"Unbanked"

When we included a section in Repair Your Credit And Knock Out Your Debt on the unbanked, our editors protested, and later it kept appearing in the index as "unbanking" rather than "unbanked." It wasn't a real word yet, and we had to fight to get it in print.

Looks like the word, and the concept, has finally made it to the mainstream. Here's the Clinton-Schwartzenegger op-ed from the Wall Street Journal that discusses the issue.

The point isn't to pick on pawn shops, payday lenders, or institutions that sell money orders, but to educate consumers about how to become banked or regain their banking privileges if they've been lost. Unfortunately, the Patriot Act makes Chexsystems all but mandatory, but thankfully there's Get Checking for people who've been burned by Chexsystems. I spent a lot of time begging banks and credit unions to participate in the Get Checking program in our area, and mostly getting rejected. Maybe with the new Slick Willie Economic Opportunity Initiative, it'll be easier to get banks and credit unions to give Get Checking graduates a second chance at a checking account.