Opening a new bank account when you owe banks money?

[gul1]

My co-worker asked me if I could find something out for him. He currently does not have a bank account and gets paper paychecks and he would like to get an account  again so he can get direct deposit. He told me that he owes a few banks small amounts of money, $50 here and $50 there. He said he has never used checks so there aren't any bounced checks. Is there a bank or credit union that would give him an account with him owing money to a few banks? I am not sure how many banks he owes money. I know he owed BoA and US bank money.

[fused]

How did your friend come to owe banks money? CCs, loans, etc.?

[-Cain-]

Those banks report to chexsystems I believe, so it may be hard to open an account with other banks that also use them. A checking account with a check card is gonna be hard, but I believe a savings account may be easier to open. Some banks look down on using a savings account as a checking account though I think, so too many withdrawals and they may take action. What I say I say due to people that I've known having had this happen to them, so It could've been other factors or it could be that's their policy.

[gul1]

He's not a friend, just a co-worker,lol. Honestly I don't know, I doubt that he had any loans or credit cards. I will ask him about that tonight at work. He told me  he can still cash his checks at US Bank and he owes them $50 and they never say anything about it. He asked me a few days ago which bank we use and I told him we have an account with US bank and an account with USAA (which we love!) and he told me he owes US Bank $50 and other banks small amounts of money too. I am thinking he probably overdrew his accounts and that's why he owes money.

[haulingthescoreup]

lol, I don't know if USAA pulls Chexsystems (someone will have to help me out there), but I doubt they'll open their arms to him if this is so. I love them, partly because they do expect their members to show a little self-discipline.

I wonder if he's ever considered paying what he owes to all these banks. Not that I'm a defender of banks, by any means, but I do think that at some point in our lives, we have to pull up our socks and start acting like grown-ups, including paying debts.

[gul1]

Yes, I totally agree, he needs to pay off his debt to the banks. For me this job is just some extra cash in addition to my husbands income. My income from this part time job goes into savings or towards "fun" stuff but for my co-worker it's his only income. At 20-25 hours a week, $8.85 per hour you can figure out how low the paychecks are. That's why I am guessing he overdrew the accounts. For some reason my co-workers always come to me when they have a problem or need advise for something, he came to me yesterday asking me if I knew any banks or credit unions that would allow him to open an account with his bad history with banks. I told him I would look it up.

I don't think USAA pulls credit reports, when we opened the account they didn't pull our reports but we have never owed a bank money and we are not in the chex system so I don't exactly know what banks are looking for.