For those in San Francisco the city/county government has setup "Bank on San Francisco" to help people use regular banks instead of check cashing places. They h

For those in San Francisco the city/county government has setup "Bank on San Francisco" to help people use regular banks instead of check cashing places. They have partnerships with banks that allow people to get bank accounts even if they have had trouble in the past. http://www.bankonsf.org/ http://www.bankonsf.org/ Bank on SF also has a small dollar loan program called Payday Plus SF. Their partners offer payday loans at reasonable rates (max 18% APR). http://paydayplussf.org/ http://paydayplussf.org/ I know they don't address a lot of the issues the article brought up, but they could be useful for people in certain situations.