Its not hard to get a bank account that I’m aware of, but a lot of people have gotten caught up in FinTech. You can get a greendot paycard or have your direct deposits go to a CashApp account.
Most people don’t realize how vulnerable their money is with cash-app and the like. I didn’t either until I tried to add a new debit card to my cashapp account (because I do have a bank) and cashapp locked me out and closed the account while I had over $200 in it. I think its because my account was registered under a VoIP number, but I’ll never know because there’s no human customer service. I just had to take the L and move on.
I swear everything I learn about the US banking system just makes me wonder “how can this be legal?”, being able to just close an account with 200 real dollars and no recourse is just insane.
Haha, another frustration I have with the US financial system, is how seemingly easy it is to avoid legislation by renaming stuff.
It’s not a loan, your honor, it’s “buy now, pay later”. We just described what a loan is, and called it that, so we now expect complete immunity from any existing legislation, thank you very much. And now it seems to be “Earned Wage Access”, which is just uh… payday loans from an app.
I don’t know much about the specifics here, but it certainly sounds an awful lot like a way to store and move your money around. It’s not a banking app, it’s a cash app. Really just feels like your government is willing to play remarkably dumb in exchange for (I assume) lobbying money. A lot of stuff is more profitable with zero consumer protections.
is a giftcard a bank then somehow what about a stock brokerage account that allows storing USD? defining these as “not banks” makes tons of sense because amazon shouldn’t need to know my SSN for me to have a giftcard ballance with them where as banks do.
That’s great. Canada has very strong credit union adoption. The US is often more predatory. Banks can put people into minimum balance type accounts and fee you until the account runs dry. Not all, but some do. If you live in a rural area, you may not have many options. There’s a host of reasons. https://www.fdic.gov/household-survey
Actually getting the bank to recognise this can be a struggle, however. When my wife wanted one, some of them were insistent that they couldn’t give them to people from overseas. Only Nationwide would let her open one.
And in the cold dark of 2025, there might not even be any banks left near you. Most of them are shut or online only. The entire Peak District area has exactly one banking hub, and that’s run by the post office after the last bank closed last year.
I don’t understand the core concept of “have or add money in the app”?
Do you mean like adding money to some sort of pre-paid card in Apple Pay or Google Wallet? 'Cuz I can’t use either of those (GrapheneOS), and even if I could I’m pretty happy just using physical credit cards or cash anyways. Or are you talking about something else?
All these apps are basically a third party “digital wallet”, like PayPal. The market exists because US bank suck at quickly transferring money to eachother, and occasionally you want to give a friend money without having cash or waiting 3 business days.
How do they have or add money in the app then? Sorry, in the UK banks have a legal obligation to provide basic accounts for anyone.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/basic-bank-accounts
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/homelessness/how_to_open_a_bank_account
Its not hard to get a bank account that I’m aware of, but a lot of people have gotten caught up in FinTech. You can get a greendot paycard or have your direct deposits go to a CashApp account.
Most people don’t realize how vulnerable their money is with cash-app and the like. I didn’t either until I tried to add a new debit card to my cashapp account (because I do have a bank) and cashapp locked me out and closed the account while I had over $200 in it. I think its because my account was registered under a VoIP number, but I’ll never know because there’s no human customer service. I just had to take the L and move on.
I swear everything I learn about the US banking system just makes me wonder “how can this be legal?”, being able to just close an account with 200 real dollars and no recourse is just insane.
that technically isn’t a bank, so the answer is banks can’t do that
Haha, another frustration I have with the US financial system, is how seemingly easy it is to avoid legislation by renaming stuff.
It’s not a loan, your honor, it’s “buy now, pay later”. We just described what a loan is, and called it that, so we now expect complete immunity from any existing legislation, thank you very much. And now it seems to be “Earned Wage Access”, which is just uh… payday loans from an app.
I don’t know much about the specifics here, but it certainly sounds an awful lot like a way to store and move your money around. It’s not a banking app, it’s a cash app. Really just feels like your government is willing to play remarkably dumb in exchange for (I assume) lobbying money. A lot of stuff is more profitable with zero consumer protections.
oh god yes.
Second mortgage with tax deductable interest?
No, no, that’s now a Home Equity line of credit. Same thing, but you don’t get a lump sum of money, and the interest is not deductible.
is a giftcard a bank then somehow what about a stock brokerage account that allows storing USD? defining these as “not banks” makes tons of sense because amazon shouldn’t need to know my SSN for me to have a giftcard ballance with them where as banks do.
That’s great. Canada has very strong credit union adoption. The US is often more predatory. Banks can put people into minimum balance type accounts and fee you until the account runs dry. Not all, but some do. If you live in a rural area, you may not have many options. There’s a host of reasons. https://www.fdic.gov/household-survey
Credit unions can be predatory, too. The US’s largest credit union, Navy Federal, has one of the highest rates of fees charged per customer, even compared to banks. https://www.nclc.org/resources/top-overdraft-fee-offenders-hitting-civilian-military-families/
Actually getting the bank to recognise this can be a struggle, however. When my wife wanted one, some of them were insistent that they couldn’t give them to people from overseas. Only Nationwide would let her open one.
And in the cold dark of 2025, there might not even be any banks left near you. Most of them are shut or online only. The entire Peak District area has exactly one banking hub, and that’s run by the post office after the last bank closed last year.
Cash exists?
What, just feed banknotes into your phone?
I don’t understand the core concept of “have or add money in the app”?
Do you mean like adding money to some sort of pre-paid card in Apple Pay or Google Wallet? 'Cuz I can’t use either of those (GrapheneOS), and even if I could I’m pretty happy just using physical credit cards or cash anyways. Or are you talking about something else?
All these apps are basically a third party “digital wallet”, like PayPal. The market exists because US bank suck at quickly transferring money to eachother, and occasionally you want to give a friend money without having cash or waiting 3 business days.
got it. yeah, I hate relying on paypal or venmo for this shit, but here we are
you don’t?