Why I Switched To A Black Bank And So Should You

In the United States, we can all agree that your mainstream banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo are white-owned, hell even in New York City we have the Bank of China, Bank of India, but where are all the Black-owned banks? There’s several actually, but a lot of black people don’t look past their front door and don’t do any due diligence to bother looking for a bank, so they really don’t get any press so most of us don’t even know they exist.

You might be wondering, what difference does it make, a bank’s a bank, however, in actuality, it matters a lot and no, a bank is just not a bank. Banks have biases which often times, have nothing to do with the Bank policies themselves, but the employees who work there. For instance, I walked up in a Bank of America in a predominatnaly Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in Boro Park one day, and literally everyone stopped and looked at me as if I wasn’t supposed to be there. It was pretty awkwards to have 5 big long brim hatted men to just stop and stare at me as if I had walked into the wrong part of town.

Three months ago, I opened up a shiny new bank account at OneUnited whose tagline is they’re America’s largest Black-owned bank. I was excited to receive my Liberty card and I swipe my trendy. While there have been some peeves at the bank, such as they don’t support Samsung Pay, overall I am extremely happy with my new bank and have now moved my entire d direct deposit there.

Pros

I’ve listed these in the order of preference

1. You get your direct deposit the same day – most banks make you wait 2-3 business days after they’ve received your deposit to actually make it available in your bank account. But now OneUnited. When they get paid, you do too, So there’s no waiting around until Monday when you get paid on Fridays. Youre money will be there Friday at the stroke of midnight.
2. They have online banking. Although their mobile app could use some eyecandy, I am very happy that I can bank

Cons

Although this isn’t a real con to me, it may be to some people but they

1. No way to deposit cash – Like all internet banks, dpositing cash can be a hassle. The point of an internet bank is well, be on the internet, so when physical must meet virtual, there can be a problem. This is not exclusive to OneUNited but to all online banks. To deposit to an online bank you will have to either have an account also at a locate bank near you to deposit the cash and then transfer it to OneUnited or find a 3rd party ATM that accepts cash deposits which will take anywhere up to 72 hours or more to show on your account.