Help for those on ChexSystems

You innocently walk into a bank or credit union to open up a new checking account and BAM you are introduced to the cold hard world of ChexSystems. You are told they can not open an account for you because your name appears on some list that you had never even heard of. What do you do? Several years ago, I was in this position. I had recently gotten married and wanted to add my new wife to my bank account. Imagine my surprise when the new accounts representative told us that she would not be able to add my wife to my account. She told me that I had an entry in ChexSystems and it was the banks' policy not to open a new account for anyone listed in ChexSystems. At that point, I had never heard of ChexSystems and was shocked that this company that I had never heard of was controlling my life. The new account representative suggested that I contact ChexSystem directly as she had no idea what the problem was as her system simply returned a "REJECT" message. I left the bank feeling confused and frustrated and embarrassed that I could not accomplish a simple task like adding my wife to my bank account. So, I went home and got on the internet and learned everything that I could about ChexSystems. I was shocked to find out how many people were being negatively affected by being listed on ChexSystems. This was a really big problem and an injustice to millions of good and decent people. It planted the seed for me to later create this website in hopes that I can help people who have been affected by the SYSTEM. Soon after the incident at the bank, I wrote to ChexSystems to request a copy of my report. I wanted an explanation!!! I wanted to know what information this agency that I had never heard of was collecting about me. Several weeks later I received the report. There was one entry in a section called "Reported Information" that was causing all the problems. There were other sections of the report but they apparently were not an issue. The reported information included the name of the financial institution, my name and address at the time of the incident and a partial account number. Next to a line called "Reported For" was OVERDRAFTS. Next to Debt Reported was a statement that ChexSystems has no debt information available and did not even know if a debt was still owed and suggested I contact the financial institution that reported this. Great, this was turning into a wild goose chase. It took several months, many letters and phone calls but I finally got the entire story. I was doing contract work out east and had opened up a checking account for convenience. One of the last things I did before returning west was purchase airline tickets. The travel agency agreed to make the reservations if I provided a credit/debit card but I had arranged to pay for the tickets with cash. I paid for the tickets in cash and returned west and that was the end of the story, so I thought. Apparently, several weeks later, the travel agency had charged my card for the tickets even though they had already been paid in cash. This caused my account to become overdrawn. I had moved back west so none of the mail reached me. I tried to explain all this to ChexSystems and the financial institution that reported me to ChexSystems but nobody listened. That is where things are today. I am still in ChexSystems today for 1 more year. Fortunately, there are financial institutions out there today that will work with you. That is why I created http://www.checkingforyou.com I wanted more options for selecting my new checking account. I did not want to be limited to a few internet banks and others that had inconvenient locations or unreasonable fees. So, I decided to do research and contact thousands of financial institutions and find out which ones had reasonable policies regarding ChexSystems. The result of our extensive research is a comprehensive list of more than 600 banks and credit unions that have expressed a willingness to work with you despite the fact that you are listed on ChexSystems. I want to share my research with you as I know it is frustrating and sometimes embarrassing to deal with financial institutions when you are in ChexSystems. I want to give you a fighting chance to suceed by helping you target the banks that are most likely to be willing to open a new checking account for you. If you are in ChexSystems and having a problem finding a bank that will work with you, stop by our site and give our services a try. http://www.checkingforyou.com