Mobile bank rolls on reservation

By Jomay Steen, Journal Staff Writer | Friday, January 20, 2006

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PINE RIDGE - A bank on wheels has made inroads to better customer service on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and has slowly started the process of converting a predominantly cash society, officials said.

Nearly 30 years ago, Oletha Mousseau opened her first bank account with a Rushville, Neb., bank.

Mosseau wanted the security and services that First Security Bank offered, and she was willing to drive the 26 miles from Pine Ridge to Rushville to get it. Although she would have preferred to bank locally, Mousseau had no other choices at the time.

“There are no banks in Pine Ridge and none on the reservation,” she said.

That changed in 1997 when First Security Bank launched its mobile banking unit called Badlands Express to reach customers in Pine Ridge, Manderson, Oglala, Kyle and Wanblee.

Mousseau appreciates the convenience of having a bank in her hometown on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, rather than spending the time and expense involved in banking in Rushville or Martin. “It’s good for people who don’t have transportation,” she said.

Badlands Express has made financial inroads by not only increasing its customer accounts but also converting a society that operates for the most part on cash.

Last week, Mousseau, Christine Eagle, Elaine Quiver and others waited in line outside the converted recreational vehicle to talk to Angie Witt, mobile branch manager, and Tom Thomas, Security First Bank assistant vice president, about managing money or creating new accounts.

Quiver, 73, director of the Foster Grandparents program, had taken a noontime break from her job to walk to the Badlands Express’ temporary parking lot. It took only minutes to arrive at the mobile bank’s doorstep compared to the time it would take to go to First Security’s nearest branch office.

“It’s easier for me to take time off to come here than to go to Rushville,” she said.

Eagle, 20, a first-time bank customer, wanted to open a new account. Eagle regularly pays a $7.50 fee at a local shopping center to cash her paychecks, and it costs $40 to pay for a ride to Rushville. An account with the mobile bank would free her from these costs.

“It also would help me to manage my money better,” she said.

Eagle said that she would like to get a cash card that she could use for direct payment from her account or have the option to go to an ATM when she needs cash.

Currently, the full-time Pizza Hut employee pays a $7.50 check-cashing fee to cash her paychecks and then must carry hundreds of dollars in her purse. Eagle knows that if she opens an account at Badlands Express, she could avoid fees and the possibility of losing her money and could build a credit history.

“I would like to think that I’m careful with my money,” Eagle said.

“Young people are way ahead of the game as far as banking is concerned,” Thomas said.

Parked next to Big Bat’s convenience store in Pine Ridge, Thomas sits at a small desk behind a laptop computer with account applications neatly arranged on his desk. A cardboard box of customer files sits on the floor next to him and two folding chairs are set up for clients. A cash dispensing machine separates Thomas’ cramped work space from that of Witt, who works with a customer on a loan application.

With thousands of miles logged and its dependable service, the mobile bank typically opens eight to 16 accounts each week, bringing new customers into the banking community — many of them young people, he said.

“We can just about do anything here that we do at our main branch,” he said of his mobile office.

In its weekly schedule, Badlands Express arrives at midmorning Tuesdays in Pine Ridge and rotates between Manderson and Oglala on Wednesdays. The mobile bank is in Kyle on Thursdays and rotates between Wanblee and Pine Ridge on Fridays. Thomas and Witt see about 70 customers a day in Pine Ridge and Kyle and about 40 customers at the other sites. They close the doors at 2 p.m.

“We cash checks, process loans, open accounts,” Thomas said.

They also want to change some of the more troubling money practices on the reservation, such as that of signing blank loan contracts, Thomas said.

Often desperate for transportation, people sign off on car deals for no down payment but often don’t understand the length of the contract or the interest rate of the loan, he said. For those who have had bad credit ratings or repossessions, it seems like an answer to a need, he said.

Such a contract could tie up income for longer than the person would own the car, he said.

Thomas said one of the bank’s goals is to educate its clients to question loan contracts that sound too good to be true.

“We want them to make sure they know what they’re signing,” he said.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com