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.

[Rachel]

* 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.

I 100% agree and endorse, Iris Lillies! You are supporting Beauty.

[iris lilies]

Here’s another reason to have a brick and mortar bank: hobby groups. I’m the treasurer, president, or knowledgeable board member with several hobby groups and banking issues are a little complex.

There is constant drama in these hobby groups about the bank account because people die or fade away who are signatories on the account. We need a brick and mortar bank so that I can walk into their doors, sit down with a banking representative, and deal with these issues and problems. They will NOT do this stuff over the phone or in digital communications.

[SiouzQ.]

I've been questioning the same thing, Pinkytoe. I have too much money in a Money Market account from my credit union back in Michigan that I still use. It makes a little bit of interest each month (when I said LITTLE, it is something like .75%). However, I am a creature of habit, even when I could be earning quite a bit more in a Vanguard account. All of my accounts are at this same old credit union back in Michigan that I have used for something like two decades. Any deposits I need to do locally in Santa Fe is through the shared banking system at a credit union here. Then I just go online to move my money around, pay the monthly bills from one account to another, get my Social Security deposited to. It's easy-peasy and I've been doing it forever.

My brother is a retired CPA and is very good about saving and investing. I ask him questions from time to time and this latest query ended up with him looking into all my accounts, my IRA, my annuity account, basically EVERYTHING. He found that I could be making so much more with money with my money than I have been. For years I have been using a financial advisor at the Michigan credit union (I think since around 2010 during my guitar shop years - one day when I was deposting my paycheck I noticed a sign they had there for a financial advisor. I ended up using him back then to pull all these random old 401k's from past jobs together into an IRA and have had a very good relationship over the years as he helped me navigate being a single parent with a low income. I have come to rely on him doing all the stuff that I don't really understand but my brother found that his investment strategies pale comparitively to what I could have been making if I switched over to some Vanguard accounts. Plus his fees are quite high, which I decided I could live with over the years since I would have had NO IDEA what to do with my money

So soon I will be in the process of opening a Vanguard account and moving some of that extra money over. Then I think I need to get a different credit card than the one I've been using from the credit union, basically to pay my monthly bills with and transfer money between accounts. After that I suppose my brother will suggest that I move my IRA and annuity over as well but all of this is overwhelming to me so I think I need to start with small steps. Another thing to think about down the line is that I will inherit a significant amount of money when my Mom passes. I don't think it will be any time soon as she is a healthy 94 year old but you never know.

Is it weird that I will feel bad for breaking up with my financial advisor down the line? I've always really trusted him and he is very responsive to my questions and has helped me through many financial trials and tribulations over the years. But when my brother shows me in charts and graphs how much more my money would earn if I invested in mutual funds...

[iris lilies]

No SQ, it isn’t weird to feel bad about discontinuing a business relationship with someone. We waited until our Edward Jones guy moved to a different brokerage house to move money to our local Edward Jones office.

do you know anything about if they charge exit fees? I just know I was shocked about one of the investments I’ve had for a few decades when I wanted to move that amount to Vanguard.ugh.

[Rogar]

I think Vangard is a decent place to store a person's investments because of their low fees, and when I was using them they really never pushed anything. I've looked into their 'Digital Adviser", where you answer some questions about risk, needed income, and other objectives and then basically a computer program or AI manages your investments, possibly in low fee index funds. It costs a little, but is cheaper than a in person adviser, plus their customer service is reasonable.

I suspect now or in the near future AI analysis will outperform personal financial managers, although it doesn't account for the dartboard randomness of the markets.

[SiouzQ.]

Iris Lillies, I think my brother said he was going to check and see if there is an exit fee for the annuity account. I've had that one for quite awhile and he said it may not have one but we'll see. As far as the IRA, I don't *think* there is but we will check on it - thanks for a good question to ask!

My goal in the next few weeks is at least get started with a Vanguard cash account with some of that extra money. We also found out last night we are going to be getting quite a large tax refund for 2025, which was a helluva year financially with the K's layoff, unemployment, my SSDI coming through, the remnants of our Solar Tax Credit, K. being over 65 and getting the extra $6,000 deduction. When I got the windfall of the backpay from SSDI, I ended up making a $2000 estimated tax payment because we had NO IDEA how anything was going to work out. I'll be getting that back plus we are going to get quite a bit more!

[iris lilies]

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.This is something to think about. It is true, we do the same thing, we transfer money from brokerage accounts to our local banks. and while we keep a large amount in a couple of those banks, it’s not where the big stash is so there’s one step of safety there.

this has always been my concern about having a debit card which theoretically I guess I have because I’ve used it in Europe many years ago, but I do not use a debit card on a daily basis. I don’t even know where my debit card is and don’t have any idea what my password is. We keep a large amount of money in our bank accounts and so that would be subject to some serious theft from debit card abuse .