Yet, about 8 percent of Americans—nearly 17 million adults—live in unbanked households, meaning they either opt out of using banks at all or don't have easy access to them.-The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-defines-the unbanked as "those that lack any kind of deposit account at an insured depository institution." Another 51 million adults are what's called "underbanked," or those who "hold a bank account, but also rely on alternative financial service providers," like-prepaid debit cards.- "There has been very aggressive marketing of prepaid debit cards over the past few years targeting young people and minorities," John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education at SmartCredit.com, said. "So it's not a surprise that more young people are using prepaid debit cards over credit cards." “Collectively, the underbanked paid some $78 billion in interest and financial service fees in 2011 alone, a practice that is unsustainable for this low-income demographic,” Banktech-reported.-

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