Washington Mutual's free checking -- give or take $5

In other words, let's say you're a WaMu customer and you write a $30 check to your buddy Bob for his collection of vintage Peter Frampton records. If Bob, who doesn't have a checking account, cashes the check at his local WaMu branch, he'll only get $25.

WaMu would keep $5. Peter Frampton would get nothing.

Lisa Margolin-Feher, a WaMu spokeswoman, said the check-cashing fee was intended "to reduce wait times for customers."

"Noncustomers who want to avoid the fee can take the checks to their own banks," she said.

Well, there's the rub. Many people don't have bank accounts, and their only options are to go to the bank that issued the check or to check-cashing services that charge sky-high fees.

A 2004 study by the Federal Reserve found that about 5% of white U.S. residents and nearly 19% of nonwhite residents didn't have bank accounts.

"We're talking about tens of millions of people," said Austin King, director of the Financial Justice Center of the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

"The unbanked tend to be low-income people who either can't meet minimum deposit requirements or who have bounced checks in the past, or undocumented people who deal primarily with the cash economy.

"Mostly," King said, "it's immigrants."

WaMu already charges the fee in Washington state and Florida. Starting Dec. 1, it will be imposed at all other branches -- including the more than 700 in California.

WaMu's credit rating was cut again this week by Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's, essentially lowering it from junk to really junky. The troubled bank has put itself up for sale, and talks reportedly are underway with several suitors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Chase also charges a $5 fee for noncustomers to cash checks drawn on its accounts. But it has no bank branches in California.

Citibank doesn't charge such a fee. Bank of America and Wells Fargo don't charge to cash checks drawn on personal accounts, but both banks charge noncustomers to cash checks drawn on business accounts: $5 at BofA, as much as $7.50 at Wells.