If you’ve ever fallen foul of banking laws, then the chances are that you may have been reported to ChexSystems. It doesn’t take a bank robbery to get on the list, you can be reported for being excessively overdrawn, bouncing checks or being involved with another fraudulent activity, and if you get reported you stay there in ChexSystems for a five year period.

But actually what is ChexSystems? Well, it’s a CRA – or consumer reporting agency – which banks and similar financial institutions use to keep a record of people who have, for want of a better word, abused the system – and so if you try to open an account with another bank they can check the records and see what sort of credit history you have. The whole world has been in economic difficulty for a few years now, and the banks really have to be extra vigilant about dealing with people who are not regarded as a safe option.

As long as the information about you in ChexSystems is accurate then you can do nothing about it, just sit back and wait for the five years to pass, but, if anything is simply not true or inaccurate in some way or another then you might like to file for a ChexSystems Dispute.

So, the big question is, can there be life after ChexSystems? There’s always something you can do, if you’re just smart enough to know how. One interesting fact is that there is about 15% of Non ChexSystem Banks who don’t even use the system, so they won’t know anything about your history at all, will they?

What about debit cards?They can be tempting can’t they, but there are some situations (in fact more and more) when a debit card is necessary, so how about prepaid debit cards? Well, there’s a solution to this problem too, prepaid debit cards can plug that hole. Prepaid debit cards really can make a world of difference.