HUNTINGTON PARK : Center Offers Lower Rate to Cash Checks

Tina Romero recently walked into a small check cashing place in Huntington Park with two checks worth $500.

A few minutes later she walked out with about $482 in cash--$18 had been taken off the top by the check cashers for processing and service fees--a surcharge of more than 3%.

“I was shocked,” said Romero, a Bell resident who works nearby at a Huntington Park office that handles worker’s compensation claims. “It was too much.”

Romero fits the profile of the customer that the newly opened Cash and Save, a check cashing service operated by Union Bank, is trying to lure. Had she taken her $500 to Cash and Save, she would have been charged about $6.25.

Union Bank opened the center on Zoe Avenue in Huntington Park after finding that many people in Southeast Los Angeles do not maintain checking and savings accounts in traditional banks. Instead, they cash their payroll checks and then get a series of money orders to pay bills.

Romero, for example, does not use the nearby Bank of America because it requires customers to have an account in order to cash checks. She and many people in the community rely on check cashers, some of which charge steep fees, for their banking needs.

The Cash and Save charges a check-cashing rate of 1.25% to 1.5% and offers low-cost--even free--money orders. Other check-cashing businesses charge up to 3% to 4% for converting payroll and government checks to cash.

In addition, Union Bank officials hope customers will be drawn by offers of free money orders. For customers with a $7.50 membership at Cash and Save, the bank will provide six free money orders per month for one year to pay utility bills, said Joanne Curren, bank spokeswoman.

The Huntington Park center also seeks to win the loyalty of people who are generally not very trusting of banks by offering such services as consumer and small-business loans, checking and savings accounts, phone cards, secured credit cards and wire transfers to foreign countries.

“This will help people establish credit histories,” Curren said.

Romero, with advice from a friend, visited the Cash and Save last week. This time, she spent about 10 minutes inside before emerging with a personal identification card to be used for cashing checks at a rate considerably lower than she had been paying.

“If it catches on there, then you might see one coming to our city,” said Jack Joseph, Cudahy city manager. Joseph said that Cudahy’s population of 24,000 is served by one bank and a smattering of check cashing places. “We want people to get over their fear of banks.”

The Huntington Park Cash and Save, 2675 Zoe Ave., is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.