Until someone has had to go through the absolute horror of being reported to ChexSystems, it’s hard to realize how much of a pain it is to deal with. Of course, you’re unable to open a checking account in most institutions, so you can’t pay your bills with a check. You can’t pay online either because online bill pay requires a valid checking account. And since having a debit card is not an option, that means that you walk around with lots of cash. Let’s not even mention the part where your credit report is ruined because of it.

Thankfully, just like most systems, there are loopholes that you can take advantage of. The first one is that the competitiveness of the financial industry causes institutions to always be looking for new segments to cater to. And one of those segments is people looking for a non ChexSystems bank. Those banks exist in just about every area in the country, all you have to do is go out and look for them. And finding them doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are a few pointers:

1.- An informed customer always puts himself in a position to make a better decision that an uninformed one. Look around. Compare. Check the companies’ reputations. Read the money-back policy (there should always be one)

2.- It’s not true that you have NO option but the wait five years. Only 80% of the financial institutions out there base their bank account openings on ChexSystems. That means there’s a big 20% out there that don’t. Those are the banks that you need to locate and give your business to.

3.- Be careful before you purchase a “non ChexSystems banks” list. Some unscrupulous “marketers” just put together a random list without even checking anything, just looking to make a quick buck. People who buy lists of leads are careful who they buy from. You should be equally careful. If an ad catches your attention, just keep in mind that if it’s a financial institution that’s advertising, it’s more likely to be legit than if it’s an ad by a list seller.

4.- It’s one thing to buy a moderately priced list; it’s another thing to pay up to $200 for a list. That’s just outrageous in my book. A good quality list (and by that I mean with a decent number of banks, accurate, and updated) shouldn’t go for more than $19.95. Repeat business would definitely not be a problem, thanks to referrals from satisfied customers.

The thing is that if you sit down and put in some elbow grease, you will definitely be able to find those FDIC-insured banks, either in your local area or online, that will do business with you regardless of the fact that you have a negative ChexSystems report.