Bank On Keystone: Safe, Low-Cost Banking Products for Pennsylvanians
If you live paycheck to paycheck, you may have a hard time imagining yourself with a savings account; you may feel like you’re spending money as quickly as you earn it. There are Bank on Keystone options that are low-cost and safe, that you can rely on to help to build a path of financial empowerment to move forward.
United Way of Pennsylvania is excited to join the Bank On Keystone Coalition, which is part of the national Bank On movement. Like dozens of other Bank On coalitions across the country, Bank On Keystone Coalition partners across sectors to work to connect residents to banking products certified as meeting the Bank On National Account Standards. Bank On Keystone Coalition also helps residents with information about how to use these products effectively and how to navigate the consumer finance marketplace successfully.
1.35 million hard-working Pennsylvania ALICE households have incomes which exceed the federal poverty level, but are not high enough to pay for their basic needs. When you add in households that live below the federal poverty level, that’s 1.97 million, or 39 percent of PA households, who are struggling to survive.
A common reason working households have for being unbanked is that they believe they do not have enough money to keep in an account. A Bank On account must meet certain standards – including requiring $25 or less to open an account, minimal monthly maintenance fees, no non-sufficient fund or low balance fees, free deposits and free online banking.
Access to credit opens doors to less expensive loans for everything from your mode of transportation to homeownership. Home ownership is the foundation of building wealth in most working American families, but only about half of families who work but struggle to make ends meet have the opportunity to own their home, a lower rate than the roughly 2/3 of all Pennsylvanians who own their own homes. Many Bank On partners offer not only accounts, but other services and educational resources that can help community members meet their financial goals
We encourage any Pennsylvanian who is unbanked or underbanked to visit the Bank On Keystone website to explore low-cost, safe options for banking in the Commonwealth.