Do I even need a brick and mortar bank anymore?

[pinkytoe]

We have had Bank of America checking and savings accounts for years. Other than needing to deposit a rare check now and then and a couple of monthly online payments that could be paid instead from a Vanguard savings account, it is not used. Way too much money just sitting there. Would you keep the accounts or move to all online? Trying to do financial declutter.

[Tybee]

We have had Bank of America checking and savings accounts for years. Other than needing to deposit a rare check now and then and a couple of monthly online payments that could be paid instead from a Vanguard savings account, it is not used. Way too much money just sitting there. Would you keep the accounts or move to all online? Trying to do financial declutter.

I would not leave a lot sitting there, but it is nice to have a local bank for depositing checks. I also use my local bank for notarizing things, which is free for customers.

[iris lilies]

When we moved from the big city to Hermann, we put $100,000 in a Hermann bank* because I wanted to establish obvious roots in the Herman business community. It’s a very small town. Within the year, our contractor started work and he wanted us to open a charge account at the lumber store so that he could just charge our materials there and we would pay the bill to the lumberyard. In order to open that charge account the lumber yard wanted to know we were good for it and Lo, there was our Hermann Bank account that had been established a year earlier with a healthy amount.

So for that reason, it came in handy for us. We still have a bank account in the city of St. Louis, a brick and mortar bank. And I will say that I recently referenced that to a bank employee when talking to him about our Iris society’s tiny account at his bank. I told him hey, I know you arent making any money on this account here, but you’re making money on our personal account so thank you for running our plant society account without charges.

* We chose our bank based on their building. Yes, I am that impractical. There are three banks in Herman and two of them have new ugly buildings. One of them has a cool old building And that is the building I chose.

[Rogar]

I have a brick. and mortar bank a couple of near my house where I have a couple of CDs, a checking and saving account, and a safety deposit box. They have a change counter. I still have a foot in the analog days and I use their drive up or walk in for cash withdrawals and other occationals. I don't mind as it's close and there have been things I like to talk with a real person about, but there are probably work arounds digitally for most or all of it.

[frugal-one]

Still use b&m bank for cds, savings for immediate cash (if needed), debit card and checking account. Nice to be able to cash or deposit occasional checks too. Chose institution by best rates, value and location. Could care less about the building it is housed in!

[Tradd]

I have checking and savings with Chase, who are huge here. High yield savings account with Vanguard, where my investment accounts are. I like having a big retail bank for my bank, as there’s a branch on the off chance I need to visit a branch.

[Klunick]

I can't tell you the last time I went to a bank. Years ago for sure. I do everything through the mobile app. My husband on the other hand isn't tech minded so he will go to the bank from time to time. We have noticed a lot of the branches around us have closed so me might have to switch banks just so he has one to go to.

[rosarugosa]

I like having a local bank. That's where we have our checking account, but we don't keep a lot of extra $$ in there. It's linked to our online savings account, which actually pays some interest. We use the change counter on occasion, and I like it that I can go there for small bills when needed to make change for pottery sales.
I started depositing checks via my phone during covid, so I don't need to visit the bank in person for that anymore.

[happystuff]

We still have an account with a local bank. As others have mentioned, it's good for the occasional check, some quick cash, and depositing coins. I view it as a little extra "emergency fund".

[KayLR]

I like being a member at my local credit union. They are active in our community and do a lot of outreach to our Latino community.

I took all my money out of Chase when I read they had dealings with Jeffrie (sp) Epstein.

[bae]

When we moved from the big city to Hermann, we put $100,000 in a Hermann bank* because I wanted to establish obvious roots in the Herman business community. It’s a very small town.

When I first moved here, I established an account with "Islanders Bank", a very small local-created bank with 3 branches, one on each of our major islands. My initial thinking was similar to Iris' - to get connected to the community. This bank was a very nice one, it understood local needs quite well, and reinvested local capital into the community with great impact to the economy.

It was purchased by Banner Bank a few years ago, and is no longer *quite* the same, but it's still mostly the same people working there, and still retains a lot of the local touch. I think it is a loss to the community in some fundamental way that our "local" bank is no longer quite so local.

My usual method of operating is to transfer $$$ from my Schwab accounts into the bank, and use the bank for my normal living/household expenses. In truth, I don't really need the local bank, I could just use the Schwab accounts directly. It still serves the social purposes somewhat, and it *does* provide a cutout from the banking information I give people for transactions, and my real assets.

[nswef]

We have 2 "local" banks that have been bought out. One gets our social security deposits and the other our retirement. We go to one brick and mortar frequently to cash checks and count change and get notarized things (hardly ever). We also have 2 online banks-and use them for transfer for the other banks if needed.

[Tybee]

I used to select our banks by the food they provided on Saturdays; BOA had cinnamon rolls and coffee, thus the winner.

[iris lilies]

I like having a brick and mortar bank for a reason I just saw highlighted in a news report. It was about a scammer who managed to get thousands of dollars from a man.


Apparently there is technology that “spoofs “a bank’s phone number and directs the caller to the scammer. This is shocking. Here’s what happened:


1. A man got an email from “his bank“ (really a scammer) asking “did you wire $15,000 to so-and-so? “


2. The man responding to the email said No


3. Some further communication happened between this man and the scammer posing as his bank. At some point the man, not an old senile person, but a person who is savvy about things, thought he should talk directly to his bank securely, knowing it was his bank for sure, so he called the bank.

4. He dialed the bank’s advertised phone number, the number in all of their communications.

5. The scammer had “spoofed “that phone number so that the man thought he was talking to the bank.

There were several communications that I won’t detail here, but one problem was that the man somewhere in your contact at his banks fraud department, and the fraud department told the man they could not find any record of conversations he was having with the fraud department. That caused the man to think the bank was incompetent, or their records were not accessed by the right people, or something.

Anyway – this made me think that it has some value to be able to walk to a brick and mortar facility and say look I’m having these problems.

What do y’all think about this?

[gimmethesimplelife]

I like being a member at my local credit union. They are active in our community and do a lot of outreach to our Latino community.

I took all my money out of Chase when I read they had dealings with Jeffrie (sp) Epstein.Years ago when I worked for Multnomah County (OR) I was a member of both Multco and PACE Credit Unions - both opened my eyes towards avoiding for profit banks. They were both great CU's but I understand both have since been taken over. I think the one that took over Multco might be the CU you are referring to? Rob

[KayLR]

Years ago when I worked for Multnomah County (OR) I was a member of both Multco and PACE Credit Unions - both opened my eyes towards avoiding for profit banks. They were both great CU's but I understand both have since been taken over. I think the one that took over Multco might be the CU you are referring to? Rob

No, you may not know I've moved a bit further north, just north of Olympia. The CU I belonged to in SW WA was only within Clark County.