http://www.probityfinancialservices.com/

Apparently, they will overlook Chex and Telecheck, as long as you don't have fraudulent activity or "excessive" history.

Eligibility
Who is eligible to apply for Probity Checking?
Probity Checking is for everyone who:

Is 18 years or older,
A U.S. citizen or resident alien living anywhere in the United States, and
Has regular Internet access.


Even if you've been denied by other financial institutions because of credit, ChexSystems or Telecheck reports, Probity Checking may be the right choice for you. Probity does access credit information during the online application session and will not open accounts for those who have been suspected of fraudulent activity or have an excessive history of checking account abuse.
It is a minimum $25 opening deposit and a fee of $19.95 a month...BUT...no overdraft fees or transaction fees (other than whatever fees other banks charge for ATM).

Hope this is useful to some.

They have turned down several people from my board and the fees are outrageous. If the fees weren't so high, it might be a good deal

I think $19.95 a month flat fee is better than $30-35 a pop when the major banks do the "highest to lowest" routine in order to generate fees like Bank of America did to me last week, when an 85 cent pending debit came in, a $14.95 pending debit came in, and my quarterly debit from FTB came in a day early..instead of one OD fee, it cost me THREE. If they paid them in the order they came in, I still would have had one fee..no biggie. They also do not charge for the use of a foreign ATM or transaction fees, so that isn't really bad (IMHO). I am thinking about opening a secondary account with them. Bank of America is turning into Wells-Fargo as far as "we fee".

Probity apparently will turn down people with long Chex history (multiple institutions) and/or history of fraudulent activity. My friend Debra was approved (two Chex entries, oldest 4 years, newest 1 year) and loves them. They just raised her overdraft limit to $500 and she has been with them about 3 months or so.

I understand what you are saying but there are just way too many other options out there for those reported to chexsystems. You don't have to pay 20.00 a month for an account. There are still banks that will open accounts for anyone regardless of where you live and there are still many banks that offer second chance checking for way less than 20.00 a month in fees. Some are even free.

of course options vary depending on where you live and some states are harder than others but there are options out there for EVERYONE

I actually ended up opening an account with them as a secondary account, and I have to say that I am very impressed. Their customer service is fantastic. The $19.95 is getting off cheap compared to the $105 Bank of America charged me for an 85 cent overdraft, plus the other fees for my "free" account they have come up with since June. Probity only charged me $10 for an order of 200 checks with free shipping. Bank of America charged me $26. The couple of times I have had to send in paper checks was great..they were credited the same day and they will actually take the time to call and verify funds with the issuing institutution so that they don't have to do the "extended hold" thing.

I had one unauthorized transaction on my debit card last weekend. I emailed them, had the dispute forms in email attachment Monday morning, faxed it back, and the funds were back in my account in under three hours.

What I really like is that they actually do pay debits in the order in which they come in, not in the order that they feel like paying them in order to manipulate more fees. But what I REALLY like is that if you email them, you get a personalized response that actually pertains to what you are emailing them about; or better, they will even call you about it. Canned emails are one of my biggest pet peeves (not just with banks, but in general).

Bank of America is now my secondary account; I only use them when I have to go in and buy wrapped pennies to pay my union dues.

They are also turning down other people now as well. Not just those that have " fraud indicated" Definitely not a good option IMHO.