Wal-Mart's New Checking Account Changing the Game? Posted by AVCU on 12:18 PM

A MSN Money article speculates how Wal-Mart's latest checking account for consumers may be a game-changer in financial services.

The retail giant already offers basic financial products and services such as prepaid cards and international money transfers, but recently announced its entrance into the checking account market through a partnership with Green Dot (Green Dot is the bank; Wal-Mart is the distribution channel). Wal-Mart plans to offer the checking account in more than 4,000 locations throughout the country by the end of October.

Reportedly, over 1/4 of Americans are unbanked or underbanked, many of whom pay thousands of dollars in fees to use check-cashing services, payday loans and other alternative financial services.  WalMart and other, like the U.S. Postal Service, hope to fill the gap left between traditional banks and other alternatives.

With a WalMart checking account, customers buy a starter kit at any Wal-Mart store for $2.95 and set up an account online after verifying their identity. They'll have access to over 4,200 ATMs in the network (and $2.50/withdrawal at out-of-network ATMs) and a mobile banking app.

While Wal-Mart is the largest example of retailer financial services, others like cellphone cariers T-Mobile and Boost Mobile (Sprint) offer basic prepaid Visa cards. And 7-Eleven has jumped into a payment processing network called PayNearMe.

For more detail read the MSN Money story.