[door opens] - hey.- how you doing? - good, how are you?- good. - i owe you money. - you gonna paythe whole balance? - yeah, which is 360? yeah.- yep. - 1, 40, 60. - how much would you say youspend in expenses every month? - the monthly expenses areprimarily business expenses.
- miscellaneous stufffor the kids, be it field trips,lunch money-- - gas money. - 60, 80, maybe 100 bucksa week in gas. - electricity.i have insurance. - dental insurance,health insurance. - medicine.- medicines for the kids. - and as one billgets paid off-- - the next month,it's more money.
- for four people to goto the movies, it's over 100-- - 150 for phones. - a lot of little expensesand then big expenses. - would i be able to do, like, a swap of machinesto go towards this? - every month, we spendanywhere from $2,800 to $3,500. - sometimes i'm leftwith hardly anything. - sometimes it's nail-biting. it's a roller coaster.
- i have all this massive debtbehind me, and it feels so overwhelming. - we all wantto get the most out of life. - [laughs] - a great family, an education, a business,a home... - it's a three-bedroom/four. - but for a growing numberof americans,
the price of getting aheadis higher because of a financial system that leaves millionsunderserved. - you just haveto kind of tuck your chin to your chestand keep going forward. - don't give upeven when you want to. - there's not ever the optionto not make it work. i have to. - you ready?- yeah.
let's race. - [laughs]you got no chance, baby. - i grew up dirt poor. we were on welfare.we were on food stamps. i remember the first dayof school. you know, everybody'salways got their best gear on. everybody's readyfor the first day of school, and my best gear camefrom goodwill. i often look back at my life.
from an early age,there was a lot of wantingand disappointment. - despite his tough past, justin's builta small production company and wants to start a lifewith his girlfriend, brittany. - now that i'm an adultand i'm making it, i want to carry my whole familyon my back, so nobody ever hasto want or worry. i love you.have a good day.
see you later. i love brittany. i'm gonna buy a ring,and i'm gonna make her my wife. i'm gonna do the thingsthat will take us there. [beep] - he makes a good living shooting videosfor corporate clients. - i see a lot of potential where we're atand where we're going.
- but while business is good, justin's at a disadvantage. - i get checks from clients,and i leave the luster and grandeurof downtown, and i go uptown rightinto the check cashing place. i'm doing good.i'm tired, but i'm good. - justin is1 of 70 million americans who lack access to thetraditional financial system. and as that number grows,
it includesmore and more people who once livedin the mainstream. - very good, okay,now write that number down 'cause we're gonna subtract. so we really--- 236 take away 149. my total answer is 87. - [snaps fingers] you cooking with crisco.- all right. - take you a minute to cookthe meal,
but you doing a good job. you have to beyour child's first teacher. i told you, you could do it,and i believed in you. you just have to apply yourselfand work hard. my mom taught me,"pay what you owe and save." so i saved. savings accounts, 401(k)s, credit cardswith wonderful limits. i wanted to have somethingto leave for my daughter.
we know we needan hour of math every night, and we know we need at least30 minutes of reading every day. i want her to be ableto find success in whateverher dreams are. i chose to put herin private school because i don't want to evercompromise on her education. i love you. have a great day.- love you. - be good.good luck on your test. - tiffany worked as a nurse
to provide for her familyand built a nest eggfor her daughter's future. - my 401(k)was almost 100,000. life was good. i was livingthe american dream. - hey, honey?- yeah? - you were right.there's a little too much water. [laughter] - well, they'll be crepes.
- some of 'em will be crepes,and some will be pancakes. - dude, i like it.- [laughs] - when melissafirst met alex, he had a careerin the music industry and was doingwhat he loved most. - i love this thing. - after one of the shows, i went up and talked to alex. and we kind of hit it off.
- no "kind of" about it.we just hit it off. - we hit it off. about ten weeksafter our first date, he asked me to marry him. just like everything elsein our life, the family thing happenedpretty quickly. - with two kidsand two incomes, alex and melissa hada healthy, happy home. - times were good.everyone was doing well.
and then our reality changedovernight. - their son wasdiagnosed with autism. shortly after,alex was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. - it was terrifying,and then what happened was, is i focused on the kids. does it matter?- yes. - [chuckles]which one do you want to get? - go burlington.- burlington?
- go burlington.- not today. not today. they-- what are we doing today, jonah?look at mommy. - stay home.- stay home. - i can tell you to go, and i can schedule it,but if you don't go-- - ma, you got--he has to test your eyes. i had just gotten a new job. he has to-- i had steady income.
but then my mom was diagnosedwith cancer. that's my number one patient. how can i take careof somebody else when i have my momsuffering at home? - tiffany decidedto leave her job, so she could focus full-timeon her mother's health. - i thought that i couldcome back to the workforce and just pick upwhere i left off. - the pictureof the financially unstable
is a picture of you and me but for a couple of breaks. - between alex's illnessand jonah's diagnosis, this became this huge expense that we hadno contingency plan for, we had no savings for. - alex's illnessaffected his ability to work, and he was forced to give uphis job. so they did what many americansdo at their bank.
- if a bill came upand we needed to pay for the power or the cable, we knew we could go ahead and write a checkand it would clear. - when a customerwithdraws more money than they havein their account, they can givetheir bank permission to cover that costwith an added fee. this is calledoverdraft protection.
- banks were increasinglylooking for profits from these classicconsumer check accounts. - some customersdidn't make money for banks, so they found other waysto meet costs. - what most banks were doing as a customary practicewas this check reordering, or it's also calledhigh-low check sequencing. - when alex and melissapaid their bills, their grocery and student loanchecks cleared okay,
but the price of power went up, and that bill emptiedtheir account. one overdraft fee, $35. but if all three debts postedon the same day, their bank had softwarethat reordered their purchases-- power bill first,then loan, then groceries. three overdraft fees, $105. - the fees became so much. payday would come,and we'd be back to zero.
- eventually,what the bank will do is boot them out of the systemand close the account because they feel like they'renot gonna recoup their debt. - if banks can't keepthose customers, there's an alternativethat will. every year, over 30 millionamericans use check cashers. and for many of them,the service works. - they're open later.they remember my name. they're offeringa "we can get you
what you need right now"kind of solution. - a huge amount of businessgets done at check cashers because people can gettheir money right away, and they needtheir money right away. - we've all had to wait a couple of daysfor a check to clear. it's becausewhen a bank clears a check, it has to be scanned,verified, and processed by a system that was builtin the era of rotary phones.
most western nations have found faster waysto clear our funds, but not the u.s. so americans have to wait. - three to five days from nowisn't acceptable for tens of millionsof americans. if your light's gonnago out tomorrow, you need to be ableto have that clear now. - i'm not exactly surewhen it's gonna clear,
and i have to pay my bills. you go to the check casher. you get the money back,minus the fee. you have that money inyour hands right at that moment. - it's notan irrational choice. it's just nota productive choice, and it's a costly choice. - underserved americans spend the same percentof their income
on fees and interest as the typical american familyspends on groceries. that amountsto $89 billion a year. - and you are all set. - as a way to avoid fees, alex and melissa decidedto live on cash. - we have cash on hand, and that's the moneythat we have. this is all we can spend.
so when the money runs out,that's it. - on payday,it's getting to the places, so i can getthe bills paid on time. - hi, how are you? - good.i'm here to pay the power. thanks so much. - take care.not a problem. have a good one. - being unbanked is really
something like havinga part-time job. - i probably spend1/4 tank to 1/2 tank of gas driving aroundand paying bills. - you're gonna spend more moneyand more time doing things that peoplewho are in the banking system take for grantedand usually do for free. you go to a check casher,you are automatically having to pay somebodyto get your money. now you want to pay a bill.
well, you have a wad of cash. how are you gonna pay your bill? - how can i help you?- how you doing? i just need to put some moneyon this card. - money is becomingmore and more digital, which means there areless places that accept cash. that makes lifefor the underserved even more expensive. - we havea prepaid debit card,
and the moneythat's on the card is real cash. it's cash that i directly handthe people, and they turn itinto fake money for me. it's convenient,you know, if you don't have a bank account,you can still do everything everybody else does,but you get taxed. - justin not only pays a fee turning his checks into cashand his cash into a card, he pays a fee for every purchasehe makes.
- there's the transaction,and there's a buck, and the transactionand a buck and a buck all the way down the board. man, it just kills you. very quickly,you can lose 80 bucks a monthcashing your checks and another 100 bucks a monthspending your money. - over the courseof his career, justin could spendup to $40,000
just to turn his paychecksinto cash and another $30,000using his card. - and that's just nothow you get ahead. it's not how you thinkabout the future. - this is, like,fully hand-stitched. - what? - and, you know, i have to,like, stitch every single-- i have to make every single holebefore i stitch it. - are you s--- yeah, like, every single one.
- debbie is a designerstruggling to grow her business, but she isused to overcoming odds, like being the firstin her family to graduate from college. - more than being proudfor myself, i was happy thati could make my parents proud. - when she was 14,she emigrated from argentinawith her parents. her father worked construction,and her mother cleaned homes.
- both my parents are, like,people who work really hard and sacrifice their whole lives. - debbie appliedher parents' work ethic and put herself through collegewith student loans, then started her own businessmaking leather bags by hand. - my mom said,"you were this tall. "you came up to meand asked me for a needle and thread." she gave it to me, and i startedmaking clothes for my dolls.
so i figured outhow to sew on my own when i was four years old. - after six months,her bags are starting to sell. - now i'm excited. beautiful.- crossbody. - love it, love it, love it.- right? and wait, check this out.- perfect. - i can seeall of these stores, and i can seemy company growing.
i can see it. - you know how to get out,right? - yes, i do. - but because student loans have weakened her credit, debbie's dream has a limit. banks use credit to measure a person's abilityto repay a loan. they look at a limited setof data:
length of credit history,past loan payments, and debt. if you've never taken out a loanor line of credit, you're invisibleto the credit scoring system. - i thoughti was being responsible by not having credit cards. and we already hada lot of friends who were really getting into that trapof maxing out a card, so you got to getanother credit card and another credit card,
and we didn't want to gothat route. - not having a credit card may have saved alexand melissa from debt, but it hurt themwhen it came time to get a loan. - we tried to buy a car. we went to a car dealership,and the car dealership told me, "you would more likely geta mortgage than you'd be ableto buy a car." and we reached outto a bank to say,
"okay, let's seeif we can get a mortgage." and they said, "oh, you'd neverbe able to get a mortgage. you should try to get a car." - there are lotsof financial transactions one undertakes that are notactually tracked in the credit system. and so people who looked likea high financial risk might not be. - when a banklooks at a borrower,
it doesn't seetheir monthly bill payments or rent or hard work. it sees a number. and if that number's damagedby past mistakes, it's very difficultto recover. - people often judge meon the choices i've made not knowing the optionsthat i had. - justin had to grow up fast. when he was a teenager,his family fall apart.
so at 16,justin was on his own, paying rent and workingevery job he could justto support himself. whatever his paycheckdidn't cover, he put on a card. - you can't get to work, youneed to pay somebody gas money, you need to get some food,whatever i needed, like, that had to get taken care ofthat i couldn't do. i wasn't grown enough yetto address these mistakes and the situationin the proper fashion,
so, you know, what doesa kid do? they run. - justin stoppedpaying on his debt, a mistake he's been workingto overcome ever since. - when we set up shoots, we'll have two live cameras outand the still, or we might run her stillas a live. - and while he's takenhis life and business in new and better directions, banks don't seewhere he's going.
they only seewhere he's been. - it's just frustratingbecause, you know, we've worked really hardfor a really long time. it's so hard to find a house.- yeah. - with his lease running out, justin wants to buythe kind of home he never had growing up. - a lot of these places are--i mean, they're like that. they're townhomes.they're all for lease.
they're never for sale. - i can checkon craigslist again. - i think it's smarterto check on craigslist. the house that we can afford, we're not gonna be able to getif she's the only one on the papers. it's not enoughwith just her income. but if i was on the papers,my credit's so bad that it would negativelyimpact us,
and we wouldn't get the house. - so i have a couple thingsthat i needed to get. so you guys dothe smaller orders too, right? - yeah.- okay. - debbie has close to $100,000in student loans. but even though she paysher bill every month, the debt makes it hardfor her to move on. - in terms of pricing,i guess that makes a difference. - these are more expensive.- they are? okay.
- millions have hadtheir credit scores impacted by having student loan debt, and it's really stunting future opportunitiesfor the next generation. - you know what,i do need knobs for where this strap goes. - okay, those are a little...both: pricier. - because they're made outof solid brass. it's $91.48 per gross.
- i want to build my credit. i want to be able to be giventhe opportunity to have some kindof credit line. - debbie's bank refusedto give her a business loan. instead, they offereda secured credit card, which is like a prepaid card, except that it helpsto build credit. - $34.75. - but the card hasa $250 limit.
- how much is this one? - to make a single bag, debbie needsa hide, cording, zippers, magnetic closures,rivets, lining, sealing components,and linen thread. - this is declined. - when i goto get my supplies and i reach my limit, which happensalmost immediately,
i have to tapinto my personal cash. - which isa big stretch on a tight budget. - your order'sgonna come out to $110. - okay. - because evenafter debbie fills an order, she still has to waitup to three months to be paid. - i just spent every last pennyi had to my name, and next week,i already have student loans that i have to take care of.
most people livefrom paycheck to paycheck. i livefrom handbag to handbag. - enjoy your day.- thanks. thank you.- thank you. - so this is great, man. it's quiet, off the main road,good freeway access. - yeah. - most peoplewhen they're buying a house, it's a compromisebetween price and location,
and for us buying a house, it's a compromisebetween price, location, and the actual abilityto get in, to pass the processof getting in. we can do it,but it's not gonna be easy. we've got to findjust the right person in just the right spot,and that might take a week, it might take a month. it's not gonna take morethan six, you know what i mean?
it's gonna happen. - think we can get in? - oh, it even hasa shed, baby. so this is just a guesthouseor what? - this could be,like, an office area. - what?- and then that could be-- - oh, my god.how amazing would that be? - yeah.- i mean, if it's cool inside, that would be so great.- i'm sure.
- i really like it.- i like it too. - well, let's give 'em a call.- let's get the number, yeah. - we're ready financially. we've got all our ducks in a rowas far as, you know, proof of incomeand proof of residency and proof of bills. we're ready. - hi, my name'sjustin dickenson. i was callingabout the house for sale.
[indistinct chatter on phone] - are you interestedin a full-time position? - yes, ma'am. - when her mom got sick,tiffany made a plan. she decided to live off savingsand return to work in a year, but she didn't counton the recession. now, the only jobsshe can find are part-time, and they don't pay her enoughto cover the bills. - i was workinga travel assignment in kingwood,
and it's up. - it is 50 miles one way. - i always said to myself, "i'm a nurse.i can get a job. i'm educated." i have an associate's degreein psychology, a bachelor's in nursing. then i have an m.b.a. - after the financial crisis,
we saw many more peoplelosing their jobs, defaulting on debt. - the credit scores,they just start dwindling because i had to decidewhat was more important. when you're the caretakerfor somebody, that's an expensive toll. but every day, you need to betaking care of your family. - pick one.- okay. - i--okay.- [stutters]
- i know--i know this is different. - don't know. - when one of your children needs more supportthan you originally expected, the only thing you can do is provide for himthe best care you can find,that you can afford. - to get accessto a school program that would meet his needs,
jonah first had to getan exam. - we really needed a write-upto make sure that jonah got into a programthat was really gonna suit him. a lot ofthe developmental psychologists were $2,500 to do this report. - without accessto credit and no savings, alex and melissa had no wayto cover the cost. nearly halfof all u.s. households live paycheck to paycheckand could not come up
with $2,000 in an emergency. - it's increasinglymore middle-class people too. suddenly,they're in a situation where they can't affordto keep a buffer in their accountsthe way they used to before. - i had depleted my 401(k). that's how i paid the car notes,the mortgage. and if you're steadytaking, taking, taking, and nothing coming in,
it evaporates. so you got to pay attentionto your numbers. are you adding or subtracting? the process is different. when you're subtracting,the number is going to be less. when you're adding,the numbers get bigger. my back wasagainst the wall, and i had borrowedas much as i thought i should be borrowingfrom friends and family.
what are my other options? - it used to beyou could walk into a bank or to a finance company and get a $500 unsecured loan just on your signature. but that product doesn'treally exist anymore. finance companieshave essentially gone away. so what filled the gapduring that time? - plus, you skip...- we've got the cash!
- giving you up to 30 days.- cash-- all: we've got the green! - they're easy to ignore untilyou actually need the money. - gets you the most cash. - it was justone of those things. like, you seethat it's there, but i didn't really knowwhat it was. - i was in a stateof desperation. of course i seethis commercial
that looks likeit will fix all of my problems. - if you've got your title,we've got your bucks! - let titlemax turn itinto cash. - high cash loans can approvea loan for you in just five minutes. - in the neighborhoodwe lived, there were payday loan placesall over the place. - they call ita payday loan because it's designedto be paid back
on the borrower's next paycheck. - "if you have a joband you have a paycheck, "you know, come in.sign up. "we'll give youthis payday loan. and then next payday,you pay us off." and it was like, "okay.well, let's do that." - title loansare like payday loans, except instead of usingyour paycheck as collateral, you put up the titleto your car.
- the companywill give you a loan based on the valueof your vehicle, and if you don't pay it back,then they take your car. - i'm like, "well,i'm thinking about taking out "this loan on my car. how much do you thinkit's worth?" "well, let's go outsideand take a look at it." and then they say, "oh, youshould be able to get $5,000." i say, "okay.we'll do this.
"it'll tide me over,and when i start working, we'll just pay it off." when i first gotthe title loan, paid off the bills,rent, it was likea little kick start for me. - in the momentwhen we needed it, i was glad that it was there. but then you get in a cyclewhere you can't get out of it. i would get my paycheck,
but now, i'm stuckwhere i was before where i don't have that money, and we were living too closeto the edge to not have it. so we would just re-loan. - if the option iseither paying off the loan or paying to extend it, americans on the edgedon't have a choice. week after week,the account comes due, but for some,the fee is more affordable
than paying off the principal, so the loan is rolled over. it's how,over the course of time, a short-term loan can becomea long-term crisis. but even as the fees pile up, the original loan isnever paid off. - and so the spiral begins. - those loans are based upon this false ideathat all somebody needs
is a little bit of moneyto get to their next paycheck. that's not what's happening. what's happening is that peoplearen't able to make ends meet, and getting a loanthis pay period doesn't make that problemgo away. it only makes ita little bit worse the next pay period. - 80% of borrowersare forced to renew their loanafter two weeks.
- if you're in a situationwhere you have to get a payday loan,you don't have the money. you don't. you know,it's two weeks to payday, and i've got $8, and i got to make that stretch. - i got a job in dallas. while i was there,one of my payments was due. so i called up.
they were like, "we can't takea payment over the phone. you have to come in." i said, "well, can i go to oneof your sister companies?" "no, you haveto come to this store." so by the time i get back,fees have kicked in. - it was a routine. i'd go and get the loan, pay whatever bill it is, and now in two weeks,i owe them the money again.
- and then they tell you, you can't make partial payments. "if you can't paythe whole amount, then we're nottaking anything." - i've got 1/4 tank of gas. we want to celebrategabriel's birthday at my sister's tomorrow, so that's what that 1/4 tankof gas is for. if we need anything else,we have to walk.
- interest and fees is steady,getting stacked on, and it's getting higherand higher. you always trying to runto the finish line, but the finish line never come. - we have yet to be ableto pay that off in full, and so over the courseof time, we've spent about $1,700. - how muchwas that loan originally? - um, 450.
- i got some goodies. - this is so cool.- oh, yeah. i didn't even show you that one.- i love this one. - you want to keep it?- yes. - okay.- i want it. i want it all. - debbie is meetingmore and more boutiques who want to sell her bags. for anyone else,this would be good news. - it's just been,like, evolving.
- i couldn't afford to have,like, a big contract come in and tell me, like,"i want this many bags." - what about the chain one? - this is the last of it. - okay.- [sighs] - 'cause of, like,the material? - i think i may have enoughto make, like, maybe one or two more. - and then...
- and then--- more clutches? - this is the last of it,absolutely. - today, she has more ordersthan she can handle. - the reality of it is,i won't be able to produce it. i got to do, like,the numbers and see how much it costs me. it's scary sometimes'cause it's-- i'm trying to build something. i just don't have the means.
- without creditor the cash to fund the order, she has no choicebut to take another job. - hello. hi, come in.- hi. hi, hi.justin. - how are you?- good to meet you. - justin and brittanyneed to convince a seller that they arecredible home buyers. - thank you for having us.- i really like the front. - it's a great spot.- this is nice. i like it a lot.
- we have to find individualswho are willing to work with us who can trust the last few years' historyof income as opposed to the lastten years' history of credit. - well, if it's stillon the market in a couple of weeks...- right. - then they'll--i'm sure they'll be more willing to listen to an offer.- right. - but at this point,it's probably a little too soon.
- i never thoughti'd see myself at a pawn shopunless i was buying something 'cause it's a placeto get some great deals, not realizing that those dealswere other people's dreams. there i was,selling my dreams. - i woke up. "that sounds like my alarmon my car." by the time i got there,it was a tow truck taking the car onaround the corner.
this is how i get to work. - after a 14-hour day,it doesn't end. regardless of how many nightsi don't sleep, it's just not enough. - this sucks, baby.- you're telling me. - really trying to bettermy life, become a different person. it's hopeless. - i ended up having to take herout of private school.
"mommy, why are we not goingto this school anymore?" that hurts. - these situationshave taken families that hit a bumpin a road and pulled them downinto a major crisis. people end up at the doorsof our social service providers. - what happens when a familyruns out of options? what happens when a mothercan't give her daughter the education she needs?
what happenswhen an entrepreneur gives up her dream? or the door closeson a young couple's future? the financial landscapeis changing and changing fast. one in four householdsare underserved. many of them arehardworking families, servicemen and women,and college graduates. in the last five years,
bank branches have been closingat record rates, while check cashingand payday loans are thriving. - as you get closerand closer to the edge, there are fewer placesfor people to go. - but there issome reason for hope. a new generation is usinginnovation and technology to reimagine the way we bank. in san francisco,a business is helping people pool their money togetherand lend to each other,
so families havea better option when money gets tight. in new york,there's an organization that's giving affordable loansto growing businesses, so entrepreneurs can seetheir ideas come to life. and outside atlanta,a company is building a new type of credit score using rentand monthly bill payments, so underserved americans havea path to the mainstream.
- it's about havinga range of options available that enable people to spend, save, borrow,and plan. - but for too many of us,when we need it the most, good options aren't available. tens of millionsof hardworking americans are trying to reachtheir potential. and they're waiting, wanting,
believing in a simple promise that if they strive forward, they won't be held back. [james vincent mcmorrow'swe don't eat] ♪ ♪ - ♪ if this is redemption ♪ ♪ why do i bother at all? ♪ ♪ there's nothing to mention ♪ ♪ and nothing has changed ♪
♪ still i'd rather be working for something ♪ ♪ than praying for the rain ♪ ♪ so i wander on ♪ ♪ till someone else is saved ♪ - oh, michaela,this is awesome. - ♪ under a mountain ♪ - i am so proud of you. - ♪ swam in the ocean ♪ ♪ slept on my own ♪
♪ at dawn i would watch ♪ ♪ the sun cut ribbonsthrough the bay ♪ ♪ i'd rememberall the things ♪ ♪ my mother wrote ♪ ♪ that we don't eat ♪ ♪ until your father'sat the table ♪ ♪ we don't drink ♪ ♪ until the devil'sturned to dust ♪ ♪ never once has any man ♪
♪ i've met been able to love ♪ ♪ so if i were youi'd have a little trust ♪ ♪ 2,000 years ♪ ♪ i've been in that water ♪ ♪ sunk like a stone ♪ ♪ desperately reachingfor nets ♪ ♪ that the fishermenhave thrown ♪ ♪ and trying to find ♪ ♪ a little bit of hope ♪
♪ me, i was holding ♪ ♪ all of my secretssoft and hid ♪ ♪ pages were folded ♪ ♪ then there wasnothing at all ♪ ♪ so if in the future ♪ ♪ i might need myselfa savior ♪ ♪ i'll remember ♪ ♪ what was writtenon that wall ♪ ♪ 'cause we don't eat ♪
♪ so if i were you ♪ ♪ i'd have a little trust ♪ ♪ so we don't eat ♪ ♪ so if i were you, my friend ♪ ♪ learn to havejust a little bit of trust ♪
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