There is no reason to be suspicious -- their motives are clear. Exploit the high-overhead banking economy with lower-cost offerings for their target demographic

There is no reason to be suspicious -- their motives are clear. Exploit the high-overhead banking economy with lower-cost offerings for their target demographic. Their target customers end up living a life filled with transactional cost. They might pay bills by buying money orders, get paychecks cashed at check cashing stores. On top of that, they can be time-poor, in that without a reliable car or without money for gas, they genuinely cannot get across town to a bank location, or travel an extra few miles to save money on some staple product. [1] So, right now, there is a significant cost associated with having no checking account. Therefore, if Wal Mart can bring them into their own system, any overhead they save the customers can come right back into the store. If they can offer the accounts without a financial loss, it's a no-brainer. Even if they have losses on the checking accounts, they might make it up by having physical bodies at Wal Mart more often each month. [1] "The High Cost of Poverty" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702053.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05... PS: Of course they could be evil, but there's no reason they would have to be.