For ‘unbanked’ Californians, cash is still king in an increasingly cashless society

By Kate McQuarrie OPINION (CALMATTERS) – As a mother of six who works in a Los Angeles Jack-in-the-Box, Anneisha Williams can’t afford to pay steep bank fees. For her, every dollar matters, and overdraft fees have left her frustrated and fed up with banks — to the point where she no longer even uses them. “When you have a big family like I have, those little dollars matter,” Williams told me. “I just had enough with each and every one of those banks because of all the high overdraft fees. It was just too much for me.” But avoiding banks limits Williams’ options for managing her money. She has to use check cashing services, which take a percentage of her income, and relies mostly on cash, making saving extremely difficult. This is reality for the nearly 1 in 5 Californians who don’t have bank accounts and must often use costlier methods to access their money. Black, Hispanic and low-income people are the most likely to be unbanked or underbanked, a status that can undercut economic mobility. Other populations, such as the elderly, noncitizens and unhoused people also are acutely affected by a lack of access to banking services. For these...