It sure took long enough. Postal saving accounts were VERY popular in Asia decades and decades ago because they have far more penetration than the banks did, even if they offer paltry interest or no interest at all, but were regarded as VERY VERY safe.
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When I lived in Germany in the 80s I did everything I needed to do at the post office. Mailing things, obvs, but cashing checks, getting checks for school, updating government forms.
I wish we focused more on the ways Government could make our lives easier. Stress reducing government, that’s what we need.
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Okay, but this is being done by executive action, so the next GOP president will kill it.
Until the US congress becomes a functioning legislative body again, nothing will improve.
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See, this is the thing I don’t understand.
The government could just literally create a bank and mail out debit cards instead of tax returns, and allow people to deposit and withdrawal money in the accounts with a routing number. It would take very little overhead; heck, it might save the government money over dealing with checks.
I mean, I understand that offering the unbanked the ability to write checks is probably not such a good idea… but I don’t see anything wrong with offering people who traditional banks won’t bank with debit cards and the ability to do online transfers. It’s literally all online and virtually impossible to fraud.
And many of the core businesses of the predatory banking people will continue; it’s not like the government is going to shark people money at 200% interest or anything like that. Just not as much check cashing. (I mean, it would be very nice if the post office would allow you to deposit cash and checks into the account too.)
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But that’s straight up Maoist-Stalinism! /s
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Al you’d have to do is take your check the any branch if the issuing bank and they will cash it no fees. It is demeaning to charge someone to cash a check.
I’m confused.
(1) If I’m unhoused and my little pile of cash could be stolen, isn’t a single debit card even easier to steal? Oh, it has a PIN? and you expect me to remember that (and a new one for each card)?
(2) The anecdote about cashing a paycheck without any ID requirement makes it sound lucrative for a robber to hang around a business on payday and hold up employees as they leave.
" President Taft had previously introduced a US Postal Savings System in 1910 to fight back against predatory lending."
It was a savings bank, I don’t think it offered loans at all. The referenced document above does not mention loans in any fashion.
It was also meant to provide banking services to the rural population who often lived hours away by horse from any bank but got regular mail service. You could conduct basic transactions via the mail carrier.
By the sixties, few were still using it and 2% (compounded annually) was easily beaten as most banks offered 4% or more (compounded quarterly or even daily) on a basic savings account and what was once an hours journey by cart was now only minutes by car.
This new system seems of definite use as the check cashing places charge extortion rates.
But some of that derives from increasingly strict government mandated requirements for ID and tax info to open any account at a real bank and that drives many people to seek alternate, easier to use albeit more expensive means.
Heck, I used to regularly cash a paycheck at the local supermarket back in the seventies. For free.
Used to be you could just walk in and open an account in minutes, now its like applying for a home loan there’s so much fiddlework.
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Many banks have excruciating identification requirements to cash any check of any sort even drawn on that bank.
Don’t privatise it, like Britain did with Girobank.
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I don’t all myself a conservative these days as the word has become tainted, possibly irrevocably but I am one in the older definition.
(Id haev voted for Bernie Sanders if it meant keeping Trump out of office.)
I think this program is significantly useful based on reality not on political theories as it provides a needed service where the private sector has failed miserably.
If that makes me a “Liberal” I can live with it. This seems to make life better for those who need a hand and to me that’s just fine.
We have a long way to go before “Liberty and Justice for ALL” is real and not just a ritual slogan we all chanted in school.
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Citibank sold up their retail operation in Japan several years back, our accounts all got shunted over to SMBC.
For foreign cards 7/11 ATMs was always the best option, the rest not so much.
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Even for Japanese cards, 7/11 ATMs are usually the best option. Depending on the bank and time of day, you might be hit with a fee of a couple hundred yen, but you can usually withdraw from any bank any time.
One of the big benefits of the Post Office ATMs, though, is that they usually take coins.
As a former homeless, now “homeless on paper” person, I can assure you it’s easier to hide a debit card than a stack of cash.
Most (if not all?) gift cards allow you to change/enter a PIN by calling the clearinghouse number on the back.
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So the government institution that is known for slow service and lost mail wants you to trust them with your money?
No ID check, no endorsement, a low-ish fee, and direct conversion to a pre-paid debit card–would this be attractive to money launderers? Is the theory that the $500 per transaction limit would make that impractical?
Have you ever dealt with banks in the US before?
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In that Schilling and Groschen country the postal service is also still a major provider of public transport.
The post office is a great way to bring services to rural and otherwise underserved communities
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Of course most of those countries also don’t use checks anymore…
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Yes, I’m all too familiar with those institutions which, when caught literally stealing thousands of dollars from thousands of their customers, don’t see their corporate overlords serving jail time. (I won’t mention names but one such notorious thieving bank rhymes with “Bells Largo”.)
