On April 27th, the FDIC shuttered Palm Desert National Bank and arranged through a mix of government subsidy and private investment that the bank’s operations would be assumed by Pacific Premier Bank.  This presented perhaps the closest call to date for an event that might test the ability of the FDIC to deliver on its promise to repay depositors of a failed bank.

Prepaid deposits will not be in danger this time. Moreover, the current location of those (more…)

More people are blocked from getting a checking account than you might expect. According to the FDIC, 19 percent of US adults are on either the Telecheck database or ChexSystems.

Prepaid can be cheaper than the alternatives. Bretton Woods released a study last month (more…)

Two small midwestern banks will be providing tax refund transfers during the upcoming tax season. The transfers are being marketed under the name “QIK Funds.” They will be offered by Citizen’s Bank and by New Capital Bank. New Capital is a division of Marshall County State Bank.

The refund transfer is a version of the refund anticipation check (RAC). The checks are (more…)

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Daniela Baker, the editor of CreditDonkey.Com. CreditDonkey is a personal finance blog.

A new survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has found that about one in thirteen Americans does not have a checking or savings account. The survey found that over a quarter—24.6 percent—of all American households either don’t have a checking or (more…)

Republic will cease to offer RALs after April 30th, 2012.

More to come shortly.