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Ed Pawlowski[_5_]

On 4/18/2020 3:26 PM, wrote:
> On Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 8:57:24 AM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>>
>> I would expect poverty
>> areas to have a higher incidence of late bill payment than the well to
>> do areas.
>>
> This really has nothing to do with the water being cut-off discussion but
> 25 years ago I would pay all my utility bills at a drugstore about 2 miles
> from my house. It sat at the edge of the projects and I would stand in line
> with the black, white, and Hispanic folks living there and paying their
> utility bills as well. It was a learning experience for sure. For one,
> I was the only person who paid her bills with checks. Two, I did not
> know you could only pay so much on a bill and still have service. Third,
> the drugstore did a bang-up business selling money orders. Money orders
> were purchased for other bills and so send money south of the border.
>
> When the utility companies started doing auto bank draft I was signing up
> immediately. Standing in line behind folks buying money orders and paying
> a dib and dab here and there on their bills was a sure way to kill time and
> be bored to death.
>
The drug store was an important part of the local economy back then.
Many of those people had two problems. For some, they did not have the
$25 or so to open a checking account and if they did, many did not have
the ability of manage one.

Lower income people have a lot of disadvantages. They get paid with a
check and [ay to cash it, then they pay a charge to pay a bill, if they
have a credit card they pay the highest interest rates. If they get
trapped in the payday loan thing they pay 300% interest.