More than 20 million people in the US don't have a bank account. The main reason is that ChexSystems is so important in the world of consumer banking. ChexSystems is used by about 80% of banks and credit unions in the United States to check new customer accounts. Most of the people in the ChexSystems database were reported because of how they handled their checking accounts. The rest were reported because of abuse, fraud, or mistakes.
In the past few years, a lot of websites have popped up on the internet to help people who are on the ChexSystems list. There are different kinds of services on each of these sites, from free information to paid memberships. No matter where you look, there are a lot of "victims" using public forums and message boards to talk about how upset they are.
Most of the anger shown by ChexSystems "victims" seems fair, but there are always two sides to every story. Most "victims" think that being on a "blacklist" for 5 years is a punishment that goes too far. And if it was reported by mistake, the punishment was even worse. Also, many people have said that banks don't let people off the hook when they make mistakes, but they are quick to hide their own mistakes when they are at fault. ChexSystems is used by banks, on the other hand, to protect their assets.
ChexSystems is a very important part of the banking industry no matter how you look at it. Without this kind of protection against con artists and scammers, banks would eventually go bankrupt.
The real question is how fair the punishment is for people who got into tough financial situations through no fault of their own and couldn't pay their bank bills. Is it fair to put all customers on the same "blacklist," no matter what they do? These are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before any real changes can be made.
