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It's expensive to be poor is a phrase used to describe the endless fees that poor people pay if they no longer have credit. Fees to send money in particular.
Western Union seems to be $5 to send up to $50 and $12 for over $50
Walmart 2 Walmart is $4 to send up to $50 and $8 to for over $50.
It costs nothing to receive in cash, but if you want to put it on a Walmart prepaid money card it is $4 to put the cash on the card and $5 a month in fees.
PayPal seems to be the best option. It costs $4 at most drug stores ($3 at Walmart) to put cash into a paypal account, it's free to transfer to someone else's account, and they have a debit card which allows you to spend the cash on PayPal accounts like a MasterCard, with no monthly charge. You can even withdraw from PayPal to cash for free using MONEYPASS ATMS.
The title should be “It’s expensive to have bad credit”. Plenty of people, both rich and poor, mismanage their finances and ruin their credit. And it costs them.
The title should be “It’s expensive to have bad credit”.
You may be right, but the original title is frequently used in the media.
I was hoping to get or give advice. I tried to help a friend, and when she had a bank account I could make small deposits in her account at a local branch. Once she lost the account, I went to Western Union because it was the only thing I knew.
I discovered Walmart 2 Walmart which was cheaper, but there were still high fees on her end for prepaid Visa.
Now I find that PayPal may have the lowest fees, but this is after months of shelling out a lot of money. I don't think PayPal had the debit cards until recently.
Sweden has a fairly common phone app called SWISH, which makes it easy and cheap to pay individual to individual transactions. This app is almost solely responsible for the central bank reducing the amount of cash in circulation by over 50% in the last few years.
Sweden is now circulating about 20 banknotes per capita, while in the USA we circulate 37 one dollar banknotes, and 90 banknotes of other denominations per capita. The Eurozone circulated 62 banknotes per capita.
I guess I don't think it's that expensive to run a simple checking and savings account. Most big banks have a $10 or so per month fee, that is waived with $1,500 in the account. And that is a big bank - most regional banks have much lower requirements or even are free.
I have been poor in a previous life. Not destitute poor but poor nonetheless, income around $8/hr in today's dollars. I have always had an account at a large bank. I still have it, instead of me paying $10/month now they pay me $1,000/month in dividends .
The poor frivolously spend their money doing other things. Many visit bars and purchase alcohol at those establishments, many also smoke. 1/3 of households with income under $20k smoke while only 1/8 households with income over $100k smoke for example.
I guess I don't think it's that expensive to run a simple checking and savings account. Most big banks have a $10 or so per month fee, that is waived with $1,500 in the account. And that is a big bank - most regional banks have much lower requirements or even are free.
I have been poor in a previous life. Not destitute poor but poor nonetheless, income around $8/hr in today's dollars. I have always had an account at a large bank. I still have it, instead of me paying $10/month now they pay me $1,000/month in dividends .
The poor frivolously spend their money doing other things. Many visit bars and purchase alcohol at those establishments, many also smoke. 1/3 of households with income under $20k smoke while only 1/8 households with income over $100k smoke for example.
The problem is that one can lose the ability to have a checking account. Too many overdrafts, bounced checks, and failure to resolve a negative balance. Offenders are put into a national database that prevents them from opening a checking account. This is a driving force behind prepaid cards, and the sending of money through Walmart etc.
The problem is that one can lose the ability to have a checking account. Too many overdrafts, bounced checks, and failure to resolve a negative balance. Offenders are put into a national database that prevents them from opening a checking account. This is a driving force behind prepaid cards, and the sending of money through Walmart etc.
Bluebird from Amex and Walmart has no fees unless you send money. Can do direct deposit or deposit cash at the register. Typically the people getting hit with fees are Latino sending it back to relatives in Mexico.
But, hey, for those who no longer can hold a bank account, screw up enough and maybe you'll figure out how to spend your money without stealing from the bank. Who am I kidding, this is America, it's those evil bankstas that steal from the poor! It's never their fault!
Why do we make so many excuses for people here? What happened to personal responsibility.
Bluebird from Amex and Walmart has no fees unless you send money. Can do direct deposit or deposit cash at the register. Typically the people getting hit with fees are Latino sending it back to relatives in Mexico.
But, hey, for those who no longer can hold a bank account, screw up enough and maybe you'll figure out how to spend your money without stealing from the bank. Who am I kidding, this is America, it's those evil bankstas that steal from the poor! It's never their fault!
Why do we make so many excuses for people here? What happened to personal responsibility.
Yes - and banks make a LOT of money with charges for all of these "errors". Then they kick you out of the system - maybe they should be smarter with the ever-present option to get more fines by keeping these customers?
I'm just saying that it is very difficult to get back into the "proper" financial system so you are penalized for a very long time with no way to show you may have been reformed. The alternate systems charge even more money for their use in terms of service charges and sky high interest rates. Is this punitive? Educational? Or just preying upon those with few options?
Yes - and banks make a LOT of money with charges for all of these "errors". Then they kick you out of the system - maybe they should be smarter with the ever-present option to get more fines by keeping these customers?
I'm just saying that it is very difficult to get back into the "proper" financial system so you are penalized for a very long time with no way to show you may have been reformed. The alternate systems charge even more money for their use in terms of service charges and sky high interest rates. Is this punitive? Educational? Or just preying upon those with few options?
Banks make the vast majority of their profits off of lending out money at higher rates than they pay on deposits and their commercial investment/deal making services. If people have negative account balances the bank isn't making any money off of them and to be frank people with small balances cost them money which is why they charge a service fee.
By "error" do you mean spending money they don't have? How is that an error, exactly? The only reason you would overdraft is if you gave the bank permission to do so. Nowadays you can require the bank decline the transaction if there is insufficient funds. Gone are the days where banks would re-arrange transactions to cause multiple overdraft triggers (that was total BS and I agree was pure greed).
These alternate systems...are you aware of them? Have you used them at all? I have used Amex Bluebird to manufacture spend in the past. It is fee free. Like I wrote in my post you quoted. First sentence even. Did you bother to look them up?
But my all means continue to make excuses. People will never change with that mentality, "it's someone else's fault".
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