SNAP offers more than a payday

Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs is offering classes to help tens of thousands of Inland Northwest residents improve their financial standing and return to traditional banking.

Get Checking, offered in two, three-hour sessions, helps people break their dependence upon payday loan and check cashing stores, which charge high fees and interest rates.

“We are trying to help them figure out the next step and get them into mainstream banking,” said Terri Stoflet, financial services program manager for SNAP and class instructor.

Get Checking, sponsored by eFunds Corp. and developed by the University of Wisconsin extension, educates clients about banking and money management. After participants learn key account balancing skills, they pay off their debt to banks and receive a certificate of completion. The certificate enables them to open an account at any of seven local banks and two credit unions who’ve agreed to honor the certificates, Stoflet said.

The program is being implemented in cities across the nation as banks and non-profits join forces to help people overcome negative records posted in ChexSystems Inc., a consumer reporting agency, to open accounts. The national database, which tracks bad checking accounts, is used by banks to determine whether new customers can open accounts.

The database’s list includes 16 million Americans, some of whom may not realize that a bounced check at age 18 can result in being turned down for a new checking account at age 25.

ChexSystems’ records include about 36,000 Spokane County residents, who owe banks more than $4 million, and 11,000 Kootenai County residents, who owe about $1.5 million.

Ray Mooney, vice president of community development for Sterling Savings Bank, said the average person only owes about $100, but that’s enough to create problems.

“This class is very focused on what went wrong and how to stay out of that problem a second time around,” said Mooney, who is working with non-profits, government agencies and banks to get programs started in Spokane, Seattle, Tri-Cities and other areas.

So far, nine local financial institutions have agreed to hand out brochures about the class and work with consumers who’ve completed the class, Mooney said.

Participating financial institutions include Wells Fargo, AmericanWest Bank, F&M Bank, Intermountain Community Bank, Panhandle State Bank, Sterling Savings Bank, Washington Trust Bank, Numerica Credit Union and Spokane Teachers Credit Union.

The benefit for consumers is paying lower banking fees and improving their chances of getting future loans, Mooney explained. In return, banks receive restitution and have a chance of gaining educated customers.

“What bank wouldn’t want educated checking customers walking through their door and wanting to open an account,” Mooney said.

The SNAP class is a companion to the Neighborhood Assets program, which provides free classes and long-term financial counseling to teach clients saving, budgeting and other financial skills to improve their long-term economic status.

“When we started Neighborhood Assets, we found that a lot of people coming through the doors didn’t have banks, they were using check-cashing stores and payday lending and things like that,” Stoflet said.

Stoflet said the key difference between the programs is that Get Checking is a short-term class for people who can afford to pay off debt and gain immediate access to checking accounts.