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A bank account: opening one, being turned down, and second chances
For anyone who has never had a bank account, was turned down for one, lost one with money owing, or is paying to cash checks, and for the people helping them. This page passes on, by name, what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) say: what an account does for you, what to bring to open one, what to ask before you choose, why banks turn people down and what they have to tell you, how to get the report they used and dispute a mistake in it, and where second chances are. It puts the lines you pick on one sheet, and prints a card to keep track.
Before anything else
- A closed account or a no at a counter is a record of a hard stretch. It is not a measure of you. That sentence is ours.
- Past trouble with a bank? The FDIC’s own answer is “That’s okay.” It says some banks offer “second chance” banking, designed for people who have had banking problems before.
- You don’t need much money. The FDIC says you may be able to open a bank account with as little as 25 dollars, and that many banks offer accounts with low or no minimum balance requirements.
- Not a U.S. citizen? The FDIC says many banks allow you to open an account, and that you might need a foreign passport, a consular ID, or an ITIN.
- Turned down? The CFPB says the bank must give you a notice with the name and contact information of the reporting company it used, and that you can ask that company for a free copy of your report.
- That report is not your credit score, the CFPB says, and it can’t include most negative information that’s more than seven years old.
- Mistakes can be disputed. The CFPB says both the reporting company and the bank that supplied the information have to investigate and correct what is inaccurate.
- If the weight turns into thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 at any hour. In danger right now? Call 911.
- This page saves nothing. There is nowhere on it to type a name, an account or a Social Security number. Your browser still keeps a history.
More help
- No ID: When your ID is gone.
- Your credit report, which some banks also look at: Your credit report: getting it free, reading it, and fixing mistakes.
- An account someone else opened in your name: When someone is using your name.
- A collector is calling about an old balance: When a debt collector calls.
- Short before payday: Payday loans, title loans, and when the car might be taken and When the money runs out.
- Seeing the month on one page: Money plan.
- Coming home: Coming home from jail or prison.
- The legal side: When you need a lawyer and can’t pay.
- Keeping track: Paper trail, a log of every call, letter and visit.
- An offer that feels off: Is this a scam?
- Right now: Get help now.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No lawyer, banker or financial professional has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on each source’s own pages: the FDIC’s “Get Banked!” page; six Consumer Financial Protection Bureau answers (on being denied a checking account, getting and disputing a checking account report, cashing a check, prepaid card insurance and debit card overdrafts; last reviewed between August 2023 and September 2025, each date is on its card), its prepaid cards page, its list of consumer reporting companies and its complaint page; the National Credit Union Administration’s “What is a Credit Union?”; and Bank On’s site. The dollar figures are the sources’ own. Left out on purpose: every count of how many people have no account, the amount of credit union share insurance (it was not on the pages we read), the reporting companies’ mailing addresses, and the name of any bank or card. We did not read the Fair Credit Reporting Act itself, any state’s law or any bank’s terms, and we called no number. Everything marked “ours” is ours. It saves nothing: no cookies, no storage, and no analytics on this page.