The plight of the unbanked population
Thanks to stricter bank policies and an increasing number of ChexSystems banks, there are millions of people in America that are unbanked. By most estimates, nearly a quarter of the workforce in the United States has no bank account. But it's not for want of trying, it's just that once you're in the ChexSystems report, it's nearly impossible to get out of ChexSystems. So today, millions of good working people are looking for banks that do not use ChexSystems, but those banks are getting fewer in number.
Although a small handful of the unbanked population are unbanked because they have wilfully committed some act of fraud against a bank, the vast majority are guilty of nothing but a minor accounting error, or having the bad fortune of running their bank account too close to zero for too long. The unbanked for the most part are honest people, but mostly low to moderate income workers, hourly employees toiling for minimum wage, people who get government benefits, unemployment, or just make a living from week to week. There's no shame in living from paycheck to paycheck. Nobody wants to, but a surprising number of us do just that.
This surprisingly large sector of the American population is not served, or worse, disserved by America's banking system. Banks that do grudgingly agree to open accounts for us wage slaves charge high fees if we don't keep unsupportable minimum balances; they slap us with usage fees at every turn; and they just wait for us to make a two dollar accounting error so they can shut us out. Then after that happens, we have to turn to expensive check cashing stores, which charge anywhere from two to five percent to cash our paychecks. These same check cashing stores often have predatory practices, enticing us with "payday loans" that far exceed any reasonable rate of interest and fees that should be charged.
Fortunately, there are still a few good bankers out there, and there are still a few banks not using ChexSystems. But here too, there are predatory practices, with some non ChexSystems banks charging excessively high maintenance and usage fees; and others offering very limited debit cards that again carry hidden fees that victimize the poor. When you're trying to find out which banks do not use ChexSystems, there are bad options and there are good ones. There is a way out, and you don't have to pay excessive fees to get it. Do your research, read the fine print and compare prices. As always, do your own comparison shopping. You don't have to be left out in the cold if you don't want to.
