August 6, 2018 - by Christian Hetrick, Philly.com
Roughly 4 percent of area households are "unbanked," meaning they don't have checking or savings accounts, according to a 2015 survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.An additional 19 percent in Greater Philadelphia are considered "underbanked" because they have bank accounts but still use alternative financial services like check cashers. These bankless consumers not only incur high transaction costs to cash checks and pay bills through third parties, but they also miss out on future opportunities for traditional loans by not establishing a financial history, experts and advocates say.
