Interesting way to get bank account/paypal with zero money

[VanLifeCrisis]

My nephew who recently became an adult is struggling right now.&nbsp; His scholarships fell through at school and at least for now hes broke and looking for work.&nbsp; I know of some revenue streams online he could try for pocket cash, but he needed a bank account.&nbsp; He had one through some school/bank collaboration, but they closed it pretty harshly almost immediately when his new semester funds didn't show.&nbsp;<br> <br>Well, I figured out had to get him an ally bank account without needing any money at all.&nbsp; Its a good account with no minimum balance.&nbsp; You go online and sign up...be sure to enter an address that can receive your free checks and debit card (trusted friend etc...they won't forward these though).&nbsp; They ask you to fund your account with a transfer from another account but you can bypass this by entering zero, and then choosing to 'mail in a deposit later'.&nbsp; At the end they give you account number, but won't send the checks or debit mastercard until you 'fund' the account.&nbsp; <br><br>I had him go to paypal and sign up.&nbsp; Paypal requires a bank account if you want to do much, and now he technically had one.&nbsp;&nbsp; Paypal verifies your bank account by sending you miniscule deposits that they then charge back off.&nbsp; Even though it is only a couple cents deposit, it actually funds your ally account, and they ship off your checks and debit card.&nbsp; BAM...no need to have another bank account or figure out how to get a check to deposit by mail etc.<br><br>Im going to have him use that bank account with amazon payments as well.&nbsp; So then he can do mturk work (which pay is horrible but it helped me out a couple times..) or iwriter work with his paypal, and pull the money out of his ally account with the card (they refund all atm fees of course).<br><br>As soon as he finds work, im gonna drive him for 25 bucks a week.&nbsp; I told him for gas but im going to save it into an account for him and when he gets his own car or whatever, transfer the money back to him (hopefully he'll keep saving..)<img rel="lightbox" src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" class="bbc_img">

 

[Zil]

Ally also has the app to deposit a check by sending a photo from your phone.

 

[Cubey]

Why would you need a bank account if you have no money?

 

[Unchained]

You have to have a bank account in order to get verified on Paypal. If you want to accept Paypal payments for work you do or things you sell online, you need to be verified.

 

[Guest]

Most places require you to have a bank account for direct deposit.&nbsp; Most people online deal with paypal.<br><br>I would suspect that someone who has no money would want these things in the hopes of making money.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Yep...that was the whole idea anyway.&nbsp; Of course you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.&nbsp; <br /><br />I just thought that someone who may want this setup but didn't have a check to deposit or id and money to an account the regular way would find this useful.&nbsp; Heck if you got a spare chicken suit laying around you can make some change on fiverr.com singing happy birthday to people or something <img rel="lightbox" alt="[tongue]" src="/images/boards/smilies/tongue.gif" class="bbc_img" />

 

[compassrose]

I do not have any bank accounts. I have my paycheck direct deposited into my Walmart Moneycard account. Back when I had a bank account, I got a business Paypal account. I still have it. My walmart card is "tied" to the account.

 

[ice_maiden]

This is actually a very good idea... I deal in mostly cash. But there are times I need a checking account for checks and I also need one for my paypal because I have a debit card on it also.... I will not pay a monthly bank maintenance fee to only to hold a few dollars most of the time. For years I kept the same maintenance free checking account. But now most banks have started charging a monthly free. My last maintenance free checking account just started charging a fee in Sept. I have been looking for another.... This may be the answer for me...

 

[peacetara]

I agree, I refuse to pay any fees to banks, as soon as they start charging fees, I switch. Usually I try to stop by the bank first, and ask if they can cancel all these fees, and if not, I close my account right there and then. Paying fees to people to hold your money seems ridiculous, and I refuse.
That said, https://www.simple.com is another bank like Ally, tho they have a different take on how they appear to the user, and have no minimums or anything.

With Love,
Tara

 

[Zil]

Simple is not a bank. they rep bankcorp. they have many fees, they do not refund atm fees. they charge for inactivity. and much more. Simple is not the bank, they have a card agreement. Simple is not like ally.

Ally is a bank. Ally has no fees. Ally has no minimum. Ally has higher interest than others.

disclaimer; I may buy shares of ally for my next round of investment.

 

[Telcobilly]

Thanks everyone who suggested Ally. I started an account a few weeks ago (after thoroughly researching it) and now have the debit card/checks. I'm very comfortable with online banking, that's all I have done for the last 10 years. I was extremely reluctant to go with the big banks with all of the bogus fees and penalties. I have told a few people about it. I love the app on my Android phone too. Thanks again.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

Ive been happy with them. The only problem ive had with them was my nephew above made the mistake of trying to switch address before he received his first set of docs and making first deposit, so it triggered a 'send us 10 proofs of address' flags and froze his account. Since he doesn't have bills he had nothing to send them, and the guy on the phone was a jerk and wouldn't listen when he explained this. He just kept saying to send them bills as proof of address...

Ive changed mine 3 times tho without any problem or sending them anything beyond my initial signature card. Ive called customer service about my debit card not working (stores fault turns out) and they were great. Transfers between banks seems to be a little slower than id like.

 

[Zil]

Transfers between different banks is slow with any bank. Transfers from BOA is three days longer than from Ally. BoA also charges for transfers to outside banks. Ally is always free. My transfers from Ally takes 3 days. To BoA adds another 4 days. Just the max banking law allows.

 

[offroad]

I write checks to myself to do transfer between banks. Using the check scan tool in the bank application makes this easy. Still takes three days for deposit to clear.

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Only problem with banks is loans are not great. I have an account with NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION. They approved a credit card for me in 24 hours. After they checked my credit score. Got said card in less than a week. No one else was half as fast.

 

[Telcobilly]

USAA makes transfer amounts immediately. Ally was definitely slower. Not complaining though. I would continue with USAA if I hadn't had a bankruptcy. My ex filed when we split up, so all of her/my debts defaulted to me. I had no choice. I may try to get back with them after the 8 year period.