Relevant:
- Bottom Fifth Of Americans Spent Double Their Incomes In 2011
- More Americans opting out of banking system
- Huge numbers of Americans opting out of banking system -- and the media says that's bad!
- Almost half of US households exhaust their salaries
- You Are Probably Worse Off Than You Were Four Years Ago
2014-02-01 — huffingtonpost.com
``According to a report put out this week by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Postal Service, about 68 million Americans -- more than a quarter of all households -- have no checking or savings account and are underserved by the banking system. Collectively, these households spent about $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees for non-bank financial services like payday loans and check cashing, which works out to an average of $2,412 per household. That means the average underserved household spends roughly 10 percent of its annual income on interest and fees -- about the same amount they spend on food.
Think about that: about 10 percent of a family's income just to manage getting checks cashed, bills paid, and, sometimes, a short-term loan to tide them over. That's more than a full month's income just to try to navigate the basics. ''
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