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This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

Keeping money in a savings account where there is interest is logical.

Let's pretend you've never been to a bank before.

Douglas McGregor is going to be our guide.

You walk through the door, you see the red carpeting, you see someone in a suit there maybe greeting you, you see some ferns, you know a nice row of professional looking people in suits behind the counter.

You don't really see what it is they offer.

Chances are if you walk into the bank you look around you're not going to see a lot of services or prices.

You have to kind of know what you want going in there.

Or you have to talk with someone to help you figure it out.

If you think about it almost like it's like if you went to a restaurant there's no menu on the door and you walk inside and like instead of giving you a menu they ask

what do you want and you go Italian and then you have a conversation about what they could provide and the 17 different sauces they could offer and all the different shapes of pasta.

A reasonable person might think it would be kind of nice to have a menu.

Doug McGregor is a journalist.

My name is Douglas McGregor. I'm a fellow at the New America Foundation and I'm the Editor-in-Chief of Pop-Up Magazine.

In a couple of years ago he wrote a story about Czech caches and payday lenders which McGregor is quick to point out these are different services.

Czech caching is when you have a check it's made out to you.

You go in with a check you leave with cash.

Minus a 3% fee or so and payday lending is when you don't have any money.

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