You play a game. Your friends do too. One says: "watch my side account, its level 60. You just have to keep keep it safe for me but when I'm not using it you can invest my gold and keep the profits." Good deal right? So soon lots of other people are asking you. Each account takes time and work and soon you need to pay other people gold to help you run all these accounts. You pay each one 200g a month in game to do it. You still have to take time to make sure all your farmers are actually doing the work and planning what investments you want them to do etc though. So you've got these 10 accounts that are lv 15. Barely have any gold. A good investment only makes 100g a month from those accounts. But it costs you 200g just to run them. You loose money by running them. Then these lv30 only make 200. You can pay your costs but are putting in effort and get no money. So you say that anyone with less than 10k gold must pay 110g a month to use your service. That way you keep the profit alive
True for most. But it does put the poorest at a disadvantage. Having a bank account is actually a bigger deal than it seems. Most people can survive fine without, but a standard fee to cash a check without a bank account is $5-X%. You can't easily take electronic payments, it can complicate making electronic or remote payments, and some things do require a bank account. That said technology is making it easier than back when your only option was to get a money order, but many very poor people have limited access to such technology. It's complex and there are many perspectives to consider. I do think by and large banking is a predatory industry and for the level of integration into society there should be more resources and alternatives as non profit or government programs for people most at a disadvantage in the system.
NY pretty much requires you to have a bank account.
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deleted
· 6 years ago
1. Change banks.
2. There's no charge if you can deposit $250/month. At minimum wage (roughly $7.25/hr), you can make that by working only ten hours a week.
3. This isn't news. BoA stopped adding new free checking accounts eight years ago, and they phased most people out of the free e-banking accounts over the past eight years.
4. BoA did profit 2.4 billion last quarter. That profit does not come from 200 million poor people's checking accounts, it comes from loans paid back with interest. Companies are supposed to profit, by the way. If they don't, they can't add employees or open new branches. Profit is literally the goal of every for-profit business.
Here in Canada my bank fees would be $14/month but that fee is waived with a minimum balance of $4000. I cry purple monkey piss for ya’ll.
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deleted
· 6 years ago
Do I think the rich should take freely from the poor to satisfy greed? Absolutely not. Do I believe in checking sources instead of believing emotional appeals at face value? Absolutely yes.
Set up and receive at least two qualifying direct deposits of $250 or more each within the first 90 days of opening your new checking account. That's a direct quote. The deposit must be $250 or more, and there must be at least two. Not multiple paychecks adding up separately to $250.
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Edited 6 years ago
deleted
· 6 years ago
So you have to have a minimum wage part time job. If you work 20hrs/wk, you'll get a direct deposit of about 250.
Bank of America is a business that only wants clients that have jobs. That's where they make their money. You can't make 2.4 billion in profits off of people who don't have any money.
And if you don't want to be a part of that, bank with a credit union. They're designed for smaller communities where people just need a bank, not small loans of a million dollars.
Tax is taken out. Federal tax, medicare tax, medicaid tax, city tax, plus any health insurance if you get it. $7.25 is the minimum wage. $7.25 x 40 hours is $290. Speaking conservatively, you might take home 75% of this, though in some places it might be more like 60%. Lets go with 75%. So that's $217.50 for a 40 hour work week, with a conservative amount of taxes. Still short of the required $250 direct deposit. According to government statistics (2014, not very long ago), 36.5% of Americans are paid bi-weekly, so they're cool because their pay will be about $435 every two weeks. But....those same statistics say 32.4% of American jobs pay weekly. Which means, IF this is spread out equally among all companies (and not weighted more toward lower paying jobs) 32.4% of 40-HOUR min wage workers would not be able to make the $250 minimum direct deposit. Just a bit less than 1/3. Credit unions are formed specifically to keep high risk (low income, likely overdrafters) from joining.
You forgot to subtract their mandatory health care expense if they're paying insurance through work, so 75% is very optimistic and could result in a tax bill down the line of more than you save in bank fees. Let's not also forget that if they have child support, back taxes, or other government debt that too will subtract pre tax. Then let's add that many may not have access to a credit union, and many credit unions also require a referral from a member or other qualifications they may not have on top of what's mentioned. Then building on location let's say you only have qualifications and access to part time employers who skirt certain laws by giving only partial shifts to keep employees part time and work multiple of these jobs. Guess you can also forget about 401 or IRA savings for your future too. It's as if... the system makes the poorest have to work much harder for things others can take for granted. But it can't be. If it was we'd have some type of severe wealth inequality.
Lots of banks have fees in the US, part of the fee is to cover costs of administration an services like free money orders or checks (which cost money to get other places) transfers, etc. part is to maintain profits, and depending on the bank, part is to take advantage of or penalize customers for certain things. It's not ignorant, you've just been lucky to either deal with better banks or had enough money that you didn't have to face fees. Banks exist to make money off of your money and are very good at it. The more money you have the more they like you because they make more money off of you. If you have enough money or a good bank they can make good money off accounts without the client knowing. Bad banks and people with low, unstable, or negative balances can cost banks money so they use fees to offset that loss. They reason that charging "good" customers to offset "bad" ones is a way to loose "good" customers. Usually in banking though a "bad" customer happens to be one with less $
This is why I changed from having a bank to having a prepaid debit card, unless I use a non network atm or earn too much money I don't see any fees. The bank I was using was charging me $9 a month for 'account maintenance' because I couldn't keep the minimum of $100 in my account, at this point my kid was still in diapers and I was making minimum wage so trying to keep that much in my account and provide for my kid solo was nearly impossible!
My manager long ago used to refuse people for service all the time. Many would say something like "this is how you treat your customers?" Or "I don't want to be your customer then." He would laugh and tell them to leave. He was the best in our industry and put many others out of business. He'd buy their leftovers for pennies on the dollar when they crumbled. He used to say "everyone whores themselves out. I don't want customers that cost me money, I want ones that make me money. Let the other businesses who're themselves out then, and we can buy them when they fall. Then those customers will have no choice but to go by my rules or go without." He was actually very kind though too. But he'd tell me "to help someone tomorrow you must be in business tomorrow." In the end a business is about profit. I don't like banks or approve of most of their methods. They tend not to help people as much as they help themselves. Here the customer whores themselves out and the poorest pay for it.
Look people, if someone doesn't have $250 a month income they don't need a flipping bank account anyway. Get over it or find another bank.
Oh, and it wasn't all that long ago that ALL banks charged a service charge or wouldn't even let you have an account unless you maintained a minimum balance.
2. There's no charge if you can deposit $250/month. At minimum wage (roughly $7.25/hr), you can make that by working only ten hours a week.
3. This isn't news. BoA stopped adding new free checking accounts eight years ago, and they phased most people out of the free e-banking accounts over the past eight years.
4. BoA did profit 2.4 billion last quarter. That profit does not come from 200 million poor people's checking accounts, it comes from loans paid back with interest. Companies are supposed to profit, by the way. If they don't, they can't add employees or open new branches. Profit is literally the goal of every for-profit business.
Bank of America is a business that only wants clients that have jobs. That's where they make their money. You can't make 2.4 billion in profits off of people who don't have any money.
And if you don't want to be a part of that, bank with a credit union. They're designed for smaller communities where people just need a bank, not small loans of a million dollars.
Oh, and it wasn't all that long ago that ALL banks charged a service charge or wouldn't even let you have an account unless you maintained a minimum balance.