Saving money without using the bank?

[Goldy1]

you need a bank account in case you have a check to cash. I hate the idea of folks paying to get checks cashed.
I hated it in college when I was not saving any money and focusing on school that I had a bank account that the bank would charge me a few bucks each month to hav eopen b/c I didn't have the minimum required balance. Basically I got charged a few bucks each month for nothing. I did cash my pay checks at the bank and had no checking account then. At the time they all charged when I called aorund but this was about 8 years ago.

My banks are now fee free. They hold all personal checks I cash and I will get charged if they bounce but that is just the policy. You can't cash a personal check out of your bum . lol I sell my old stuff on e bay I no longer need. e bay doesn't let u take checks so I no longer have to cash checks.

[boosami]

If you want your money to be safe from complete loss, my suggestion is simply this: Diversify.

You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket because that increases your chance that you lose it all at once. Maybe you don't have tons of money, but that doesn't mean you can't compartmentalize it and keep it safe. For example, maybe you keep a week's worth of cash at home in a lock box, and a month's worth in a safe deposit box offsite. You've got another month's worth in the bank earning a little interest for if you have to burn up all the cash for an emergency.

If your home burns down, you lose a week's worth of money, not all of it. If any single point fails, you don't lose the whole farm.

[Ima saver]

Well, I have kept my money in banks for over 50 years. I have never been charged a fee for anything. Even my business and personal checking accounts pay interest. I love interest, free money!!

[simpleyme]

I use a credit union and love it

the problem came when I moved 250 miles away from my credit union

I have lived here for 8 year now and have never found a local bank or credit union to use! I have opened accounts and have been charged fees for no reason ,

my kids savings account dinged every month for 3 dollars each, credit union that wont allow 3rd party checks deposited to my account despite they fact they the are only for pidley amounts and my account balance being way more than enough to cover them

so I have no local bank at all and bank through the mail and online

If the amounts of money are real small I would just keep it in a envelope or a wallet ,and pay bills as soon as you can that will keep you from getting late fees and will limit your cash losses if you lose your money

I often have hundreds in cash in my wallet and have never lost money ,I recount my cash and have a running list of how much I have

I know many people cry they will lose the cash if they had or foolishly spend it all in both cases you have to just be careful and be accountable to yourself if you can not lose a child you should be able to not lose 50 bucks wouldn't you agree?LOL

when you get to a place where you are dealing with larger sums of money revisit dealing with banks

[KatieNK]

Stashing it away in boxes slowly depreciates your money, making it more worthless month by month as inflation presses on.

That is what I first thought about. Unless you have such little money that it doesn't matter. Meaning you have enough to pay your bills each month but nothing left to save.

Sky, Maybe you need to try another bank. I have had a couple banks that I have really hated. The people were rude, the fees sucked, and even weird things happened to my account. But I just moved on to another bank. Now I have 2 banks that I really love. The people are super nice and go out of my way to help me and there are no fees. Unless I were to bounce a check but some banks won't charge you a fee if you have money in a savings account with them too. My favorite bank is a local one (WSFS in Delaware) and they have been nothing but nice. Even a couple times I did overdraft my account and they waived the fee because they are that nice.

I just thinking not having a bank would make life so difficult. You have to get your checks cashed somewhere and PAY for it, you have to pay bills in person with cash or BUY money orders. Plus you are more likely to spend a pile of cash at home. I think not using a bank is going to cause you to spend way more money on fees than with a bank. So many offer free checking with free online bill pay. I never pay a dime to cash my check or pay a bill. Also,your bank is not going to cash your checks for you if you do not have money in the account. I have one account that I don't use very much and if I try to cash a check there, they make me deposit it first. So what will you do about your paychecks? Always keep one paycheck in the bank so you can then cash the rest of them?

[disneysteve]

Unless you have such little money that it doesn't matter. Meaning you have enough to pay your bills each month but nothing left to save.

I think we've all been overlooking the fact that this is the situation here. OP isn't talking about keeping thousands on hand but probably a hundred or so dollars. As per her other thread, they don't have enough to pay the rent, so I'm thinking we're talking about a very small amount of money here. I probably have more in my wallet right now than OP would be keeping in her home.

[GREENBACK]

This thread was slightly misleading but I'm sure that wasn't on purpose. I was thinking that she meant she wanted to keep thousands of dollars at home. I wouldn't do that no matter how much I hated banks. I think a lot of folks here probably keep a few hundred dollars stashed away which isn't to big a deal if you can afford to lose it. If it's money you have to have no matter how small the amount then find the right bank....They're out there.

[ktmarvels]

Since you say you have an account at a bank, and have internet access, why not open an ING (or other internet bank) account. ING doesn't charge any fees, but you do have to have a 'real bank' for making and receving deposits.

I know this doesn't answer your question of how to go without banks, but with your money online and a 2-3 day waiting period to get the cash would help with the motivation not to spend the money. Plus you have the bonus of relatively high interest rates so your money can grow!

[skylovessea]

That is what I first thought about. Unless you have such little money that it doesn't matter. Meaning you have enough to pay your bills each month but nothing left to save.

Sky, Maybe you need to try another bank. I have had a couple banks that I have really hated. The people were rude, the fees sucked, and even weird things happened to my account. But I just moved on to another bank. Now I have 2 banks that I really love. The people are super nice and go out of my way to help me and there are no fees. Unless I were to bounce a check but some banks won't charge you a fee if you have money in a savings account with them too. My favorite bank is a local one (WSFS in Delaware) and they have been nothing but nice. Even a couple times I did overdraft my account and they waived the fee because they are that nice.

I just thinking not having a bank would make life so difficult. You have to get your checks cashed somewhere and PAY for it, you have to pay bills in person with cash or BUY money orders. Plus you are more likely to spend a pile of cash at home. I think not using a bank is going to cause you to spend way more money on fees than with a bank. So many offer free checking with free online bill pay. I never pay a dime to cash my check or pay a bill. Also,your bank is not going to cash your checks for you if you do not have money in the account. I have one account that I don't use very much and if I try to cash a check there, they make me deposit it first. So what will you do about your paychecks? Always keep one paycheck in the bank so you can then cash the rest of them?

We have an account open that we use for cashing checks. I always pay bills with money orders because I refuse to use checks. It is worth it to me to pay between 30 cents and 1 dollar for the comfort of knowing that it is taken care of right away as opposed to making sure a check clears.

[skylovessea]

Since you say you have an account at a bank, and have internet access, why not open an ING (or other internet bank) account. ING doesn't charge any fees, but you do have to have a 'real bank' for making and receving deposits.

I know this doesn't answer your question of how to go without banks, but with your money online and a 2-3 day waiting period to get the cash would help with the motivation not to spend the money. Plus you have the bonus of relatively high interest rates so your money can grow!

I have been thinking about doing that. Thanks.

[skylovessea]

This thread was slightly misleading but I'm sure that wasn't on purpose. I was thinking that she meant she wanted to keep thousands of dollars at home. I wouldn't do that no matter how much I hated banks. I think a lot of folks here probably keep a few hundred dollars stashed away which isn't to big a deal if you can afford to lose it. If it's money you have to have no matter how small the amount then find the right bank....They're out there.

I wish I had thousands of dollars, haha. Definitely not true. We live paycheck to paycheck and we have debt to our ears, so we don't save a lot of money.

[skylovessea]

I probably have more in my wallet right now than OP would be keeping in her home.

That seems a bit rude..

[simpleyme]

in the other thread this lady was trying to raise enough money to pay her 400 dollar rent

I think we are talking about a max of 500 dollars at ant time,I personally think it would be hard to have no bank

but it appears that is the decision she has made at this point and if the fees have been bad I think it is a wise one when you make very little money to allow the bank to fee you to death is not wise ,

we all know the less you have the higher the fees,my bank will charge you for not keeping a minimum balance , and free checking pays no interest anyway

using cash and getting a solid foothold is very wise in her situation I think she is a smart young gal who will continue to grow and eventually deal with banks again but when they are good for her not just making money off her

[disneysteve]

We have an account open that we use for cashing checks. I always pay bills with money orders because I refuse to use checks. It is worth it to me to pay between 30 cents and 1 dollar for the comfort of knowing that it is taken care of right away as opposed to making sure a check clears.

Please take this as intended, as helpful advice and not criticism, but this is the kind of thinking that keeps people in an endless cycle of financial difficulty. Keeping money in non-interest bearing accounts (or no account at all), paying for money orders instead of using checks, and just generally avoiding all of the relatively simple things that successful people use to get ahead.

Paying for money orders might somehow make you feel good (though I don't know why it would) but it is costing you money each and every time you do it. Your financial situation is precarious. You can't afford to waste money, even if is is "only" 30 cents and 1 dollar. Those little charges add up over time into real money.

[ktmarvels]

We have an account open that we use for cashing checks. I always pay bills with money orders because I refuse to use checks. It is worth it to me to pay between 30 cents and 1 dollar for the comfort of knowing that it is taken care of right away as opposed to making sure a check clears.

This seems a little counter-intuitive to me. You don't want to pay the banks fees for an accout, but are willing to pay the fee to make a money order? How many money orders are you getting in a month?
There ARE banks (or credit unions) out there that have free checking, I use ING and USAA, and don't have to pay for checking. Maybe other people know of others. It sounds like you are working with limited funds, so I just hate to see you spending money on things if you don't have to.