I work at a check cashing place.  Over the summer, teenagers' mothers brought them into the store to cash their first ever check.  To give you perspective, these kids rarely earned more than $100 a week, and the fee to a cash a check is 3%.

Each time, I'd tell the kid about free checking accounts for students, available at PNC (four blocks away.)  They would nod gravely, and then the parents chimed in.

"He wants his money now."

"We don't do banks."

Not one working teenager told me that they wouldn't open a bank account, but every parent discouraged it.  Without a checking account, you must purchase money orders whenever you need a check, and pay bills in cash, incurring an extra fee each time.   To live without a checking account, you must be extremely organized or flat broke.

 Seeing adults struggle from their lack, then force their children into the same position is the most difficult part of my job.