Last week a tenant came into the office to pay her utility bill. Certainly there's nothing unusual in that, I thought. Then she proceeded to take out a money clip filled with four one hundred dollar bills. Now that was different and unusual! I then repeated our policy line—which I repeat regularly to our tenants—that Good Shepherd cannot take cash, only a money order.

No problem, she replied. I'll drive over to the 7-11 or Shopper's to get the money orders. While I'm at it, she said, putting her hand in her pocket and removing another money clip, "I can get money orders for this amount." In the second money clip, which was substantially larger than the first, was her rent payment for 3 months. The amount of legal tender (many crisp Ben Franklins) was in the thousands of dollars.

Needless to say, she is a conscientious and resourceful tenant. At the same time, she is "unbanked"— that is, whether by choice or not, she has opted not to hold cash within a bank account.

It is not uncommon for our clients to be without a checking, savings or other transactional bank accounts. I've seen others like her walk around with wads of cash to pay their creditors. In other words, they will travel to Comcast or Dominion Power offices and do what she did in our office: pay their bills with the cash carried on them.

The costs of paying bills this way are high. For example, I count in there the transactions costs of simply getting to all these creditors. There are, as well, the real points and dollars scooped up by check cashing operations.

Some estimate that one in four US households is "unbanked." No doubt many of these households can't get accounts for legal or documentation reasons. Many others fear garnishments from paychecks deposited into bank accounts or—equally likely—the large minimum account balance fees charged on small balances. These are real fears and hard dollar losses.

At the same time, some of these households may be well-served by a bank account. Our unbanked clients can gain a measure of peace-of-mind by having a place to deposit their money. They will also discover that online bill payments have truly become cheaper and more convenient. (Good Shepherd has arrangements with a couple of clients by which they pay their rents online with us). Through a bank account, they can also get access to secured debit cards for bill payment.

Perhaps one day our client’s “walking around” money will become a thing of the past.