Bank on it
By Barbara Soderlin
Had an interesting talk with Barb Garcia at the city who is putting together a program called Bank On Rapid City, which aims to get “unbanked” and “underbanked” people to use traditional banking services like checking and savings accounts.
Too many people are using payday lender or other types of high-interest-rate lenders to cash checks, write money orders and borrow money, she said, for a variety of reasons. Garcia is working with several banks to create a educational program that helps these people return to tradtional banks, save money and stabilize their financial situations.
The program was pioneered in San Francisco and the National League of Cities has made it available to cities around the country. We’re one of eight cities chosen for the 2009 effort. I’ll have more on it in the Monday paper.