Millions of Americans find that they cannot get a checking account because they are listed on the ChexSystem database. You can find yourself on ChexSystem for a number of reasons from writing bad checks, not paying your overdraft to the bank, misusing an ATM, or a myriad of other similar offenses. Once on the system, it can take five years to get a new checking or savings account at a traditional bank. This isn't good news for the people on the ChexSystem, but there are other options.
You can dispute your ChexSystem report if you believe it to be in error. You can also work to find a bank or credit union that does not use ChexSystem, but these are becoming rarer and rarer. Another option is to find a prepaid Debit Card service to hold your money and basically serve as a checking account. One such company is AccountNow. This service is a great way to get back on your financial feet. You can open your account extremely quickly and they offer direct deposit for your paycheck. It's an easy way to avoid those check cashing fees many of us dread.
The account works basically like a standard checking account with the exception that you don't have physical checks. This wasn't a real problem for me since I basically write one check a month, and that is for my rent. I don't really mind withdrawing the money for that and getting a money order. AccountNow offers free Bill Pay for the rest of your bills, so it really doesn't pose much of a problem.
One of the biggest benefits to me was that with your account you get an account number and a routing number, same as you would get with a traditional checking account. Having this allows you to have money transferred electronically to your account from services such as PayPal. If you sell on eBay and accept PayPal, it is difficult to get your money if you don't have a place to transfer it to since PayPal is completely electronic. But, having that account and routing number easily allows you to transfer money electronically right to your AccountNow Debit account.
You can also use your AccountNow Debit Account to actually begin to rebuild your credit. When you use the free AccountNow Credit Builder Service to pay your bills, AccountNow reports every on-time bill payment to PRBC, a national credit reporting service. These payments go into your credit report and help show your financial responsibility on an ongoing basis.
You can also build your credit with your AccountNow Debit account by using iAdvance, which is a cash advance line of credit you may qualify for if you fund your account with Direct Deposit. If you qualify, you can receive a cash advance and the repayment is automatically deducted from your next Direct Deposit. They also report your repayment of the credit line advance to PRBC, further helping your credit score.
There
is a monthly fee for the AccountNow Debit Card account, which is
currently $9.95 per month. This seemed high at first, but many
so-called Second Chance checking accounts at traditional banks also
have a fee, so the benefits of the account outweighed this monthly
cost. You can also get a free $10 signing new account bonus when
you apply by entering "chexmate" under referral code in the application.
AccountNow is more than a simple debit card. The features offered are well worth the monthly payment to get piece of mind and have a place to keep your money and put and end to those feelings of inadequacy when you can't get a simple checking account. More information can be found at http://www.accountnow.com.
More information on the ChexSystem and debit cards can be found at http://www.chexmate.net