From The Atlantic–better customer service and lower prices (for many) than banks:
As part of my research as an urban policy professor at The New School, I recently spent four months working weekly, eight-hour shifts as a teller at RiteCheck, a check cashing business in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. I wanted to understand how and why the people who frequent these “alternative” financial institutions use them. Like the majority of my academic colleagues, I believed check cashers, with their per transaction fee structure, and payday lenders, preyed upon the unbanked. But I learned quickly that many RiteCheck customers have made a conscious choice to be unbanked.
In my research, I’ve been struck by the number of people who say that they choose to go without bank accounts now because of negative experiences with banks and bank accounts.