Can you get a checking account with bad credit? A lot of people are wondering about this. Usually these are the people who ended up having a bad credit not because they intentionally allowed it to happen. These people really do deserve to get a second chance when it comes to their finances. They are the ones who can prove to the banks that they can manage their finances quite well if only they would be given the opportunity to do so. Because I am touched by their predicament, I did some research on the matter, to find out if there are banks out there that allow those who have bad credit to open checking accounts.
Here are some of the things that I have learned during my research, hopefully this will be able to help someone out:
1. From what I gathered, banks normally do not use your credit as a basis for allowing or refusing you to open a checking account. A majority of the banks today use what is called the ChexSystem, at least 80% of banks use this system. When you end up owing money to the bank, or your account has a negative balance they send out a report to this system. Banks are not required to report you but usually if you have anything negative on the report, your application for a checking account will be turned down.
2. If your application is turned down because of that system then you can check out the report yourself. You can visit their website www.chexhelp.com. You can check if the records are true and if anything is amiss, then you can write to the bank that sent out the report to have it corrected You can also write letters and ask that it be posted with the report but that usually would not change the position of a bank that has already refused you application.
3. It has been said that your record is cleared after every three years but you would have to get in touch with the system administrators to check it out. If that is true then you could just wait until your records are clean again and then apply for an account.
4. There are banks that do not use the ChexSystems but these are few and you might have to spend a lot of time looking for them. The main thing that you should keep in mind is that you have to be cautious. These banks that offer checking accounts without referring to the ChexSystem might try to take advantage of you. It would be the same thing with banks taking advantage of guys with bad credit who would like to have credit cards. They charge astronomical fees. If you would be willing to live with that then you do have options.
5. If you have a savings account at a bank for a long time and your record there is good, then you can use that to prove to the bank that you are a good client and they might give you a checking account.