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On the flip side, it has never been easier to become banked in the US. Chime & Co. have lowered the entry difficulty for fundamental banking services for the p
by adventured 3y ago
On the flip side, it has never been easier to become banked in the US.
Chime & Co. have lowered the entry difficulty for fundamental banking services for the poor. And loading cash is trivial, walk into any number of thousands of stores (such as Walgreens which charges no fee). You see these cards commonly used by poorer Americans across all of retail now.
- woodruffw 3y agoChime is not a bank; it’s a financial services company. This distinction is important: people who depend solely on bank-adjacent financial services are more likely to lack access to ordinary banking services for the reasons mentioned in the article.
- tracerbulletx 3y agoThat's well and good but isn't the article about the impact of businesses going cashless? I talk to a lot of homeless and other low income people through some work I do and they generally have a Venmo card or something like that and don't have an issue with cashless transactions.
- beaeglebeached 3y agoHow KYC do? Was 'homeless'. Bank say no bueno, could be terrorist. I can legally carry gun no problem without papers in bank though, lmao.
- ensignavenger 3y agoThats the goverments fault, not the banks fault. Go talkm to you US Congress ritter/Senator.
- woodruffw 3y agoI think there’s a reasonable observation to be made that these kinds of services companies have filled a historically underserved niche. At the same time, they are fundamentally not banks and are not subject to a whole slew of consumer protection regulations that ensure reliable access to funds. Venmo and PayPal are both infamous for their capricious account suspension policies (which I have personally experienced). That’s a long way of saying that it isn’t nothing, but is also not the best we can do. It also doesn’t necessarily guarantee service users access to retail (since the cards that come with these financial providers are typically tied to banks and accompanying KYC controls).
- ensignavenger 3y agoChime isn't a bank... but they provide bank accounts via bank partners "Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A., Members FDIC". These bank accounts are still subject to all of the same regulations as any other bank account. Venmo and PayPal don't always store funds in real bank accounts, so they may have some different regulations for those funds, but they still have to comply with many of the same regulations.
- woodruffw 3y agoYep, that's the point in the last sentence: many of these financial services companies end up partnering with banks, but not for the "wallet" component of their services. The "wallet" part remains a relatively under-regulated financial product, while the debit card is only accessible to those who can pass KYC or otherwise meet the underlying bank's requirements.
- ensignavenger 3y agoDoes Chime have such a non bank account backed wallet service?
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoTo flip that flipside around again, the proliferation of MFA has disenfranchised folks who try to manage such accounts online. In order to login to an online service, you could sign up for a public computer in a library. But you'll also need your "Obamaphone" (that's charged, has service, and its screen is legible) to receive the security code.