Report: 46% of African American Households Don't Bank

VIDEO: Report Says 46% of African American Households Don't Bank - Jerome Collins Reports

Columbia (WLTX)- Josherbert Thompson tries not to make a habit of using check cashing businesses, but sometimes she has no choice.

"If you've got a bill that's due and you owe the bank money, your not going to go to the bank but a check cashing place," says Thompson.

And she's hardly alone. In the U.S., 22 million households have no bank account at all.

The problem is even worse for African-Americans. "Most of the time that's all you see coming into the check cashing places are African-Americans," says Thompson.

According to data gathered by the South Carolina Council on Economic Education, 46 percent of African-American households don't have checking or savings accounts. "It's easier, a lot of banks want to charge you fees," says Thompson.

"The check cashing places don't charge you as much." But Larry Wilson, Chairman of the SCCEE says don't be fooled by the fees. "It can be a significant portion of the take home pay of workers," says Wilson.

Annually as much as 20 percent. Clente Flemming, President of South Carolina Community Bank doesn't believe the blame should be placed on the check cashing industry. "Eliminating the payday lenders, check cashing is not going to solve the problem of the credit crisis in our community," says Flemming.

He says education is the key. The growing credit problem has prompted local banking officials to take a closer look at financial literacy in South Carolina. "We have a growing major portion of our population that doesn't understand economic systems," says Wilson

Officials are hoping to increase awareness among the state's adult population. Meanwhile Josherbert Thompson is doing her part to educate her children on finances.

Meanwhile officials are planning to conduct a study in Richland County. They will utilize experts at USC's Moore School of Business to assist in the project.Based on their findings, they may expand their research statewide.

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South Carolina Community Bank

This is the first Black owned Bank in South Carolina.

Unfortunately, this is not just a SC thing...I have a girlfriend who sometimes asks me if her mom can deposit money in my account, in order for her not to pay the HUGE deficit fees in her own account!!! I keep telling her that she needs to "suck it up" and pay the fees and get out of the hole, but she refused to do so.

1. Create a budget!
2. Join a credit union
3. Create a budget!
4. Direct deposit
5. CREATE A BUDGET!

I can believe this.

At the place where I currently work, we found that many of the employees in lower-wage positions (with a majority of them being African American) didn't have banking relationships. Our stats estimated that a chunk of their take home pay was going towards check cashing fees, which adds up for people who don't make that much to begin with. So we worked with a local bank who provided financial education courses and some other things to help these "unbanked" individuals.

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Originally posted by Ms MEAC:
Unfortunately, this is not just a SC thing...I have a girlfriend who sometimes asks me if her mom can deposit money in my account, in order for her not to pay the HUGE deficit fees in her own account!!! I keep telling her that she needs to "suck it up" and pay the fees and get out of the hole, but she refused to do so.

So do you deposit the money?

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Originally posted by shine3000:
1. Create a budget!
2. Join a credit union
3. Create a budget!
4. Direct deposit
5. CREATE A BUDGET!

Just don't overdue it when creating the budget. With that, make Neat Receipts your friend in making expense reports.

It's sad. I know some people who can't open a bank account because of past indiscretions like...writing checks when you ain' gotz no monies in the account.

I hope that's not the case here. I wouldn't dare carry around cash in crime ridden Orlando. It's debit or credit all the way

Someone told me today that they couldn't open a bank account because of bad credit! He had like $11,000 in cash he want to deposit. I was like WTF? I've never heard of credit checks to open a bank account.

Yep! Some banks do credit checks.

I know people that call themselves businessmen that don't have checking accounts. You will pay them for services and then they will ask you to cash the check.

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Originally posted by TechRattler:
Someone told me today that they couldn't open a bank account because of bad credit! He had like $11,000 in cash he want to deposit. I was like WTF? I've never heard of credit checks to open a bank account.

That is true; however your credit really has to be very bad to get rejected. I think the cutoff at most banks is 450. If you have a score below that then it's obvious you can't maintain a checking acount.