightists to blame the victim, as long as the victim isn't a rich person or a large corporation.

 

[bleubird]

Wells Fucko is the last place on this plant any sane person would put their money!
Back in 2008 we were told to take our money out of the big banks that cause the whole mess and put it in local banks and credit unions.Still good advise.

 

[Jarhyn]

Neither of you know what you are talking about. If you're poor you likely have bad credit from unpaid or late paid bills. Banks turn you down for checking accounts with bad credit.

I have never heard of someone getting denied a checking account for bad credit. What happens instead is being blacklisted for having your checking account closed for, as Jarhyn experienced, overdrawing the account and not resolving it in a timely manner.

And you think that such issues aren't exacerbating among the poor? The easiest solution to all this is to start postal banking like the rest of the world, and implement a new national electronic payment infrastructure that costs less and which is more secure and reliable than credit or checks.

 

[Derec]

Also, where are these free accounts? Most banks have stopped offering those.

As we've said, banks waive those things with a direct deposit (among other things).

 

[ksen]

Also, where are these free accounts? Most banks have stopped offering those.

As we've said, banks waive those things with a direct deposit (among other things).

How do you do this direct deposit thingy without a job?

 

[Derec]

How do you do this direct deposit thingy without a job?

You should be able to DD your unemployment benefits as well.
But this thread was about the poor, not necessarily unemployed. The bigger problem re DD is those working for smaller employers because these often don't offer DD. But again, there are other ways to avoid the fees. And even if you can't, it's still cheaper than going bankless.

 

[bleubird]

like have nothing to do with the banksters that that created the whole mess.
But big corporate dick sucking seems to be a hard habit to break!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Back during an internship, I was poor for a few days (late 90s). Haphazardly left my wallet (and ATM card) in a bag next to my car, instead of in my car, at a park. My wallet was found by someone else but getting it back took a few days. So all I had was the cash I didn't take with me. Which was something like $5 or $10. I got my paycheck, but in order to cash it at a bank I didn't have an account at (out of state for the internship), I had to give up 5 or 10% of the check. This was to cash a City check (working for a city DPW)!

So I had to make do with what I had for those few days, despite actually having money (but no access to it!). So hardly an arduous tale, but certainly a sign of a shitstorm if you have to deal with that sort of stuff.

 

[Archimedes]

America is weird.

I don't have a checking account, and nor do I need to cash checks, for the same reason that I don't have a slide-rule. It is the 21st Century.

A savings account with debit card and no fees (as long as you keep $10 balance and use only that bank's ATMs) can be had from any bank or credit union here.

There are few jobs that pay wages other than by bank deposit. Nobody pays wages by cheque, and only tax-evaders pay cash.

I have a general purpose bank account that came with a Visa debit card that's accepted everywhere. I pay no fees for the bank account or for using the card to make purchases or for using it in any ATMs. Every job I've had paid wages straight into my bank account. This thread confuses me.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

In the US you pretty much can't use debit cards anymore. Our corporations continually get hacked and the data is stolen.