05/11/2017 Its expensive to be poor - Tackling poverty

Tackling poverty
Its expensive to be poor
Why low-income Americans often have to pay more

Print edition | United States Sep 3rd 2015 | WASHINGTON, DC

WHEN Ken Martin, a hat-seller, pays his monthly child-support bill, he uses a
money order rather than writing a cheque. Money orders, he says, carry no risk of
going overdrawn, which would incur a $40 bank fee. They cost $7 at the bank. At
the post office they are only $1.25 but getting there is inconvenient. Despite this,
while he was recently homeless, Mr Martin preferred to sleep on the streets with
hundreds of dollars in cashthe result of missing closing time at the post office
rather than risk incurring the overdraft fee. The hefty charge, he says, would kill
me.

Life is expensive for Americas poor, with financial services the primary culprit,
something that also afflicts migrants sending money home (see article

https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663262-why-low-income-americans-often-have-pay-more-its-expensive-be-poor 1/4
05/11/2017 Its expensive to be poor - Tackling poverty

(http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21663263-regulation-
keeping-remittances-unnecessarily-expensive-tax-poor) ). Mr Martin at least has a
bank account. Some 8% of American householdsand nearly one in three whose
income is less than $15,000 a yeardo not (see chart). More than half of this group
say banking is too expensive for them. Many cannot maintain the minimum
balance necessary to avoid monthly fees; for others, the risk of being walloped with
unexpected fees looms too large.

Doing
Latest updates
without
Saudi Arabias unprecedented shake-up
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA banks
Venezuela asks its creditors to renegotiate its vast makes life
debt costlier,
AMERICAS
but in a
Southwest Airlines tries to bring music concerts
to the skies routine
GULLIVER
way.
See all updates Cashing a
pay cheque
at a credit union or similar outlet typically costs 2-
5% of the cheques value. The unbanked often end up paying two sets of feesone
to turn their pay cheque into cash, another to turn their cash into a money order
says Joe Valenti of the Centre for American Progress, a left-leaning think-tank. In
2008 the Brookings Institution, another think-tank, estimated that such fees can
accumulate to $40,000 over the career of a full-time worker.

Pre-paid debit cards are growing in popularity as an alternative to bank accounts.

The Mercator Advisory Group, a consultancy, estimates that deposits on such cards
rose by 5% to $570 billion in 2014. Though receiving wages or benefits on pre-paid
cards is cheaper than cashing cheques, such cards typically charge plenty of other
fees.

Many states issue their own pre-paid cards to dispense welfare payments. As a
result, those who do not live near the right bank lose out, either from ATM
withdrawal charges or from a long trek to make a withdrawal. Other terms can
rankle; in Indiana, welfare cards allow only one free ATM withdrawal a month. If
claimants check their balance at a machine it costs 40 cents. (Kansas recently
abandoned, at the last minute, a plan to limit cash withdrawals to $25 a day, which
would have required many costly trips to the cashpoint.)
https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663262-why-low-income-americans-often-have-pay-more-its-expensive-be-poor 2/4
05/11/2017 Its expensive to be poor - Tackling poverty

To access credit, the poor typically rely on high-cost payday lenders. In 2013 the
median such loan was $350, lasted two weeks and carried a charge of $15 per $100
borrowedan interest rate of 322% (a typical credit card charges 15%). Nearly half
those who borrowed using payday loans did so more than ten times in 2013, with
the median borrower paying $458 in fees. In 2014 nearly half of American
households said they could not cover an unexpected $400 expense without
borrowing or selling something; 2% said this would cause them to resort to payday
lending.

Costly credit does not mix well with lumpy welfare payments. The earned-income
tax credit (EITC), an income top-up for poor families, is paid annually, as part of a
tax refund. The total refund can run into thousands of dollars, making it worth
more than many families monthly pay cheque. Unsurprisingly, cash-strapped
households seek to borrow against this windfall in advance. Regulators have
recently nudged banks away from issuing high-cost short-term loans secured
against imminent tax refunds. But it is still common to borrow to cover the cost of
applying for the EITC. In 2014 almost 22m consumers used refund anticipation
cheques, which offer a loan to pay the filing costs and collect repayment
automatically when the refund arrives. These products typically cost between $25
and $60 for credit that lasts only a few weeks, according to Chi Chi Wu of the
National Consumer Law Centre, an advocacy group.

How might financial services be made cheaper for the poor? Mr Valenti sees
promise in mobile banking. But the poor are not yet well placed to benefit from the
mobile revolution, in financial services or otherwise. Only half of those earning
less than $30,000 per year own a smartphone, compared with 70% or more of those
in higher income groups. Nearly half those who do manage it have had to
temporarily cancel their service for financial reasons. That might itself be the result
of disparate prices: those with poor credit ratings rely on pre-paid SIM cards, which
unlike normal monthly contracts do not come with a hefty discount for the
handset.

Low smartphone penetration in turn makes life more expensive in other ways. The
unconnected do not benefit from the cheap communication, education, and even
transport the app economy provides. A quarter of poor households do not use the
internet at all, which makes seeking out low prices harder.

Price discrimination

https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663262-why-low-income-americans-often-have-pay-more-its-expensive-be-poor 3/4
05/11/2017 Its expensive to be poor - Tackling poverty

Inflation has also squeezed the poor more in recent years. The prices of items
which soak up much of their budgetssuch as rent, food and energyhave risen
faster than other goods and services. Falling oil and energy prices may be reversing
that trend, though typically the poor own fewer cars, so benefit less from cheaper
petrol.

From 2000 to 2013the latest year for which figures are availableinflation has
been higher for those in poverty for 139 of 168 months, according the Chicago
Federal Reserve. As a result of this inflation premium, prices rose 3.2% more for the
poor over this period. These figures may understate the disparity, because they do
not include employer contributions to health insurance, which are widely thought
to hold down pay cheques, and make up a bigger proportion of the total pay of the
poor.

The high cost of being poor has two main implications. First, inequality is worse
than income figures alone suggest. This is true even before non-financial
disparities, such as the implications for health of living on a low income, are
considered. Second, finding ways to reduce these costs, for instance by making it
easier to claim the EITC without borrowing, or by changing the rules on overdraft
fees (which at the moment are used to cross-subsidise banking for other
customers), would be a cheap way of helping low earnersand bargains are rare for
the poor.

Youve seen the news,

now discover the story
Get incisive analysis on the issues that matter. Whether you read each
issue cover to cover, listen to the audio edition, or scan the headlines
on your phone, time with The Economist is always well spent.

Enjoy 12 weeks access for $12

https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21663262-why-low-income-americans-often-have-pay-more-its-expensive-be-poor 4/4