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Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

theatlantic.com

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Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#131

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

bpodgursky wrote: post #24
fefesafaea wrote: post #13

Kind of fucked up that the article doesn't mention the fees associated with these cards until like 3/4 of the way into the article. These cards charge 5 bucks a month, plus like 3 dollars to deposit cash, 3 dollars to withdraw cash, in addition to the 5-10 dollars up front for the card itself. Because of this, a person using this type of card can easily spend $100+ a year on fees. Not exactly a great way to save mone…

Just read the article. It's $1 for the card and free cash withdrawal at a Wal-Mart banking center. It is $5/mo for accounts with less than $1000, but you're not going to get better than that at a bank. More importantly, they aren't pulling the overdraft scams that banks are. The example right here is that the customer in question pulled $100 in overdraft fees over a $4 purchase, with a traditional bank card.

> It is $5/mo for accounts with less than $1000, but you're not going to get better than that at a bank.

A simple google search for free checking account gave me 20+ such banks in the first result.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#132

Post by thaumasiotes »

_m8fo wrote: post #20
jmts wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A paltry sum of money is the first step to a reasonable sum of money. An interest in saving a paltry sum of money is arguably a useful skill for people earning paltry sums of money, as I'd hazard a guess that it should encourage them to spend less on useless garbage they don't really need. Gamifying this to the benefit of both parties is capitalism at work. Any comparison to slavery is beyond ridiculous.

> Loretta Taylor, who lives in the southern-Illinois town of Mount Vernon, started using a Walmart MoneyCard when her local bank branch closed late last year, forcing her to drive 45 minutes to make a deposit. A registered nurse, she has lately been working as an in-home caregiver, and sometimes gets paid in cash, which she can put onto the card (for a $3 fee) at a nearby Walmart. “I’m not making much money right now…

> $5 a month fee on low balances

The fee is not on low balances. It's on low loading volume.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#133

Post by d4rti »

peteretep wrote: post #121
panzer_wyrm wrote: post #106

Slighlty offtopic - but why are not debit cards popular in US. A card in which you put money and withdraw/pay untill they ran out. No overdraft/credit/direct debit bullshit to be concerned with. They are perfect solutions for the poor and underbanked... whatever that means. Small fees, small charges, impossible to rack gazzilion dollars in penalty fees.

> No overdraft/credit/direct debit bullshit > to be concerned with I admire your faith in the altruism of banks, but my UK bank used to happily let me go overdrawn using my debit card, and then hit me with an unarranged overdraft fee.

Sure, this can happen. I think it's a reasonable assertion to say that the UK banking system is, by and large, better than the US one across all income groups.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#134

Post by stephen_g »

SyneRyder wrote: post #129
stephen_g wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole idea of being 'unbanked' or 'underbanked' is so foreign to me (as an Australian). The whole state of banking just seems so antiquated in the US... I'm 26, and I've never written a cheque. Public schools over here have (or at least had, not sure how it works today) programs where every student would get a bank account in the first grade with no fees (until they finished study). You'd actually bring in your b…

> Public schools over here have... programs where every student would get a bank account in the first grade with no fees I think those are actually promotional programs run by the banks (but I agree they're a good thing). I'm 10 years older, but we were all given Commonwealth Bank Dollarmites accounts. There's more info on the Dollarmites program here, apparently schools get affiliate fees & commissions for every dep…

Yep, my first account was through the Dollarmite program too.

Looks like you're right on fees - I didn't realise. One (NAB subsidiary) doesn't have fees, and for the other two transaction accounts I don't get charged the $4 p/m fee because I have my salary put into the savings account they're linked to.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#135

Post by briandear »

ErrantX wrote: post #125
bpodgursky wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't many anymore. Banks mostly eliminated or heavily restricted free checking accounts when overdraft fees got capped. You may be able to find a couple credit unions that do this, but you still have minimum account balances and other hurdles that make it difficult to open an account if you have bad credit and little money (not to mention time or financial savvy).

> There aren't many any more... ...in the US. In the UK its the opposite; the majority of checking accounts are free, some premium accounts charge a fee but generally come with rewards. Overdrafts; there are fees for unarranged overdrafts, but its reasonably trivial to arrange a limit and this is generally fee-less (naturally you pay interest; mine is 1.2% calculated daily) ATMs are largely free regardless of who you…

In France they sure aren't free. Banks even charge a monthly fee for a debit card in addition to a monthly account maintenance fee. Of course banking in the France is stuck in the 1980s with many banking transactions requiring an actual visit to your specific bank branch and a consultation with your personal banker.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#136

Post by briandear »

thinkling wrote: post #112
batiudrami wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is $5/mo for accounts with less than $1000, but you're not going to get better than that at a bank. What? It costs money to lend your money to the bank in the US?

Not just in the US. I encountered fees in several countries in Europe (definitely NL).

France for sure. Banking is ridiculous here in terms of fees.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#137

Post by briandear »

tedmiston wrote: post #44
ajdlinux wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I read it, it takes 45 minutes to drive to her old bank branch, whereas the nearby Walmart is much closer.

Another reasoning for joining a credit union — being able to deposit and withdraw from any nearby credit union whether it's your own or not for no fee.

Assuming there is a credit union nearby. The point of that snippet seemed to be that Wal Mart was much more convenient than a bank.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#138

Post by briandear »

flukus wrote: post #113
panzer_wyrm wrote: post #106

Slighlty offtopic - but why are not debit cards popular in US. A card in which you put money and withdraw/pay untill they ran out. No overdraft/credit/direct debit bullshit to be concerned with. They are perfect solutions for the poor and underbanked... whatever that means. Small fees, small charges, impossible to rack gazzilion dollars in penalty fees.

I was wondering the same thing. From the comments it seems as though the US banking system seems to be stuck in the 80's. I can't believe they still have checking accounts, in my mid 30's now and I've cashed one check in my life.

Come to France. People use checks all the time. You still have to visit your "personal banker" to accomplish many tasks. If US banking is in the 80s, then French banking is in the 60s.

And "checking account" doesn't mean "with this account I write a lot of checks." In the US there are general two types of accounts, checking and savings. I haven't written a check on my US account in over 15 years.. Though in France I probably write a few paper checks a month.

My point is that "checking" account is just a terminology -- the vast majority of people don't write checks (unless you're over the age of 80.)

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#139

Post by briandear »

kainolophobia wrote: post #94

>Walmart sells the card for $1, and Green Dot charges the usual associated fees: $5 a month if your balance is less than $1,000; $2.50 for ATM withdrawals; etc. This is absolutely not how one should encourage people to save. This is Walmart trying to steal business from local banks/and or provide banking services to people in rural locations. Personally, I think Walmart should offer this at zero-cost to help their cu…

"Steal business from local banks.."

Ok if the local banks are serving their communities well then why would Wal Mart even have a market opportunity here? Clearly local banks aren't serving the community or else Wal Mart's efforts would be redundant.

Re: Walmart's effort to get customers to build up their savings accounts

#140

Post by orf »

fefesafaea wrote: post #13

Kind of fucked up that the article doesn't mention the fees associated with these cards until like 3/4 of the way into the article. These cards charge 5 bucks a month, plus like 3 dollars to deposit cash, 3 dollars to withdraw cash, in addition to the 5-10 dollars up front for the card itself. Because of this, a person using this type of card can easily spend $100+ a year on fees. Not exactly a great way to save mone…

As someone from the UK I always find it astounding that Americans are used to paying money to.. withdraw or deposit their money. How did this become the norm? I find it a bit disgusting actually.

The only cash machines that charge over here that I've seen are rented ones at packed events (clubs, concerts etc).

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