City’s Poor Still Distrust Banks

Well, I distrust them, too. I simply recognize that we are stuck with them.

They want to move the “unbanked” from high-fee check cashing joints and money orders to high-fee banks. Come on now, banks nickel and dime almost everyone to death! Quite frankly the unbanked should use money orders (which through the Post Office aren’t very expensive). It keeps them from writing bad checks. It keeps them from running up over-draft fees they can never avoid to repay. It keeps them from ending up on the “do not give this guy a bank account list” so that if they ever do reach a point in life where a bank account would be useful they will be able to get one. This isn’t a race issue, this is a economic class issue. Forcing people and banks together that didn’t belong together brought us the nice sub-prime mortgage mess we have today.

(1) I don’t know if I would trust banks myself if I had a big fortune. In the fall of last year, the FDIC made so many payouts because of bank failures that it was almost depleted. If I had enough money, I would buy insurance from some Lloyds of London type outfit, instead of just trusting the FDIC.

(2) Some minorities might not trust banks because they’re involved in illegal activities because banking that money would create a paper trail.

They want blacks to trust banks? Hell, I’m Jewish and even I don’t trust them.

I totally agree with this article I live next to the projects and can attest to the fact that they certainly do hate banks.

First of all about half the time I go to my local bank of america branch, their is something visibly wrong with the ATM, big chuck is ripped out or smashed, not sure if it is smashed in the course of a robbery, random wonton drunken mayhem common to my neighborhood or a act of principled lumpen proletarian rage at the upper crust but either way it certainly does not inspire trust in their security mechanisms, but on the other hand the ATMs at the little shops and bodegas are very often rigged to steal your account info and drain your bank accounts so it is a rock and a hard place scenario.

Next when the bank is up and running and not recently robbed you always get stuck behind either:

a) the person who is enraged they can’t take out less then $20 and stand their cursing and muttering trying to take out a $10 which my bank’s atm does not dispense…

b) the guy can’t read any of the languages offered english/spanish/chinese and stands their for an eternity mystified for an eternity holding up a giant line

or

c) The person who can’t figure out where their money all went and is in a fit of rage. Generally they put their card in and out about 30 times, trying in vain to find all their money their criminal boyfriend/family member probably drained from their account. Usually the bank is blamed for their woe! When this guy is in front of you, it is best to leave quickly and quietly!

Regardless banks are about as popular as cops in the ghetto.

Also I notice in the ghetto the ATM machines always are condescending and patronizing. For example they always ask you like 2 or 3 times if you are sure you want to make a withdrawal and then a screen pops up imploring you to check your account balance to avoid overdraft fees. It is kind of annoying.

Why would banks open in low-income areas? That would be the same as opening sand stores in high-desert areas. I used to live on the Lower East Side and the only reason any banks were there were to serve the tidal wave of horrible terrible gentrification that was arriving.

jewamongyou: LOL! As a person with a good bit of Jewish ancestry, I also have a healthy distrust of banks. That’s coming from someone who comes from a long line of bankers!

“Jewish bankers? You’re kidding! Go on!”

No, really!

I read somewhere that banks have made more money off of overdraft fees than interest charged on credit cards or loans. The simple thing would be to avoid an overdraft but sometimes things do happen, at the bank that I use an accidental 5.00 overdraft would cost an immediate 34.00 fee and if the account was not brought positive within 5 days then the account was charged a 5.00 per diem for 5 days. Potentially a 5 dollar mistake could cost someone 64.00! This is a horrendous practice but I learned after one mistake, I started depositing checks and only keeping a few dollars in the account to keep it positive and using cash for everything else. Long story short, I do not trust banks too much either.

“We are having that challenge to get people to understand that the American banking system is stable.”

I about choked on my cigarette when I read that. :)

While some see this as a class or race issue, it is an American issue. They don’t want to get these people into the system so they are protected from the, “unscrupulous money lenders.” They want to get every dollar into the fractional reserve lending scheme. All our, “money,” is actually debt. There is too much to cover here, but every, “dollar,” in existence whether public or private represents a debt with interest atached. So yes the money in your pocket or bank acount represents a debt that someone or an organization owes at interest.

Spartan24:

I ran into the exact same problem with a bank and now I’m officially “unbanked”. I don’t know that I’d ever go back to a bank again, seeing as how I rang up a fee of several hundred dollars when the bank told me I had the wrong amount of money in my account. When I read a story about banks opening up in lower-income areas, all I can think about is how much money they’ll swindle from those people until they close up shop in a few years.

Its hard to believe (no matter how stupid) that some individuals can not figure out that its cheaper to have a bank account (even with some fees) instead of paying higher fees to cash checks. I don’t believe that the racist “urban” public school are so bad that inner city residents can not determine that $25 is more than $10. Now, you may not know this, but its hard to get a checking account when you have a long history of writing NSF checks. Its also a bad idea to have a savings or checking account if you are in danger of having such amounts levied from prior unpaid debts.

ran into the exact same problem with a bank and now I’m officially “unbanked”. I don’t know that I’d ever go back to a bank again, seeing as how I rang up a fee of several hundred dollars when the bank told me I had the wrong amount of money in my account. When I read a story about banks opening up in lower-income areas, all I can think about is how much money they’ll swindle from those people until they close up shop in a few years.

That happened to me too. Your name is off of the “list” in about 7 years, sad part is that even if you manage to pay off the amount that you owe you are still on the “list” for the requisite 7 years. I think it is called check systems or something like that. The only check that I write each month is to my credit card company, everything else is cash. I got in trouble with using a check card so I only deposit enough to cover the check plus about 5 dollars.

I am going bankless as well sometime this week. I think it’s an abomination that when you owe banks money, they tack on all these extra fees and penalties, but when it’s money YOU are owed it seems to take more time to ‘process’ when in reality it’s the thieves holding the money so that they can make money off of the interest. I’m through with banks. I am doing cash and buying things I really need from now on like a 6 months supply of food storage in the event of a meltdown etc.

Banks make a fortune in overdraft charges imposed on poor people. That’s because most poor people can barely afford rent,utilities, car payments, the credit card charges for gas so they can get to work etc.

So they write checks to pay their bills drawn on insufficient funds. The banks charge not 1 but 2 overdraft charges. 1 is the day the check first bounces. With electronic banking, the check goes back within 12 hours and there is a second overdraft charge. With 2 overdraft charges for each bounced check the banks stand to make a fortune in overdraft charges.

Lots of banks have a 4 day waiting period before they will pay any money out after a check has been deposited. When the rent is due and the paycheck went in today, most people would rather write the rent check as soon as possible.

I well remember when I got hit with one of those 4 day waiting period charges. My tenant had an account at the same neighborhood bank as I did. I deposited his check and wrote some checks against it. I got a 4 day “wait until the deposited check clears” charge. I was irate because the tenant’s check was at the same branch as my account. Obviously his check cleared within 24 hours. The manager explained that yes, his check did clear within 24 hours, but I still had to pay the charge because of the 4 day waiting period.

Postal money orders are very cheap, I think $1.00. Welfare checks are no more, the money can be acessed at ATMs with the electric benefit card. There is no charge. Paychecks can be cashed at the numerous check cashing places in poor neighborhoods. These check cashing places might charge 2 or 3 percent, but that is far, far cheaper than depositing the money in a bank where just the monthly charge of $15.00 to $20.00 just to maintain an account is as much as the check cashing charge.

Then too, most banks require a minimum deposit of $100.00 to $500.00 to be maintained at all times. Many poor people, especially immigrants don’t quite understand this. They see they have a couple hundred in the bank and pay the gas and electricity bill and then get charged because the account balance went below the minimum.

Banks just want more people to pay their outrageous fees. There was a great hooting and hollering about this in my city a few years ago. The banks paid some black poverty pimp preachers and LaRAza activists to whine that banks should cultivate low income minorities. Someone did a non biased study that showed that poor people were much better off using postal money orders and cashing their paycecks at the employer’s bank and getting their welfare money directly out of an ATM with the benefits card.

Most employers banks will cash paychecks at no charge. So cash the paycheck at your employers bank and pay bills with postal money orders.