How would that have helped me pay my electric bill? I mean sure, if the electric company wanted to support it, OK, but they'd sooner support credit cards or PayPal, don't you think?
I don't like this system when you need a bank account to get a home and utilities. Why can't you use cash? I don't like that the bank wanted your utility bills with your residential address just to create an account for you. What for? They want to control everything. I just don't like that.
You don't need an account.
In practice this is mostly implemented by demanding the person pay cash at a post office.
You do not need a bank account to pay for utilities in the US. I'm not saying not having one will be very pleasant though.
I came to the conclusion that in the US, if you have everything that people usually have (SSN, bank account, credit card, residential address, phone number, car, drivers license), you will be treated well. Miss just one on list, and people will assume that something is wrong with you, and it probably triggers a few warning signs (e.g. in fraud detection systems).
It may be coming from the fact that homeless and criminal elements usually miss a few on the list, so it was considered an easy signal for such pre-filtering, however, moving from a different country has the same signals, triggering multiple false alarms.
First, if you have just move there, and don't have a bank account, you don't have checkbook either (there are countries who has no checks at all) - no check by mail.
No utilities accepted credit or debit card, they always wanted to have a proper bank account number from me. Later on they have improved their system and now they offer online bill pay, with an extra "convenience fee" for credit cards. Hurray! (Although I am not sure if the bank account is still a requirement for opening.)
Btw. similar story applies for wireless service: I was required to provide my full employment contract to receive a simple phone number (at that point I had bank account, active employment...). How weird is that?
The wireless thing is because the phone companies treat the account as a credit account. The easy way around it is some prepaid plan (which is possible to fund in cash...). 5 years ago it wasn't such a good option. These days a $50 prepaid plan is at least reasonable, even if it isn't the best option.
For cellular, prepaid seems to solve all of the problems everywhere I've been. I ordered a prepaid SIM card here in the US over the internet with nothing but a credit card number, has full data service and everything. Same thing everywhere else I've travelled in the last year.
Around the beginning of 2013, I took a trip to UAE, Norway, and the Netherlands. In each of those, I was able to get a prepaid SIM card at the airport for cash, with nothing but a passport for ID. All with phone, text, and data service.
I also knew someone who paid their phone bill in person every month because he was a teenager and didn't have a checking account, but had a cell phone bill.
When I set it up, it required a phone call to turn on, and my name, um, not sure what else. No bank account or anything else. Just a phone call with my name.