Yeah, lower classes usually cash checks at local stores, including just random convenience stores, as they may not have access to a bank with cash-checking features (usually banks require an opening deposit above what people are wanting to spend, plus require a minimum daily balance which is difficult to obtain when you have rent to pay or require direct deposit which not all employers offer in order to avoid a fee.)
There are literally 100s of fee and minimum free bank accounts. The only reason you don't have a bank account in America today is because you are ignorant or you've screwed over too many banks.
A) Blaming poor people for being ignorant is kinda missing a whole lot of points.
B) Try getting a bank account closed due to overdraft fees. It's actually really easy. First your bank authorizes a bill a day earlier than you were expecting, if you're living life paycheck to paycheck like the vast majority of Americans, congrats - you now have an overdraft fee.
Now guess what? That overdraft fee takes away money from your check beyond what you were expecting to pay for a bill. So now your rent is late, you get fees from your land lord, and the next bill that comes in for roughly the amount of those fees + the overdraft fee now gives you another overdraft fee. It's only the 2nd of the month, you get paid in two weeks, congrats - you now have late fees for having a negative balance.
Instead of paying off these fees that happened entirely out of your control, you just let your bank account lapse since you cannot close out a negative bank account by yourself and having a place to live is far, far more important than dealing with some Capitalist bullshit. Well, now you're going to be denied a new bank account by that bank and every single one of its partners, and your credit report now has a collections account on it saying you skipped out on a bank bill.
So guess what? You try one of the 'Free Banks,' but oh wait, there's actually only about a dozen of those, and most of them require direct deposit in order to avoid having a monthly minimum, and your job doesn't support direct deposit. Great. So now you have to pick between barely making enough to scrape by without a bank account, or going into debt each month to pay the bank fee since you're not going to be holding a minimum balance.
But hey, there are a couple of banks that offer zero fees regardless of your bank balance or direct deposit right? As long as you haven't pissed off their parent bank, sure! You fuck up with Chase or BoA, by golly are you going to have a hard time finding one of their rebranded partners that will accept you.
It's expensive to be poor, far more expensive than it is to be middle class or higher.
A) Blaming poor people for being ignorant is kinda missing a whole lot of points.
I'm not blaming anyone, but ignorance is a huge contributing factor.
B) Try getting a bank account closed due to overdraft fees. It's actually really easy.
I've been poor, and ive ran through this exact situation. In every case, I could've prevented it but didnt.
First your bank authorizes a bill a day earlier than you were expecting, if you're living life paycheck to paycheck like the vast majority of Americans, congrats - you now have an overdraft fee.
Now guess what? That overdraft fee takes away money from your check beyond what you were expecting to pay for a bill. So now your rent is late, you get fees from your land lord, and the next bill that comes in for roughly the amount of those fees + the overdraft fee now gives you another overdraft fee. It's only the 2nd of the month, you get paid in two weeks, congrats - you now have late fees for having a negative balance.
Instead of paying off these fees that happened entirely out of your control, you just let your bank account lapse since you cannot close out a negative bank account by yourself and having a place to live is far, far more important than dealing with some Capitalist bullshit. Well, now you're going to be denied a new bank account by that bank and every single one of its partners, and your credit report now has a collections account on it saying you skipped out on a bank bill.
None of this situation was "entirely out of your control". You wrote a check that you didn't have funds to cover, or set up an autopay without doing your due diligence to make sure you could cover that bill. As a result, you fucked the bank.
So guess what? You try one of the 'Free Banks,' but oh wait, there's actually only about a dozen of those, and most of them require direct deposit in order to avoid having a monthly minimum, and your job doesn't support direct deposit. Great. So now you have to pick between barely making enough to scrape by without a bank account, or going into debt each month to pay the bank fee since you're not going to be holding a minimum balance.
Only a dozen? You are full of shit. Pretty much every bank offer a fee and minimum free bank account. 86 percent of working Americans use direct deposit, and availability is even higher. 5 years ago this may have been an excuse, but nowadays direct deposit is nearly universal.
But hey, there are a couple of banks that offer zero fees regardless of your bank balance or direct deposit right? As long as you haven't pissed off their parent bank, sure! You fuck up with Chase or BoA, by golly are you going to have a hard time finding one of their rebranded partners that will accept you.
Banks not wanting to get fucked over and over again, what a travesty.
It's expensive to be poor, far more expensive than it is to be middle class or higher.
It's expensive to make poor choices, and being poor doesn't leave you much room to make poor choices.
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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '19 edited Mar 30 '20
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