In every state there are more adults with cell phones than there are “fully banked” households-those that have bank accounts and do not use alternative financial services. In seven states and the District of Columbia, there are more adults with cell phones than households with bank accounts. While millions of households lack bank accounts, or do not fully take advantage of them, 9 out of 10 American adults now have a cell phone. A low-income worker who is paid $700 every two weeks, for example, could spend more than $30 per month on financial services alone if he or she cashes a check with a 2 percent check-cashing fee and then buys two money orders each month to pay the bills.

Postal Service or at similar rates at other vendors. To pay their bills, consumers may use money orders instead of checks at a minimum cost of $1.20 per money order through the U.S. Check-cashing fees, for example, may range from 2 percent to 5 percent of one’s paycheck or government-benefit check, and these fees have increased over time. Living without a bank account means that these households, which rely largely on cash for financial transactions, may pay more for financial services than those with bank accounts. According to the FDIC’s “2011 Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Consumers,” approximately 17 million adults in the United States, or 8.2 percent of the population, do not have a checking or savings account-a group known as the “unbanked.” Another one in five households in the United States are “underbanked,” meaning they do have some sort of bank account but still use alternative, nonbank financial-services providers such as check cashers and pawn shops.

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