The Need for Banking the "Unbankable"

In our increasingly digital world there are many people who need a credit or debit card of some sort to participate in or do business. Most hotels now will not permit someone to stay as a guest unless they have some sort of bank card for the hotel to scan.

Gone are the days of having a tab at a local merchant. Merchants demand and customers need an instant method for conducting business transactions.

Another use for debit and stored value cards is to permit people to essentially carry a bank account in their wallet. Employers now have the option of direct depositing pay checks directly to the employee's card. Stored value cards now actually have a bank routing number in addition to the account number so that money can be wired to the card.

Money can also be transfered by the cardholder from one card to another card anywhere in the world. One can see the potential for unbanked immigrants in many countries around the world sending money back to their home countries. These card-to-card transactions are much less expensive to the user than using older methods such as wiring money through Western Union.