The new accounts from Green Dot, called GoBank, will cost $8.95 a month if they have direct deposits totaling less than $500 a month. Mr. Eckert said that most people on Social Security or fixed pensions would qualify.

GoBank, as the service is known, is part of Walmart’s long-running push into financial services for people with little or no access to traditional banking. In recent years, many banks have reduced services to those with weak credit. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an estimated 10 million households in the United States do not use a bank.

Consumer advocates say that many people without checking accounts are forced into the financial hinterlands, where they have little choice but to turn to costly alternatives for basic transactions. Fees for these services can quickly add up, making saving even more difficult.

In an uneven economic recovery, Walmart is also pushing to win back customers it is losing to lower-price retailers, from T.J.Maxx to dollar stores like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. On Tuesday, the NPD Group, a market research company, said dollar stores were seeing the largest increase among brick-and-mortar retailers.

“Their core consumer, the lower-end consumer, is faring disproportionately poorly in the overall economy,” said Faye Landes, retail analyst at Cowen, an investment management group. “So anything they can do to get them back from the dollar stores and back in their own stores makes total sense.”