They are called the "unbanked", and as crazy as it may sound to the rest of us, they are the 25.6% of U.S. households that have no standing bank accounts.
Ever wonder how those horrid payday loans and places like CashCall (R.I.P. Gary Coleman) stay in business? The one out of every four households that does not give themselves an alternative because, for whatever the reason, they would rather, or must, pay high fees and loan costs because they do not have a checking account.
A recent FDIC survey shows that this group now includes over 30 million households.
Imagine...no bank to put your money in...no debit card...no credit card...just cash and some hiding places in your house somewhere.
The survey found that the group is made up mostly of the so-called "minority" groups and 71% of the "unbanked" households earn less than $30,000 per year.
As you can imagine, only 18% of America's banks are making efforts to capture this demographic, as most banks do not seek to open branches in "underbanked" areas.
As part of a 2005 law, however, the FDIC is required to track and report industry efforts to bring banking services to the "unbanked".
No comments:
Post a Comment