Unbanked or
Underbanked

There is a large sector of our population that is classified as unbanked or underbanked. These sections of population are more prevalent in low or no job growth communities, generally lacking educational backgrounds, causing them to earn a lower than average yearly income.

• 7% of United States households are unbanked
• 19.9% of United States households are underbanked

Some primary characteristics of this sector of the US population are a very inconsistent stream of income and a large distrust in banks. When most banks want to charge for even having a checking account, and on top of that, some banks allow  overdraft, this leads to additional fees.

A very inconsistent income stream induces the natural search for alternative methods to manage your cash flow.

They use services like:

• Payday Loans
• Money Orders
• Check Cashing
• Pawn Shops
• Auto Title Loans

With a volatile income, this sector of the population is very likely to use payday loans, check cashing, auto title loans, money orders, or even pawn shops for some quick cash or banking type services.

Knowing about the people you are trying to market to will be essential. These unbanked or underbanked consumers are not found by the typical response file mailings as they do not use credit cards. These are consumers that have responded that they use cash for their transactions, as opposed to a check, debit, or credit card.