WalMart has teamed up with a very unlikely partner to reinvent banking for the masses.

The nation's largest retailer is now in a new alliance with American Express for a partnership called Bluebird.

With Bluebird, you get an essentially fee-free alternative to debit and checking accounts that all starts with a stored value card that's branded with the AMEX logo.

It's easy to use. You simply deposit money online, via a smart phone app, or at any Wal-Mart cash register in the United States. Check writing capabilities will be introduced later in 2013.

Another nice benefit of the Bluebird card is that it comes with no foreign currency transaction fee, so that makes it an ideal card for travelers to use overseas.

But mark this well, your Bluebird account is not FDIC insured.

Your money instead is the under protection of American Express. AMEX would essentially have to go bust for you to lose your money, a very unlikely scenario, but one I do need to point it out as a possibility.

We're in an era where giant monster mega-banks are trying to fee customers to death. A recent report from BankRate.com found that the minimum balance required to avoid fees on a checking account is up 365% in five years!

You won't encounter that with Bluebird.

Meanwhile, what Wal-Mart and American Express are doing is similar to what PayPal is doing with Discover -- all of them non-bank entities looking to reinvent banking.

But the whole idea of really clean-sheeting banking goes back to ING Direct, with their emphasis on no fees, no gotchas, and no minimums.

As to how it will work with Bluebird, what issues will come up, we have no idea yet. I know if AMEX makes this a customer no-service experience, that will boomerang back to me and I'll get the complaints.

Still, I love the idea of a whole new approach. You'll be able to walk up to a cashier and make a fee-free deposit to your account. Wal-Mart retail locations will becomes bank 24/7 almost all over the country. That's a great alternative to very limited traditional banker's hours.

Think of this as equivalent to the convenience of giant monster mega-banks but without all the fees.