A bankruptcy is, by all accounts, a traumatic experience: in most cases you lose a good chunk of your assets, your credit is ruined, and it stays on your report for the next ten years. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t rebuild your financial credibility. After all, companies do it all the time. You just have to be in the right mindset, and look in the right places for resources that are available to you

Fresh Start Checking Accounts

Once you have come out of bankruptcy, you will be able to open new bank accounts. Actually, this is the first thing you should be doing, since as a standard procedure, your bank accounts will be closed when you file for bankruptcy. Once the bankruptcy has been filed and a person’s debts have been charged off, you need to immediately starting to rebuild your credit. A bank account is going to be the first thing you need.

Bank Account After Bankruptcy

The first thing that we want to point out to those asking “can I get a bank account after bankruptcy” is this: a checking account has nothing to do with a bankruptcy unless when you filed for bankruptcy, you included some current bank account you had. When you do this, the bank will place an inquiry on ChexSystems and that is what banks use to determine if they will grant you a bank account at their branch.

Related: Repair your credit after filing for bankruptcy

Now if you have included one or more bank accounts in your filing, don’t despair. Getting a new bank account after bankruptcy is not the easiest thing to do, but it is not impossible if you have a plan. Here’s how you should go about it.

1. Look for banks that don’t check with Chexsystems when opening new accounts, or that check it but don’t necessarily reject you if you have a negative entry. You’ll find that the big boys like Chase or Bank of America won’t really work to accommodate you. You’re much better off looking online or in your community’s smaller regional banks where it’s more likely that someone has the option of overriding a ChexSystems report.
2. Speaking of negative Chexsystems entries, it would be best if you could get rid of those. Chexsystems will typically not respond to a removal request unless it comes from a bank, so you should get your Chexsystems report and contact those institutions with which you have outstanding unpaid balances. Work something out with them, with the agreement that once the debt is paid off, they will write to get you out of Chexsystems’ database. Get that agreement in writing. If this can’t be done, have them at least give you an official note stating that the debt has beenpaid off.
3. If the unpaid account balance was pre-petition (before the filing of bankruptcy) and properly listed in the case, then there is a simple fix. Get a copy of the Notice of Bankruptcy and send it with a cover letter to Chex Systems. If a debt is discharged in bankruptcy, that account must be reported as “$0.00 owed, discharged in bankruptcy.” Bankruptcy should not prevent you from opening a bank account.
4. Open a savings account. There is no issuing checks, so you might have a better chance of being approved for one. It also makes it easier to open a checking account in the future. Actually, if you have a little money available, it’s even better to open a Certificate of Deposit (CD) and offer it as a collateral for any negaative balance on your checking account. This is the ultimate show of good will and will greatly reduce a bank’s reluctance to do business with you.
5. Enroll in a consumer credit course.  Some banks will view this as a positive step in the right direction if you have done this already prior to trying to open your checking account.  These classes teach you how to maintain and manage a checking account properly which banks are well aware of.

By following the above steps, it is not uncommon to get a new bank account within 60 days after a bankruptcy discharge.

Related: Banks that don’t pull your credit report

Opening A New Bank Account After Filing For Bankruptcy

In our previous post, we talked about People’s Cash Solutions second chance checking accounts and what they offer. Today’s post is going to cover another product in that same line, the Excella Visa Prepaid Debit Card. Of course, the target market is the same, as its target market is specifically those people who want a viable solution when looking for a non-chexsystems checking account to go about their daily financial activities. Because of the severity of this recession, many people who thought they would never be in such a situation now have to turn to financial products such as a prepaid debit card.

Not too long ago, because of easily available credit, people were routinely living above their means. That has come to an abrupt end, with a financial cost that has yet to be fully calculated. In the meantime, lots of people have seen their financial situation go into a nosedive, and their credit has considerably deteriorated. To cover living expenses, families have gone even further into debt, and credit scores have tanked. So of course the result of that is that many families have seen their traditional checking accounts get closed because of too many overdrafts. And that’s where solutions like the Excella Prepaid Debit Card can come in handy.

One of the things that you won’t find on this website is false claims that prepaid debit cards are the absolute best thing for you. What you have to realize is that those are products that are tailored for people with less than stellar credit ratings and who are being routinely turned down by large banks who refuse to open bank accounts for them. So if you’re in this situation, there’s going to be a cost in order to get a second chance checking account. The best way to see it is that it’s somewhat like paying a price so that in due time you can get back to having regular checking accounts. Prepaid debits cards like the Excella Visa card allow you to make secured, safe financial transactions.

Just to avoid any confusion, the Excella Prepaid Visa Debit Card is not a credit card. This means that there’s no credit extended to you, and you will never end up owing money using such a card. If you don’t have the balance in your account, the transaction simply gets denied, that’s it. As we said previously, there are fees associated with using this card, but at the end of the day it’s one of the best ways to get a non-chexsystems checking account.

So many of the transactions that we make all the time are now tied to giving a credit or debit card information. For example, stuff like ordering something online, booking a flight, and renting a car require that you give such information. This card fits the bill nad will be accepted anywhere a Visa card is accepted as a form of payment. There are additional perks;

• protection against fraudulent activities
• not having to carry cash all the time
• being able to do online banking and bill paying
• having access to ATMs
• direct deposit of your paycheck and/or social security benefits
• add money to the card to “recharge” it whenever you like

How To Use Your Excella Visa Prepaid Debit Card

Making Purchases

Like we said earlier, anywhere Visa cards are accepted (over 11 million locations worldwide), you can use your Excella card.

Getting Cash Back When Making A Purchase

You can get some extra cash when making a purchase. For example, let’s say you’re going to buy something for $30 but want to have an extra $20 in cash on hand. You can ask the cashier to charge the card for $50 and give you the extra $20 in cash. It’s pretty much like doing an ATM withdrawal without incurring a fee.

Getting Cash From An ATM

This one is pretty much self explanatory. Just keep an eye on the carges to avoid paying exorbitant ATM withdrawal charges. On a related note, you can also add cash to your card at any participating Excella Retail Reload location.

Non-Chexsystems Checking Accounts: A Little Background Information

ChexSystems is a service that is used by about 80% of the banks in the U.S. to determine who they want to open checking accounts for and who they don’t. Created by a company called eFunds, ChexSystems (often incorrectly referred to as Chex Systems or Check Systems) maintains a database of people that have in one way or another abused the banking system. In that regard, it’s similar to the FICO scoring system but the similarity ends there. There’s no Chexsystems score, and whereas you can have a good credit score or a bad one, you can’t have a good chexsystems record. You either don’t have one, or you do. And if you do, well that’s grounds for banks to flat out reject your checking account application.

You’re not going to get rejected by just one bank, though. Most likely every big bank out there will refuse to open a checking account for you if your name shows up in Chexsystems’s database.  Nobody wants to put themselves through this type of shame and discomfort, which is why a lot of people look for banks that do not use Chexsystems.

How can you get into this system in the first place? Your name can show up in Chex Systems for a number of reasons, including for having abused your debit card, having committed a fraud against a bank, or if you still you owe your bank money for an overdraft that they covered for you in the past.

Trying to get removed from Chex Systems is not easy, either. Unless there has been some sort of error whereby something you never actually did was mistakenly attributed to your name in the system, often only time itself can get you safely removed. But, that could take years, and you need a new checking account now.

The good news is that there is an alternative to getting rejected by more banks or to waiting years to get removed from Chex Systems: finding a bank or other financial institution that offers a no ChexSystems checking account. And this is what the Excella Visa Prepaid Debit Card offers.

The Excella Visa Prepaid Debit Card, A Perfect Non-Chexsystems Checking Account

People’s Cash Solutions

It often happens like the following scenario. Someone, for whatever reason, does a miscalculation on their checking account and the overdraft fees pile up. The person doesn’t pay back the overdrafts either because they think it’s no big deal, or because they just don’t have the money to. No matter which one of those situations happens to be true, the banks will not just eat up the loss without taking any action on their part. They will indeed write off those amounts as a loss, but the transactions will be reported to Chexsystems, and that person will have a lot of trouble if they try to open a new checking account in most banks.

Some people, after finding out about this, will try and get removed from Chexsystems’ database. That usually entails paying off the amounts that you owe the different banks, but you can’t directly ask to be removed. It’s the banks themselves that have to write and state that you’ve paid the debt. You can easily imagine that this is a process that will take some perseverance, and won’t be able to get solved in a couple of days. In the meantime, you want to be able to carry out your life in a manner that is as close as how it previously was.

To do that, you need to find a company that will offer you an account with pretty much all the conveniences you would get with a regular checking account, even if you are listed on Chexsystems. There are several companies that do this, and today we’re going to focus on Peoples Cash Solutions.

Peoples Cash Solutions offers checking accounts to people who have a negative record on Chexsystems and/or Telecheck. The account that they open for you is FDIC-insured (meaning that you’re protected up to $250,000). The only instance where you will be denied is if you have been reported for fraudulent activity. There is a large pool of people out there who need a second chance bank account. It’s not only because they need to make financial transactions, but also because getting such an account can be the first step towards re-establishing yourself as a good customer for banks.

Features of Peoples Cash Solutions Accounts

Debit Mastercard. A Debit MasterCard is tied to a cardholder’s bank account and can be used to make purchases or obtain cash at more than 25 million locations around the world, including more than 1 million ATMs. Purchases using debit MasterCard are authorized by signed receipt or the use of a PIN. In other words, you can make transactions at any ATM, as well as set up Direct Deposit on your account and have access to that money without having to go to a check cashing store and pay the associated fees. Your MasterCard debit card is covered by MasterCard Zero Liability(TM) for fraudulent use and your account is FDIC insured up to $250,000.

Personal Checkbook. The benefits of actually having a checking account are hard to summarize, because it’s the starting point of most financial transactions. Peoples Cash Solutions offers a checking account with check writing privileges, which means that you don’t have to carry cash and can use checks instead. You can pay your bills through the mail. You can also use your checking account for budgeting purposes, so you can clearly see where your money goes.

Online Bill Pay. Nowadays you can pay almost all your bills online. You won’t have access to online bill pay right then and there, but after just 30 consecutive days of maintaining an account with Peoples Cash Solutions, you will qualify for their Internet Banking solution. Once approved, you will be able to make and schedule payments just like the other online bill payment companies offer their customers.

Online Banking. No longer to you have to go to an ATM or look for a statement to check your available balance. Along with being able to pay your bills online, online banking also allows you to check your balances, so you always know how much money you have left in the bank. You can also transfer money between accounts with a few simple clicks. Other benefits include the ability to reorder checks online as well as talk live to a customer service representative, should you have questions regarding your account.

Online Money Transfers. If you send money to relatives on a regular basis, Peoples Cash Solutions offers a free alternative to fee-laden money transfer services. All you have to do is obtain a separate account or ATM card for the people you send money to. From that point on, you can easily transfer funds to these additional accounts for free.

Overdraft Protection. If you’re facing an emergency, instead of getting a payday loan, you can use this service as an alternative. If you are not enrolled in direct deposit with your employer, you may qualify for up to $300 of ODP. If you have a direct deposit tied to your account, you may qualify for up to $500 of ODP. Not everyone will qualify for this, and there are fees, as well as other terms and conditions associated with this service. This is something that you can address with a customer service representative for more details. Also see Ally Bank’s Overdraft Policy

Second Chance Bank Accounts: More Information

Second chance bank accounts come in all flavors, depending on the financial institution that offers them. People whose names are listed with ChexSystems and/or Telecheck are usually the target market. Since they are often desperate for banks that do not use Chexsystems, they often tend not to look for lots of information so that they can make an informed decision.

That’s why, in addition to the information provided above, we want to give a little more to the people out there who have a bad credit history or who have had their accounts closed because of overdrafts and debt problems.

1. The best second chance account offers do not require a minimum account balance, nor do you have to submit to an interview. Since the second chance checking account is specifically designed for people with bad credit, it’s expected that you financial picture will be less-than-perfect.
2. The procedures are relatively simple and straightforward. You fill out the required application, submit ID, provide the funds to open the account, and you should be OK.
3. There are now an increasing number of financial institutions offering these types of accounts, making easier for people in tough situations. But that doesn’t mean that all these offers are good. Some are way better than others even though they charge less fees. In the end, it will all depend on how well you did your homework.

People’s Cash Solutions: Your Opportunity To Get A Second Chance Bank Account

People looking for a list of banks that do not use ChexSystems come from all walks of life. In most cases they have been in bad situations and they’ve had checks bounce. The banks that they held their accounts with decided to close those accounts and report the incidents to Chexsystems. So those financial problems that you’ve had in the past can potentially follow you for years. This is because ChexSystems is a company that maintains a database of all the “bad” banking clients. Since most banks do a ChexSystems check on all new bank applicants, if your name is in the system, you won’t be able to qualify for a new account.

This is what prompts most people to get online and start looking for “banks without Chexsystems“. They look because it’s common knowledge that only about 80% of the banks out there do business with ChexSystems. That leaves a big 20% of banks out there that are open to the possibility of opening a checking account for you even if you have a negative record. Depending on the bank, those accounts are called “fresh start checking accounts” or “second chance checking accounts” but they basically offer the same thing: you get to open a bank account even if you’ve had financial problems, or you have bad credit, or something similar.

You’ll find that there are lots and lots of places that promise to get you a list of banks that don’t use ChexSystems. The problem is that a lot of them are really not about to give you the exact information that you’re really looking for. But at first, let’s give this a little more thought.

ChexSystems makes its money by charging financial institutions to use its service. That means that the more banks use them, the more money they’ll make. So they’re pretty aggressive in terms of marketing their service to banks that don’t currently use them to verify new checking accounts. Conversely, some banks have realized that they lose business by simply turning down everyone with a negative ChexSystems record, and they don’t necessarily want to keep doing that. What that boils down to is that there’s a constant movement of banks signing up for ChexSystems’ service and others that are leaving it.

When you think of the number of banks that there are in the United States (close to 8,500), getting a list of banks that don’t use Chexsystems would be a colossal amount of work in the first place. And that’s only the beginning, because such a list would have to be maintained continuously in order to be accurate. That would necessitate a sizable staff and that list would probably be just too expensive to be attractive to anyone looking for a non ChexSystems bank.

So what’s left for you to do? Well there are companies that are well known for offering “second chance checking” products and services. Three of them come to mind, but there are many more.

People’s Cash Solutions: “Second Chance Checking Accounts”

People’s Cash Solutions refers to their product as a “fresh start at banking”. Here’s what their website has to say:

Have you ever been denied a checking or savings account due to past problems with ChexSystems and TeleCheck? The Peoples Cash Solutions program is the answer for you! Peoples Cash Solutions and Peoples Bank will open a real FDIC-insured checking account for you even if you have been reported to ChexSystems or TeleCheck in the past (except where fraudulent activity has been reported). We want to give you a chance to establish a banking relationship as the first step toward improving your credit record and to allow you to begin building and accumulating assets. Our Second Chance Checking program erases the inconvenience of not having a checking account and/or being forced to use fee-intensive alternatives.

Money Now Usa: “100% Approval, No Credit Checks Prepaid Debit Cards”

Money Now Usa flaunts their wide selection of prepaid debit cards with 100% guaranteed approval. You get to choose from a list of well-known companies that offer their debit cards with no credit checks and no Chexsystems verifications. There’s a small list of features and benefits next to each offering to help you decide which is best for you.

Ready Debit: “100% Approval Guaranteed Reloadable Prepaid Debit Cards”

Once again, I’ll let the company’s website do the talking:

100% Approval Guaranteed — Even if you’ve been turned away or rejected by banks you can still get a READYdebit card. We have no credit or Chexsystems checks to worry about. Our only requirement is that we can validate the information you provide to us when you open your account. We do this instantly online while your application is being completed to make the sign-up process fast and easy!

“Can I Get A List Of Banks That Don’t Use ChexSystems?”

According to the latest available statistics, ChexSystems is doing business with roughly 80% of the banks and credit unions out there. Maybe we’re different, but while most people tend to focus on the 80% figure, we tend to see things the other way around. And the other way around is simply that there are about 20% of the banks and credit unions out there that don’t use ChexSystems. If you stop and think about it, that’s quite a lot of banks! Now we’re not going to lie to you and tell you that those non-ChexSystems banks are popping up in every corner, but if we tell you that there’s a good chance that there are a few in your area, we won’t be lying to you either.

You know the deal: sometimes there’s a company out there that ventures off the beaten path, in order to give its customers a chance at something they really need. In other words, the company takes a risk, in order to make some money by serving a neglected portion of the population. So it is with banks that offer checking accounts for people with bad credit. Because the vast majority of banks out there use ChexSystems to determine whether or not they will open a checking account for a new customer, people with a negative record are left out in the cold.

While it might have been easy to turn away people when times were good, things are different now. The economic crisis means that a lot of people have fallen on hard times and have ended up with negative marks on their ChexSystems record. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they wouldn’t be good customers for the banks and/or credit unions. So those financial institutions have started to try and look beyond this simple aspect. There are now some that simply don’t check your ChexSystems record. Some others do, but also look at other financial information before they make their decision. What that means is that banks do openchecking accounts for people with bad credit, so you can still get a second chance checking account and be able to benefit from banking services.

Related: How to open a bank account after bankruptcy

Now it’s important to point out that all banks are definitely not created equal. If you’re going to open afresh start checking account a non-ChexSystems bank, there’s a few things you need to make sure are kosher, because all it takes is for you to fall on one bad apple, and you’re pretty much screwed. Here’s how to find a “bank without ChexSystems”

Finding Good Banks That Do Not Use Chexsystems

1. The most important part of finding a non-ChexSystems bank is, of course, doing your homework to make sure that the bank(s) you’re considering giving your business to are INDEED not going to run your ChexSystems report. Sometimes, and especially when they’re in a situation where they’re opening a lot of accounts in a short period of time, they will open up the account, pending verification. After running the scan, and they find negative marks on your report, your account will be closed. Period. Or, (and that’s even more embarrassing), if the bank checks on the spot, you will be declined in public! So make sure you have your facts right.
2. The second most important thing is that, just because you’re looking for a bank that doesn’t run your ChexSystems report doesn’t mean that you should settle for just ANY bank that you find. You still need the protection that comes with that financial institution being FDIC insured. So you need to have proof that the bank is FDIC insured before you open that checking account. In the case of credit unions, they have to be NCUA insured (that’s the equivalent of FDIC insurance, but for credit unions).
3. Finally, make sure that you’re not going to get some crippled service. If you can’t get the same (or almost the same) level of convenience, then it kinda defeats the purpose to go to such great lengths. You will need to get at least the following: check writing privileges, Visa- or Mastercard-branded debit card, and online banking. Also take a good look at their fee structure, in order to make sure that you’re not getting nickel-and-dimed.

Being reported to ChexSystems doesn’t necessarily have to mean that your financial life becomes a living hell. As previously stated, there are many financial institutions (banks and credit unions alike) that will open asecond chance checking account in your area for you regardless of, or in spite of, your ChexSystems profile. All you need is to do your homework and find the reliable ones that will fit you best.

© “Banks Without Chex Systems” | How To Find A Good Second Chance Bank