Walmart launching Bluebird checking accounts
Walmart has announced their new service called GoBank which should be starting next month in all of their nationwide stores. Bluebird is a type of checking account which targets those who don’t have or don’t use traditional banking system or don’t have checking accounts. The main goal of this service is to cover for those Americans who are considered to be “underbanked” or “unbanked” giving them at least some benefits of regular checking accounts.
What exactly can Walmart offer in form of their Bluebird account? Many things associated with this new service look promising, free direct deposits and ATM access at MoneyPass units, free Online and mobile Bill Pay, opportunity for family accounts and of course specially prepared membership benefits. They also announced an option to put some money away for future spending – savings. These are some of the options offered to new Bluebird account holders, will that be enough to bring in those 8% of “unbanked” Americans, according to 2011 survey done by According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., still remains to be seen.
Main features that will probably bring the most new customers are family accounts, which main goal is to allow for its users better control of their expenses. Account holders will be able to create up to four different types of separate family accounts – main, teenage, college and parent. Main account holder will be able to set daily spending limits or turn ATM access on or off for any other account attached to his own. Also MoneyPass ATM’s can be used completely free, other ATM’s that have a standard $2.5 charge for each use.
Bluebird cardholders will suffer no monthly or annual fees, which is a neat option that can’t be found in many banks today. There also shouldn’t be any overdraft or inactivity fees, and Walmart also said that any lost or damaged card can be replaced with no charge at all. Any funds you may want to put aside in form of savings will go to your SetAside account which is directly linked to your Bluebird card.Any funds transfers between the two can be done instantly and of course without fee.
Another nice option that Walmart announced is Bluebird membership benefits. Among other things those include help while traveling – if you are more than 100 miles from home Global Assist Services can provide emergency medical or legal assistance. There is also access to Roadside Assistance Hotline which can help in cases of vehicle breakdown by providing coordination and repair assistance. There is also service called Entertainment Access where account holders will be able to make considerable savings on tickets on sport, music or theater events.
At this time Walmart checking accounts seem to be promising a lot to those who are not using banking system from various reasons. There are some doubts however on all the “free” options mentioned above, since there is a mentioned monthly $500 direct deposit in order to have all those benefits, willingness of new checking accounts owners to invest this money every month probably depends on how often they spend money at Walmart.
