How does one go bankless?

[bonaparte]

OK, I'm wondering. For those of you who don't use a bank, or don't use a bank very much: How do you go bankless?

I think it would be nice to increase my privacy by not having every transaction I make recorded in a bank account, but there are some services banks give you that are hard to work around.

How do you cash checks without paying a fee (I know some banks even charge you a fee to cash their own checks at them). Payday loan places seem to charge a high fee for check cashing. Also I'm sure you could send out money orders for all your bills, but then again, each money order costs about 50 cents plus the postage to mail the thing.

Maybe the answer is to just decrease bank activity? Maybe I could just withdraw all my paychecks the day after they are deposited, and then stop all online payments and just buck up and pay the cost of money orders and stamps each month? Everything else would get paid in cash.

I'm just looking for ideas from others who have gone bankless or near bankless.

[ximmy]

For me the idea means keeping very little cash in the bank except for bills and such.... and get your money out of the big banks and into a private credit union.

[Rebel Yarr]

Best that you can do is to start using cash as much as possible. If you were totally debt free, had very small amount of bills, payable locally and pretty much weren't formally employed, it would be easy.

Now, for the rest of us ...it ain't so easy. There is a trade off between over the top and reasonable for me. Starve the beast ..sure..I'm trying to do my part. But at the same time - some things require it electronically ...or at least way to time consuming/costly to do otherwise.

Limit your use of credit, including debit transactions is the best way imo as well as ximmy's advice.

[Libertarian_Guard]

It makes no sense to me, waiting in a line for a postal money order, or some such equivalent.

It is a necessary evil, in to days world.

[Ponce]

Only what I need per month in the bank........power, phone, health insurance and every six months for cars insurance and once a year for house tax, house insurance and car insurance.

Every thing else CASH.

[Trinity]

Going bankless to me means keeping money for bills in a checking account and that's it. No savings account, No IRA's,No401k's,No annuities,No pension, No investment portfolio. A trading account is ok though, so at least you can play their game back on them. (the bankers).

[Libertytree]

I'm totally bank free, though I'm lucky in that I can cash my pay check where I work. To pay bills I use MO's, I also have a prepaid debit/credit card that only has the exact amount for whatever I'm going to use it for, usually an online purchase. If I'm in a pinch though I can also use this card to pay a bill I need to pay quickly.

[bonaparte]

Liberty tree,

Can you expand on how you use your pre-paid credit/debit card? Doesn't it cost money to load it up? Maybe one could just have a pre-paid credit card and just pay cash to load it up every month? Is there an anonymous pre-paid card that would do that for the amount of money a person spends in a month?

[cigarlover]

Most of your bills can be paid locally. Water, sewer, electric. Many grocery stores take payments as well as pharmacies. Check with your local utilities to see where you can pay. Its really not that much of a hassle. If you are going to get a mortgage try and make it a private deal with the current homeowner. Then you can pay them cash every month. If renting the landlord would love cash in most cases. If you have to pay a mortgage that isnt local then use a Postal MO. The PO can use the business anyway. If there are any other bills that you cant pay for in cash then use a MO for them as well but maybe overpay the bill for like 3 months at a time. For instance your cable bill thats probably 60-90 a month. Pay 3 months worth up front if you want to save a little on a MO.

A MO is a small price to pay to keep the money out of a bank IMO. Stop the fractional reserve lending vrs the cost of a MO.......

Of course if you have a mortgage and or CC with a bank then your really screwing up anyway. Get rid of those as well.

[Libertytree]

Liberty tree,

Can you expand on how you use your pre-paid credit/debit card? Doesn't it cost money to load it up? Maybe one could just have a pre-paid credit card and just pay cash to load it up every month? Is there an anonymous pre-paid card that would do that for the amount of money a person spends in a month?



Here's how the cards work. It's not anonymous, there's a $4.95 fee when you buy the(a) card or when you reload a "permanent" card. If you convert your initial/temporary card into a permanent card, more info will have to be given. There is a $6.00 charger per month for a "permanent" card, if you choose to make it a permanent card or you can just keep going through new cards. Cancel/not buy any further $$$ and let it slide.

I use greendot just for the record and it works for me very well. It ain't perfect but it's better than the other option.

[Libertytree]

Most of your bills can be paid locally. Water, sewer, electric. Many grocery stores take payments as well as pharmacies. Check with your local utilities to see where you can pay. Its really not that much of a hassle. If you are going to get a mortgage try and make it a private deal with the current homeowner. Then you can pay them cash every month. If renting the landlord would love cash in most cases. If you have to pay a mortgage that isnt local then use a Postal MO. The PO can use the business anyway. If there are any other bills that you cant pay for in cash then use a MO for them as well but maybe overpay the bill for like 3 months at a time. For instance your cable bill thats probably 60-90 a month. Pay 3 months worth up front if you want to save a little on a MO.

A MO is a small price to pay to keep the money out of a bank IMO. Stop the fractional reserve lending vrs the cost of a MO.......

Of course if you have a mortgage and or CC with a bank then your really screwing up anyway. Get rid of those as well.


Many good points here CL, for instance...I pay my electric bill at a "mail it" place for an added fee of $1.50 and that's cool with me, I don't have to deal with the bank and my $$ get posted immediately.

Reclaiming your freedom does have a price tag and pain in the ass factor but this ain't nothin to what it will be, might as well get a head start.

[Silver Moon Rising]

For anonymity, you could buy gift cards (sometimes called scrip cards) from a non-profit organization.

A local non-profit sells these for fund-raising purposes. You pay face value for the gift card, while the non-profit pockets the 2-4% discount that the vendors are willing to provide. You plunk down 100 FRNs and get a VISA check card pre-loaded with 100 FRNs with no proof of identity required.

For more information see the Great Lakes Scrip Center website at http://www.glscrip.com/.