The Grumpy Editor's guide to personal finance managers (Part I)

Posted Sep 20, 2005 14:38 UTC (Tue) by Felix.Braun (guest, #3032)
In reply to: The Grumpy Editor's guide to personal finance managers (Part I) by 4bruck
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's guide to personal finance managers (Part I)

How do the various 'checkless' systems in the world deal with persons who don't have a bank account ?

I guess the short answer would be that this doesn't occur.

At least I haven't met anybody in my life that doesn't have a bank account. Here in Germany Bank accounts are free for students and not exactly expensive for the rest of the population (the reason for this, I belive, is that we have a strong market penetration of state run Banks "Sparkassen", one thing that the private sector banks don't stop complaining about.)

And what about micro-businesses who don't have the capability to accept a bankcard [debit or credit] ?

Money transfers work between any two bank accounts. There is no need for any bankcard to be involved. If you purchase something, the seller writes an invoice, you transfer the money to her account either before or after you get the merchandise. It's as simple as that. But then, maybe I'm missing the point of the question?

The Grumpy Editor's guide to personal finance managers (Part I)

Posted Sep 22, 2005 14:05 UTC (Thu) by cbraxton (guest, #32611) [Link]

> At least I haven't met anybody in my life that doesn't have a bank account.

Well, I don't have a bank account, and know quite a few others who don't. Here in the U.S. it's not terribly unusual -- in fact most cities of any size have check cashing shops that cater to individuals without bank accounts. (They will cash checks, sell inexpensive money orders, accept payments for utilities, etc.)