government checking accounts

[Spider]

[IndependentProfessor]

Spider - I agree with everything you just wrote:

- millions are denied checking because of one reason or another
- overdraft fees cost these people, as a percentage of income, far more than other people
- if we get rid of overdraft fees for them, the bank won't make money on them
- if the bank won't make money on them, it has no incentive to keep them

So, you force the banks to take them. Much like PPACA forced health insurance companies to take people who were not profitable. Those companies didn't want to take them, but they were forced to. And, in order to offset their increased expenditures on those people, they charge the rest of us (the young and the healthy) more.

[John Galt]

for ever $1 dollar deposited banks can loan $9 (they can lend out 90%, but banks in general lend out 9 dollars for every 1 dollar in a bank somewhere), and charge people interest on money they essentially created from the ether. with a checking account they pay for your business with services (ability to have frequent transactions), instead of interest, but they still come out ahead. so they still make money

[exploited]

[John Galt]

if they do have free checking accounts through the government i don't think they should be able to write checks.

by this, i mean, they should be forced to verify they have the funds at time of purchase, e.g., a debit card, which in turn does not work if there is not enough funds.

[exploited]

[fstarcstar]

There's no way the USPS could provide bank services. Have you ever stepped foot inside of a USPS? Their small, understaffed, and have lines backed up and offer horrible hours. To believe we could SIMPLY just have the USPS is blind to the realities of the post office. From deposits, to withdrawals, checks, cards, staff, buildings, drive thru, etc. Nobody will use it if there's no convenience.

I have a PO box for a business I started, and there's literally no room in that facility for a bank let alone any legitimate bank services. You can't use technology because the poor small number of people who have NEVER been banked (per the FDIC you guys don't care to read) don't have access to the technology.

I'm fine with current banks providing an opportunity to get overdraft fee forgiveness similar to what some car insurance companies do, but literally when you read the data some 57% of people simply don't even have enough money to warrant a bank account (again per the FDIC) then your generally going to be wasting taxpayers time and money.

So you guys are literally advocating for a massive expansion to a program that's not profitable and horrendously ran to offer more services to every single US born citizen to such a small number of our society that actually don't want or need it.

Your program won't work from a government perspective, since its inept in everything it does except provide water. We could easily find some startups and work with the banks to offer outreach programs.

This link is actually from 2011 where the FDIC tried to determine what banks are doing to help the unbanked and underbanked. Alot provide free counseling, alternative forms of ID, second chance accounts, and other ways to help people out. Some of the numbers suck too, so more pressure on banks could help change the way they conduct a bit of business. Since we don't tell them how to run their company, they don't have to provide any services you guys want. It is in their interest to gather as many people as possible tho.

https://fdic.gov/unbankedsurveys/2011su ... report.pdf


We're all in this together, but on the grand scheme of this entire argument, your literally going to be advocating for a program that at any given time is already reaching roughly 93-95% of the US population just fine. We don't need it and it's not possible to provide every US citizen at birth a bank account.

[Philly]

Dude, you're a teacher.

[fstarcstar]

[Philly]

Dude....you're a teacher.