There’s a commercial with a seemingly middle class looking couple gushing that wal-mart will only charge then $2.00 or something to cash their payroll check and how this will save them 200.00 per year. Who the fuck cashes their check at Wal-Mart? Even if your credit is shit you can go open a passbook savings account and deposit your check for free. Aside from that, who receives an actual check any more? My company doesn’t even cut checks. It’s direct deposited into your checking or savings account.
Another is the ‘Wal Mart money card’. The lady in the commercial talks about how its dangerous to carry cash around, so now she puts her cash on her ‘Wal Mart money card’ that can presumably be used as a debit card. After seeing the commercial, I wanted to look up the specifics and see how much exactly Wal-Mart is ripping off the financial dunces. And how much does this card cost? $8.94 up front, plus $4.94 per month. Plus the $2.00 im assuming the moron paid to cash the check prior to putting it on the card.
I’m not sure what pisses me off more. That people are too stupid to open a bank account or that Wal-Mart will go so low to rip off the most financially vulnerable.
Quintas, there are plenty of reasons why people can’t open bank accounts. This is a good service to have - and it’s frankly quite reasonable as currency exchanges charge a chunk o’change to cash checks versus a flat $3. Hell - there are some regular banks who, when I want to cash a check given to me by someone and I take it to the bank it’s written on to get the cash, charge me $5 if I don’t have an account with them!
I don’t have direct deposit right now - my temp job cuts checks until you’ve been with them for a certain number of hours. I’ve only been with them a little more than a month - it’ll be a good six months before I can do direct deposit.
When I moved back here from Missouri I didn’t have a bank account - I couldn’t even OPEN one after what my ex did to my previous account. And when you’re working, leaving at 6:30 AM and not getting home until 7:00 PM, who has time to go to the bank an dick around with all that?
Sorry, can’t get behind you on this - Walmart is providing a service that’s needed, and at a reasonable price. They ain’t the be-all and end-all of “evil corporations” folks.
I always figured that they were catering to illegal immigrants… who might not have the proper ID to start a bank account. Other than that, I don’t see why anyone would use these “check cashing” services.
This will probably come as a surprise to both of you but there are actually poor people in the US, a whole lower class of them that live from check to check. All the people that I knew that didn’t have bank accounts had it that way because they lived from check to check. There was no point in having an account that would deduct all sorts of fees from them and a lot of reason for carrying all their money in their wallets and purses.
Apparently, you had no idea how many people are “non-banked” these days. Typical reasons are cultural mistrust or non-understanding of banks, immigration status and past history such as bounced checks.
A flat two bucks to cash a payroll check? That’s a very good price. Most banks will simply refuse to cash checks for non-customers, or charge well more than two dollars.
Depositing checks into a savings account is a booby-trap. A lot of savings accounts do not allow access to their funds via an ATM/debit card, and there are often limits on how many withdrawals you can make.
And yes, there are lots of small businesses out there that do their own payroll in-house and pass out paper checks.
There are also a certain number of people who don’t want or trust direct deposit - they want that piece of paper in their hands. I work for a bank that can only be described as enormous, and at my local mail stop (about 100 people) there are three people that get paper checks in their mailbox every two weeks rather than direct deposit.
Some persons cannot open checking accounts because they have owe another bank money and have been reported to ChekSystems. One of my cousins, for instance, got caught up in a payday-loan scam and ended up hugely overdrawn at his original bank and could not open an account anywhere. He’d still be bankless if my brother and I (actually mostly my brother) hadn’t bailed him out.
Reasons a person cant open a savings account? I’ve never heard of a bank unwilling to accept a deposit. I agree there may be reasons a person can’t get a checking account.
A lot of less affluent folks are not financially savvy enough to realize that check caching fees and card charges add up to serious amounts. I wouldn’t label them all as morons, with timely financial education they could have been much smarter with their money.
My bank requires a minimum amount of $500 to open a savings account, and if your account drops below $300, you can be penalized. For some people who do live paycheck to paycheck, they can’t afford to be out that money every month.
Don’t even get me started on those bastards. Those and the ‘car title’ loan places are always in the poor neighborhoods, usually near the liquor store.
I had a relative who stupidly got one of those title loans. After 30 days he of course did not have the money to pay them back. So they kindly allowed him to make payments at some godawful interest rate. He almost would have been better off just letting them take his car and he could have made payments on a newer car with the amount he paid them each month. But of course that wasnt possible because his credit was a disaster which is why he had to use those sharks in the first place. I’d tell anyone, live on Ramen noodles and sell blood, but stay away from those places.
I suppose you are right, but I’m sure they could find a way to cut $300 out over a month or so. They are gonna pay that to WalMart anyway after a year.
But some people simply cannot open checking accounts. If your account is closed by the bank because you owe them money, and you cannot afford to repay that debt, then few other banks–maybe NO other banks–are gong to be willing to open an account for you. Bank customer service reps get fired for overruling Cheksystems.
Walmart is actually doing a good thing here. Check-cashing services at other places cost a lot more than two or thee bucks a check.
I’m aware of your point in regards to a checking account. But I believe such a person could still open a savings account and deposit your check that way. You may have to wait a day or so to withdraw it and I understand the concept of living paycheck to paycheck. But I doubt waiting 1 day is gonna lead to starvation.
Anyway, I just see all these things as preying upon the poor and making it even more difficult get out of their bad situation.
I know plenty of people for which this would be impossible. My credit union requires only $50 minimum and most of the folks I know couldn’t even swing that.
Even if they could get the seed money in there, the minute they are a little tiny bit behind on their bills they would withdraw the $300 or the $50 and close the account.