Photo by Dan Dan the Binary Man

Most people take their bank accounts for granted, but for those D.C. residents that don’t have them, it can be an expensive reality.

Mayor Vince Gray today announced the start of Financial Literacy Awareness Month, during which his administration will continue working to try and get residents standard bank accounts.

According to one D.C. official, some 146,000 residents are underbanked or unbanked, paying $117 million a year to check-cashing services. That boils down to roughly $800 per yer per person. A 2011 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that D.C. ranked among the top 10 states with the highest percentage of unbanked residents.

In April 2010, D.C. launched the Bank on D.C. initiative, through which financial institutions, non-profits and government agencies team to get residents back accounts. In that time, 4,000 residents have gotten bank accounts, saving them some $3.5 million in fees.

In 2007, the D.C. Council passed legislation targeting another business that affects low-income residents: payday lenders. The bill limited how much interest the lenders could charge on loans given to residents.