America is home to more than 9.5 million unbanked households – households in which no members have a bank account. Families who forgo traditional financial institutions often pay a sizeable chunk in fees to alternative financial-service providers.
NerdWallet, tallied the cost of being unbanked and found that the average unbanked household pays $488.89 in annual fees. Low-income homes are often hit the hardest, with nearly 20% of households with less than $30,000 in annual income being unbanked. Here are some key findings:
- Arizona has the highest percentage (12.8%) of unbanked households in the nation. By comparison, only 1.9% of Alaskan residents are unbanked.
- The average unbanked household income in Arizona is $20,301, with unbanked spending approximately 2.4% percent of their income on fees.
- At a state level, these unbanked costs rack up to between $61,948,337 and $159,105,610 annually for Arizona.