People are unbanked for various reasons. Banks are not well optimized for those of lower socioeconomic conditions (and in fact don’t really want them as custome

People are unbanked for various reasons. Banks are not well optimized for those of lower socioeconomic conditions (and in fact don’t really want them as customers). Here are a few examples where banks fail them: 1. Speedy access to money When you deposit a check into a bank account, you have to wait a few days before the cash is accessible. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and they cannot wait. Hence check-cashing services. 2. Overdraft fees These are incredibly regressive - punishing those who have low funds. Some banks were caught with predatory behavior - rearranging transactions in a day so the largest hit first and they could trigger multiple overdraft fees (since it is per-transaction) until laws were passed to prevent this behavior. 3. Other hidden fees (low-balance, etc) that aren’t very transparent and really painful when every dollar counts. Not to mention cultural issues etc. Long-story short, there is a reason people use check-cashing services even though at face value they seem a worse deal than traditional banks. (Source: was VP of ENG at Credit Karma)