The waiting line at the bank took all day to get through.
Imagine if it was at the Post Office
Trying to get basic banking services to cash Social Security and disability checks was a persistent source of anxiety for Patricia Geary, a 65-year-old Philadelphia resident. She receives her payments in paper form, but since she didn’t have a checking account, she had trouble figuring out how to convert them into usable form.
“It was so stressful,†she told me. “It put me in such a fragile and depressive state that I had to seek out professional help at times.â€
Commercial banks have too many hidden fees and minimum balances that are too high to help her. The check-cashing places she relied on require large fees for her to get cash and even more fees to convert some of that cash into money orders to pay bills. Keeping her money entirely in cash made it hard to budget well and left her vulnerable to theft.
Luckily, a public option became available. Geary received a Direct Express debit card that loads her government pension and disability payments. The card has low fees and none of her old financial hassles. “It was so much more flexible and allowed me to be much better at budgeting,†she said. “It’s like I have a bank in my pocket.â€
There has been great interest in the idea of postal banking ever since the inspector general of the U.S. Postal Service released a white paper in January that went viral after Elizabeth Warren endorsed the idea. According to the proposal, the USPS would offer financial services, including a debit card much like Direct Express, to cater to the nearly 68 million Americans with limited or no access to a formal banking account.
How delicate a flower must one be to need therapy because you can’t cash a check?
But more importantly, who doesn’t have “access” to banking?
I can’t see a need that isn’t being filled by banks and credit unions.
On a personal note, when I moved into my neighborhood back at the end of 2008, it had one of those “combined” mailboxes. The USPS decided that because of a couple of mail thefts from individual houses, my neighbors would be forced to give up their personal mailboxes and accept three large combo mailboxes spread throughout our neighborhood.
Well, back in November these combo boxes were broken into. The thieves took a $5 pry bar and bent the large door the mail carrier uses to fill the individual boxes back about four inches. They were only able to get to two of the boxes, but now everyone in the neighborhood has to go to the sorting depot because the USPS refuses to deliver any mail to the big box.
It is now almost March and the USPS still hasn’t fixed the big box. I call every week and let them know it hasn’t been fixed. The employees at the sorting depot are tired of having to come out from behind the locked door separating the 8ft x 8ft waiting area from the sorting area to help those requesting their mail and have become slightly snotty about it.
The door on the big box that was bent is 10 gauge steel. I offered to fabricate a new door using a half-sheet of 1/4in plate I have sitting around, but I got told no so many times I stopped offering, and if I just go ahead and make the repair, I’ll be a felon (I was told this in no uncertain terms the last time I offered).
Now imagine these folks have your entire income.
It takes a special kind of special to make a felon of someone doing you a favor. I would like to say “the mind boggles,” but it’s more like “meh, par for the (government) course.”
How far America has fallen.
(Insert ancient philosopher quote about falling Rome here.)
The lack of banks is low income areas is bad enough that non profits are stepping in to run banking like services. http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/banking_on_low_income_families Banks being profit making entities (no problem with that) can’t make much money on accounts that only have money in them for a couple days each month. Payday comes, the bills get paid, and the account is empty again. Most online only banks are not interested in that kind of business either and require monthly minimums. USAA is one of the few that does not and are selective about their membership.
So if you are living check to check and in a shitty neighborhood there is probably not a bank for a quite a distance. Those check cashing places make their money not on the loans but on fees for cashing legitimate checks and creating money orders to pay bills. If you see one of those places the chances that there is a bank anywhere near is pretty low.
This precious fainting flower never heard of Credit Unions? Once you set up direct deposit there aren’t usually any fees and in 2 seconds on Google I found the Philadelphia Federal CU which is open to residents of the city. Free checking w >$500 balance, free ATM card, no fee withdrawals, etc.
What a fscking boondoggle..