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Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives
Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives | Lisa Servon
5 posts | 4 read | 4 to read
An urgent, absorbing expose why Americans are fleeingour broken banking system in growing numbers, and how alternatives are rushing in to do what banks once did What do an undocumented immigrant in the South Bronx, a high net worth entrepreneur, and a twenty something graduate student have in common?All three are victims of our dysfunctional mainstream bank and credit system.Today nearly half of all Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, and income volatilityhas doubled over the past thirty years.Banks, with their high monthly fees and overdraft charges, are gouging their low- and middle-income customers, while serving only the wealthiest Americans. Lisa Servon delivers a stunning indictment of America s banks, together with eye-opening dispatches from inside a range of banking alternatives that have sprung up to fill the void. She works as a teller at RiteCheck, a check cashing business in the South Bronx, and as a payday lender in Oakland.She looks closely at the workings of a tanda, an informal lending club. And she delivers fascinating, hopeful portraits of the entrepreneurs reacting to the unbanking of America bydesigning systems to creatively serve many of us. Banks were once essential pillars of our lives; now we can no longer count on them to do right by us. "Required reading for fans of muckraking authors like Barbara Ehrenreich, this fascinating look at the future of money management insists that the'unbanked'are a sector deserving of respect and solid options." Publishers Weekly, starred review"
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CampbellTaraL
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Pickpick

We're too tied up in shame to realize it's not our doing, it's that the resources, safety net, and lack of borrowing options leave people making the best of garbage situations. I appreciate the fact that the author worked at both a payday loan and a check cashing place to learn first-hand why more and more people are turning to these financial alternatives. It's not personal or moral failure, it's the deep decline of livable wages.

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librariankris
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Pickpick

I flew through this book that explores how and why a great number of Americans don't use traditional banks in favor of alternative financial services. I especially liked reading about the author's field work at check cashing and payday loan businesses.

ReadingOver50 Sounds interesting 7y
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Jana
Mehso-so

This book tries to do for banking what Nickel and Dimed did for the working poor or Evicted did for housing except this one fell a little flat. It's informative, well researched, mostly unbiased, and exploratory but focused slightly more on policy than consumers. I wish she'd spent time living as an unbanked person using the services as well as working at a few places and interviewing people. This would've provided a more well rounded picture.

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TheBookDream
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Pickpick

Very interesting look at how traditional banking fails normal people and what is filling in that gap.#financialreads

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TheBookDream
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I am chronically unable to stick with one book #snowday