I was reading through this article from the Washington Post today, wondering why anyone would buy a Wal-Mart “MoneyCard.” The MoneyCard costs $8.94 and has a monthly maintenance fee of $4.94 (unless you put $1000 on every month). It also costs $4.64 to reload the card. Why would anyone use this? Then I read that roughly 20% of Wal-mart shoppers do not have a CHECKING account! What? Where do they put their money? It baffles my mind. We use our checking account so much we don’t even think about it. Pay bills, use the debit card to pay for gas or groceries, a gazillion other things. I just can’t imagine what people would do without a checking account.
Shop at Wal-Mart, apparently.
Wal-Mart the Bank
The D's 
I know it may seem shocking but I regularly encounter this with my clients. They have their checks cashed at Walmart. They pay their bills at Walmart or HEB (The local grocery store around here) with CASH. If they cannot pay for the bills at either one of those establishments, they pay at the headquarters (such as water/electric company). If they cannot pay for the bill in cash, they will get a money order they purchased at HEB or Walmart (i.e. child support and rent). I’d probably guess roughly 80% of my clients do this. Welcome to how the other half of the country lives…..
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