fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | reply to Zoder
Re: Pay to Pay?!?!?! What does being poor have to do with not having a checking account in the first place?
Judging from the area of the OP, I can only imagine the amount of payment transactions that are processed at the customer service center.
The phone company, for years, never had a payment center. You made all payments through the mail - period, where I was from. It wasn't until the early to mid 90's that they started to partner with businesses to accept payments for them like hardware stores or check cashing places. Many of those places charged a small convenience fee as well.
Companies realize it does cost money to process transaction payments, but just how much cost should they accept before they pass it on to the customer? I, for one, would rather they charge those that use the un-necessary resources to pay their bills rather than a blanket across the board rate increase. After all, if more people are making payments in person now, it IS costing them more money to accept payments and they do need to recoup that money.
I don't see the problem.
By the way.. I'd almost guess that it would be harder to find a bank that doesn't offer a senior free or regular free checking account that it would be to not find one.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL | said by fiberguy:What does being poor have to do with not having a checking account in the first place? ... By the way.. I'd almost guess that it would be harder to find a bank that doesn't offer a senior free or regular free checking account that it would be to not find one. Not all banks offer free checking accounts and will charge fees if the balance is below a certain amount. Statistics show that millions of low income households have no bank accounts at all. I can't answer you why but that just seems to be the way it is. Low income household can also have a checking account but the bank will hold the funds on the deposited check for several days. Since on average their balances will be lower, this can cause their checks to bounce.
I'm sure you have observed that there are check cashing stores in low income neighborhoods? If everyone in these neighborhoods had bank accounts and didn't need the money available without the bank holds, the check cashing stores wouldn't be in business. |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | You're a bit off...
First off, I never said "all banks" have free checking.. I said that most all areas do... SOME bank if offering a free checking option. A lot don't care about balance either. And even if they do charge a monthly fee, it's about $7 or less.
Most people that are poor and don't have checking accounts is because they were poor... poor at managing them.. or, either screwed their banks by bouncing checks, over drawing, going hundreds in the negative and no longer deserve checking accounts. It's because they decided to live beyond their means and write checks that they couldn't handle...
If you want to know why check cashing places are there.. that's the reason.
I hate to say this too, but those people who screwed up that bad and have to use check cashing places were no angels to begin with and should be happy they at least have these options to them even at the cost.
Those that are irresponsible are part of the reason why fees to everyone else are so high.
And also.. money holds on deposits are the same no matter who you are. Most places/banks hold instate checks for 24 to 48 hours and out of state checks for up to 5 days. That has nothing to do with being poor.. or in poor neighborhoods.
I'd like to see a bank that has a policy based on your wealth vs state and federal banking laws.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL | said by fiberguy:And also.. money holds on deposits are the same no matter who you are. Most places/banks hold instate checks for 24 to 48 hours and out of state checks for up to 5 days. That has nothing to do with being poor.. or in poor neighborhoods. I'd like to see a bank that has a policy based on your wealth vs state and federal banking laws. I might not have been very clear. What I meant was that people living paycheck to paycheck usually won't pay their bills until they receive their next paycheck. So they have a higher chance of having their checks bounce because of the hold. If they pay in cash then they avoid that problem.
Personally, I could care less if Comcast charges a convenience fee. It just always struck me as ironic that the people most impacted by this fee are the customers who could least afford it. |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Well, the way you put it now is more respectable/understandable... however, if I can add to what you said "...the people most impacted by this fee are the customers who could least afford it." .. those are the same people that use more/cost these companies more money too. These are the people that use the more expensive routes to deal with a company and usually go past due, require collection actions, often require disconnects, generate more phone calls to said companies, and never pay anything close to the actual cost that it takes to deliver these resources.
Everyone else ends up paying the costs to handle this type of customer.
(FYI: back when I was doing in home services, I can tell you that a good portion of my routes were the cut off/restore game.. same people over and over and over.. it became a joke.)
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..." |
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