Importance of Having Bank Accounts

Posted On: 2006-04-29Length:

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Anyway, we've got a big show for you today. I think that it's a really interesting show. I've got some Q&A to go through, and I just wanted to start off before that Q&A by talking about something I've noticed in my own practice. Over the course of ten plus years that I've been a bankruptcy attorney, I have noticed a tremendous number of people come into my office, and not having any banking relationships. No checking accounts, no savings accounts. And when they get their paycheck, they take it down to a check cashing place. They pay whatever amount the money it is to the check cashing place in order to get the money. They've got the cash in their pocket, they walk around with the cash, and of course they spend it. Fast. Gone. Quick. And I always wondered just how common this is. Is this something that only my clients do? Is this something that incredibly widespread? By me having a checking account of my own, am I actually in the minority? Didn't seem like that was the case, but it concerned me a little bit. So I did a little digging in some downtime and I came across an article from Intellicard News. Intellicard is a resource for prepaid cards of some sort. But they did a study talking about unbanked Americans, Americans who have infrequent or non-existent relationships with financial institutions. And they came up with a staggering number that the unbanked group...