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Advice For People Who Have Been Reported To ChexSystems
It's hard to fully grasp how crippling it is to be reported to ChexSystems. As a matter of fact, I'll just venture out and say that unless you're gone through it, there's no way you can totally understand how much of a handicap it is. Imagine not being able to pay your bills with a check. Online bill paying is not even an option since you need to have a valid checking account for that. And the icing on the cake is that you constantly have to carry fairly large amounts of cash on you because you don't have a debit card. We'll skip the damage it causes to your credit report.
Fortunately, there are ways around the system. Since the financial industry as a whole is such a competitive one, you can find financial institutions that will decide to cater to just about every niche, and that includes people who can't open a checking account because of a negative Chexsystems report. It doesn't really matter where you live, you can find a local institution that will listen to your situation and offer you a solution that will make your life easier. You can find them without having to spend hundreds of dollars. Here are some tips to help you in your search:
1.- An informed customer always puts himself in a position to make a better decision that an uninformed one. Look around. Compare. Check the companies' reputations. Read the money-back policy (there should always be one)
2.- The penalty period for being reported to ChexSystems is five years, but that doesn't mean you should sit there and wait. The 20% of banks that don't rigidly base their account opening decisions on ChexSystems are waiting for your business.
3.- Be careful before you purchase a "non ChexSystems banks" list. Some unscrupulous "marketers" just put together a random list without even checking anything, just looking to make a quick buck. People who buy lists of leads are careful who they buy from. You should be equally careful. If an ad catches your attention, just keep in mind that if it's a financial institution that's advertising, it's more likely to be legit than if it's an ad by a list seller.
4.- If you do pay for a list, keep your expenses to a minimum. No list is worth $200, I can tell you that much. It's true that it might seem a good deal if you've been getting turned down time and again, but my personal opinion is that if someone gathered a good list and was confident that it was both accurate and well maintained, that person would be getting tons of referrals from satisfied customers and shouldn't be charging more than $19.95. Just my personal opinion!
The thing is that if you sit down and put in some elbow grease, you will definitely be able to find those FDIC-insured banks, either in your local area or online, that will do business with you regardless of the fact that you have a negative ChexSystems report.
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