Is it possible to live without a bank account?

“Possible? Yes, but very difficult in 2022. Firstly, you work and get paid presumably. No bank account? Well, who pays cash these days? So you rely on paying your wage into someone else’s account and them giving you the money. Second, you would have the hassle of paying bills and rent by cash. Not to mention the risk of having a load of cash lying about your home. So it’s not impossible, but it is very hard.”

SCATTY c

“Foolish and it definitely will impact your life and cause restrictions.  I write about 3 or 4 checks a year.  Some places only accept checks – club subscriptions, auction wins, etc..”

babyboomer

“You can live without a bank account but it’s going to be expensive. You will need to buy money orders or cashier’s checks to pay the bills that you cannot pay in person with cash. My car insurance no longer offers billing but requires their customers to allow bank drafts. If I didn’t have a bank account, I would have to look for a different car insurance… My child’s doctor no longer accepts cash payments due to covid-19. I would have to buy prepaid credit cards for those instances and prepaid cards have monthly fees. So, overall, it is possible to live without a bank account but it will be more expensive and likely requires more time (to buy money orders, get prepaid cards etc)..”

Anonymous

“Sure.  I wouldn’t want to but lots of people are ‘non-banked’ because of past mistakes and banks won’t open an account for them.  Paying bills become harder, you either need to go into the companies with money orders or cash.”

Anonymous

“Anything is possible. Most conventional employment pays you with a check that is directly deposited into your bank account, so that is the first issue. You can possibly get a credit card without a bank account, but how would you pay your monthly credit card bill? You could pay it from something like PayPal, but how would you move money into PayPal?”

fcas

“It’s obviously not impossible because hundreds of millions, perhaps several billion of the world’s 8 billion people, do not have bank accounts. Life in a modern industrial society is somewhat more difficult without one, and the more modern industrial society goes cashless, the harder it will be on those with no access to electronic transactions. But for a large population of the world who life an agrarian lifestyle, life isn’t affected one way or the other.”

Curtis