Why Hispanics Don't Use Banks - Part 1

In my work on Indigo and now m-Via (more on that in another post), I often run into the received wisdom that Hispanics don't trust banks. It has become the catch-all reason to explain product failures in financial services. Why did Bank of America withdraw their SafeSend product? Well, you know, Hispanics just don't trust banks. The other assumption is that, 'well, Hispanic immigrants aren't very financially literate.' If they were smarter, it would be obvious to use banks. And while there is an element of truth to both assumptions, it doesn't tell the whole story and it may cause you to give up too soon. After all, it's much easier to blame the customer than to acknowledge that your product design or market strategy was in error.

I was checking in on Clara recently. She started working as a nanny for a new family. The other morning over cafe y pan dulce, I asked her how things were working out. Clara said the work was fine but she had to ask her employer to pay her in cash. Clara has a checking account with a well known retail bank but was having problems. (She opened the account with her Matricula Consular card.) Her employer wrote her checks issued from an out-of-state bank. Because Clara has a low balance, the bank consistently held her newly deposited paycheck for 10 days at a time.

Now let's think about this. Clara thought a checking account would be a good idea, not because she writes lots of checks - she only has a few - but because she wanted a place to put her earnings that was separate from her husband. Clara didn't want to keep her earnings in currency because it's too easy to spend and she wanted to keep some in reserve. Hence the checking account.

But the checking account isn't meeting her needs. The bank, in order to make money on low balance accounts, holds new deposits in order to earn interest on the float. Clara doesn't have a high enough cash flow to allow her money to be tied for ten days every time she gets paid. After all, she needs to buy groceries and take care of all the various school expenses for her four children.

If she's not careful, the check account fees will slowly erode her low balance. There are few things more depressing than watch your meager bank balance slow drop over time due to ATM fees, monthly fees, check processing fees, etc.

So what's a woman to do? She can take her paycheck and pay a high fee to a local check cashing facility. She gets her money instantly but then she has it in currency. So, she keeps some in her wallet and then deposits the rest in the bank. She solves the access to cash problem but it's cost her an extra fee on top of the fees she already pays to maintain her not very useful checking account.

Or she can get paid in hard currency from her employer, forcing her employer to go to an ATM on payday. Not very convenient for the employer.

Many Hispanic immigrants and low income people don't put up with this type of scenario for very long. They feel more in control using money orders instead of checks, stashing their currency in a hidden place in their homes instead of in a bank account, and using check cashing facilities for their payroll checks.

Just one example of why Hispanics and low income people don't find banks very useful.