Open Second Chance Checking Account

Get a Second Chance Checking Account

Everyone deserves a second chance. Life is not perfect and achieving perfection is an impossible feat. As such, we are destined to make mistakes, some time the same mistakes are repeated over and over again. One of the most common mistakes that people tend to talk about usually revolves around our finances. While we all know that protecting our credit and keeping our credit score high is very important to any major or minor financial decisions we will ever make, we still tend to stray off the right path every now and then.

We still pay our bills late, we still overdraw our checking accounts, we still miss making our regular payments on our bills, and some of us still have a tendency to write bad checks. The result of all of this that we tend to have a poor or very poor credit score.

How does this translate to your checking account? Well, banks are hesitant to offer a checking account to people with poor credit scores. Sometimes a person’s credit score is so bad that no bank is willing to take them on as a customer. Maybe you are one of those people or maybe you are heading in that direction. If you are already there, you probably conduct all of your banking transactions in cash. This can be both good and bad.

The great part is that you have learned to live within your means. You only buy what you can afford, and you only spend the cash that you have on hand. The bad part is that the world is forever moving forward. Everything happens at the blink of an eye and sometimes emergencies will arise. If an emergency does arise and you do not have the emergency cash on hand to deal with the problem, you are going to be out of luck. One can only imagine how much more difficult and complicated life can be if an individual is not able to do something as simple as write a check to pay for something.

While the average individual who has a checking account with a bank, credit union or some other financial institution worries about whether or not they are going to be charged a fee for their checking account; or has questions about how many free checks they will be able to write this month; or becomes concerned about the level of interest that is paid on the money in their checking account…there are many who are not even able to open such an account, much less have those types of worries.

That is where a second chance checking account comes in. A second chance checking account is designed specifically for banking customers with bad credit scores or a generally poor credit history. If you’ve ever seen one of those advertisements for bad credit checking accounts, they were referring to a second chance checking account.

The perfect alternative to a checking account

Questions about Second Chance Checking Accounts:  

  1. What is a second chance checking account?  
  2. How can you open a second chance checking account?  
  3. Which banks are willing to allow you to open a second chance checking account?  

 

There is something know as the ChexSystems, which can play a critical role in helping a bank determine whether or not to grant you a checking account at their bank. ChexSystems is a consumer reporting agency much like Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. The difference is that ChexSystems focuses on the banking account history of individuals.

If you have an individual who is careless with his/her account, constantly writes bad checks, constantly overdrawn in their checking account, or maybe someone who owes banking fees to a bank…if say that individual tries to open another account with a different bank that uses ChexSystems, there is an overwhelming probability that the individual will not approved to open the account at the new bank. Statistics show that 80% of banks in the United States use the ChexSystems.

The question that you may have is how can you open a second chance checking account if 80% of banks use ChexSystems? How do you find a bank that knows of your past negative banking history and is still willing to give you a second chance? Where is there such a bank that understands that you are a high risk banking customer, yet still take you on as a customer? The only way around this will be to find a non-ChexSystems bank, or find a bank that has a second chance checking account. If a bank offers second chance checking then you are in luck, but most banks tend to shy away from this type of checking account.

As for which banks are willing to allow you to open a second chance checking account, there is a growing number that seem to be willing to take that chance, and they are all over the United States. Should there not be an option near you, you might consider a prepaid checking account as a means to maintain your funds. These types of prepaid checking account might require a high minimum opening deposition and they tend to charge $10 or more per month to maintain your account with them.

In return will get such things as the ability to direct deposit your money and avoid check cashing fees from the check cashing stores. You will also have you’re a debit card to use to make purchases rather than having to worry about carrying cash everywhere you go. The biggest bonus about this type of account is that you never have to worry about spending more than you have. Of course the negative can be the monthly fees that you pay as well as paying additional fees just to withdraw your money.

OpenSecondChanceCheckingAccount.com has added the convenience of a search feature to our site to help you search for a bank or credit union offering second chance checking accounts in your area, or similar types of accounts that you can take advantage of. One of those banks is BB&T, which has a prepaid checking account called BB&T MoneyAccount. The BB&T MoneyAccount card works just like a traditional debit card. You can pay bills online or over the phone, make in-store purchases—even get cash back.

BB&T MoneyAccount features:

  1. No credit check or bank account required  
  2. Protects you from spending more than you have in your account  
  3. Make purchases, pay bills online and more  
  4. Add funds at BB&T financial centers or any Visa® ReadyLinkTM location  
  5. Standard Monthly Maintenance Fee of $10 per month (BB&T will reduce this fee to $5 for any month in which you have total deposits/loads of at least $1,000.)  
  6. ATM withdrawal fees for BB&T MoneyAccount 
  7. Free cash withdrawals at any BB&T ATM  
  8. $2.50 at ATMs outside of the BB&T network*  
  9. $5.00 at international ATMs*  

Other prepaid visa bank checking accounts include Vision Premier Prepaid Visa Card, AccountNow, Public Savings Bank Secured Visa, SilverCard Prepaid MasterCard and more.

BBVA Compass bank is a great example of a bank that offers a second chance checking account. Surprisingly they do not require a huge minimum opening deposit to open the your second chance checking account. As a matter of fact the minimum opening deposit requirement is a mere $25. That is absolutely amazing and kudos to them for giving those in need of a second chance.

BBVA Compass has a Basic Checking Account for those in need of a second chance checking and they say the following on their website, “Trouble getting a checking account in the past? Get a second chance at Compass. We have options for everyone—even if you've been turned down for checking accounts due to credit problems or other reasons.” With a bank such as BBVA Compass and their Second Chance Checking Account Offer, there are no more excuses as to why you don’t have a checking account anymore. Even those with bad credit, who may have been denied a checking account in the past, can still apply.

BBVA Compass Second Chance Checking:

  1. No minimum balance required  
  2. Unlimited check writing  
  3. $7.95 monthly service charge   
  4. Free online banking  
  5. Free VISA Check Card  
  6. Open your account with as little as $25