Forty-six percent of whites had an automatic teller card, but only 34 percent of blacks. Fifty-two percent of whites had a VISA or MasterCard, but only 25 percent of blacks. The rest named other places, said they didn't know, or said they didn't cash checks. Atlanta services say they charge from 1 percent to 2 percent of payroll checks, more for other types of checks. Some won't cash personal checks.
Poor people go to the check casher, the pawn shop, the grocer, to cash a check.
My dad took me down to the bank to open a savings account when I was a kid. But eventually I'm going to make the bank a profit. Banks don't seem to want that anymore. The GAO study found that these changes in depositor services were most pronounced at large banks. Now there are more large banks than ever.