Walmart Prepares to Offer Low-Cost Checking Accounts

New York Times
Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Walmart is teaming up with Green Dot, known for its prepaid payment cards, to supply checking accounts available nationwide by the end of October. The new accounts, called GoBank, are intended as low-cost alternatives to traditional bank checking accounts, with no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks and no minimum account balance. The accounts will cost $8.95 a month for customers with direct deposits totaling less than $500 a month. To help attract customers, Walmart and Green Dot will forgo a screening system many banks use to vet potential customers and rely instead on a proprietary system. Walmart expects its new system to allow almost any consumer who passes an identification check to open an account in minutes.