https://www.fdic.gov/householdsurvey/2017/2017execsumm.pdf


Reasons Households Were Unbanked As in previous years, the 2017 survey asked unbanked households about the reasons why they did not have a bank account. Findings are similar to those reported in previous years.

• More than half (52.7 percent) of unbanked households cited “Do not have enough money to keep in an account” as a reason for not having an account, the most commonly cited reason. This reason was also the most commonly cited main reason for not having an account (34.0 percent).

• Almost one-third (30.2 percent) of unbanked households cited “Don’t trust banks” as a reason for not having an account, the second-most commonly cited reason. This reason was also the second-most commonly cited main reason (12.6 percent).

• As in previous years, higher proportions of unbanked households that previously had an account cited “Bank account fees are too high” (29.9 percent) or “Bank account fees are unpredictable” (24.9 percent) in 2017, compared with unbanked households that never had an account (21.1 and 17.0 percent, respectively

• Higher proportions of unbanked households that were not at all likely or not very likely to open a bank account in the next 12 months cited “Don’t trust banks” (36.2 and 31.5 percent, respectively) in 2017, compared with unbanked households that were somewhat likely or very likely to open a bank account in the next 12 months (24.7 and 21.0 percent, respectively).