I live in central Illinois (Bloomington) and need a local bank. My employer stopped doing direct deposit and its taking almost two weeks for NFCU to process my mail in checks. US Bank turned me down and I feel stuck. I have on entry on chex that is 4 years old and I think $90. I have a mid 500 credit score but my report is relatively clean.

Any ideas?

Clevermonkey, I am certain that I can help you. There are some banks that will for sure open an account for you but may not be local there.
1. People's Bank
2. Transportation Alliance Bank
Have you seen my list for IL?
If you are local to a WoodForest, they are a great bank for those reported to chexsystems. They offer second chance checking and they are very friendly.

You said that US bank turned you down, did you applya t a regular branch or online? Only certain US bank branches will help those reported to chexsystems. Even those branches will not help you if there is any kind of " fraud " indicated on your report.

Bank Of America might be a good one for you as well. ( not knowing which bank reported you to chexsystems though) if you apply online for an account at Bank Of America they will approve. Almost everyone that applies for an account at Bank Of America right now is being approve. You MUST apply ONLINE only.

Fidelity might be one to consider if you are local to them, they offer a checking now and they do not use chexsystems

can you tell me more about fidelity? I looked on their website and did not find anything about them havnig debit cards or checks. Do you know if they do ?

yes they offer a mysmart checking account and it does come with a debit card and checks as well

http://personal.fidelity.com/accounts/pdf/sca_app.pdf

Bank of America is very liberal at the moment. They approved my husband, who is in Chex and BOA is the one who put him in Chex.

Do expect one or two hard pulls on Experian, though.