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Comment by fungi | Hacker News Reader

have relatives at another evil bank in another western country.

the way they tell it is that the bank really doesn't want the less fortunate out there as customers. if they could figure out a way to drop them without the public backlash they would.

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Maybe the poor should start pooling their own money. For example, I heard about some system where a group of people all pay into a pot once per month, and they rotate through who gets the pot. It basically becomes a forced way of savings because there is peer pressure not to come up short. Though I guess this isn't fully a replacement for a bank, but I guess it could help people save up to a level that they don't have to be a 'bad customer' to a bank.

Yep, common in Trinidad (and many other places I'm sure). They call it a Sou Sou.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sou-sou

It is called a Chit fund: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chit_fund

It is so popular in South India that it is now a regulated financial industry. There are quasi-government bodies that operate chit funds.

This makes sense to me. Revenues scale with deposits, but many expenses scale with number of customers. Below a certain balance, the bank actually loses money on each additional checking account - better for them if you just go somewhere else. Also, the less money you have in your account, the less certain they can be of the maturity of the loan you've made them. Given they can basically borrow from the fed for free, why would they want your money?

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