As a poor American you will run into many people that don't have a bank account. Lots of things can hurt your credit here and once your credit is wrecked it can

As a poor American you will run into many people that don't have a bank account. Lots of things can hurt your credit here and once your credit is wrecked it can be challenging to have even a savings account. There is an entire industry here to serve (many would say take advantage of) people in this situation. Many shops will cash payroll and government checks for you since otherwise you would not be able to. Usually from what I have seen they charge somewhere around a dollar per hundred dollars on the check.