Data breaches seem to be the new normal, affecting everyone just like my husband and I, who have borne the brunt recently. Last year, my debit card was compromised in the Target breach, while his felt the impact of the Home Depot fiasco. Effectively, our bank issued a cancel instruction on our cards without much warning, causing a lot of inconvenience particularly because we didn’t have a credit card then.
To make matters worse, we received a letter a short while ago from the bank stating the suspension of our online bill pay account due to inactivity over the past four months. What’s baffening is we’d subscribed to the feature just recently!
Our frustration with the bank’s subpar customer service compelled us to search for a better alternative. After much exploration, we decided on three reasons why an online-only bank seemed like a sensible choice.
TRANSFERS MADE EASY
My husband and I were college sweethearts, and after we got married during my final semester, we had to relocate to another state when I landed a promising job opportunity, resulting in us closing our local bank accounts and joining my employer’s credit union. Mainly because their benefits seemed attractive, such as high-interest rates and free checks. But after two years, I got a new job and we moved yet again, which meant finding another bank. Our choice? Once more, my employer’s credit union. But our luck ran out when we moved a third time with no employer’s credit union in sight. Consequently, we settled for a local bank – which in hindsight proved to be a disappointing decision.
We felt the need to have our money in a national bank to avoid the hassles of constantly shifting our accounts. The constant closing and reopening of accounts turned out to be quite an ordeal and an avoidable one at that. With the online-only banking option, proximity to a physical branch was no longer a worry. The bank would always be on hand, ready to assist.
HIGHER INTEREST RATES
Online-only banking has quite an attractive selling point: the interest rates. The rates on offer for both savings and checking accounts at online-only banks are remarkably higher than conventional banks. Surprisingly, one could earn interest on their checking account.
And how do online banks afford to offer these lucrative rates? Simple. They spare the lofty costs typical of traditional banks.
ATTRACTIVE PERKS
One of our initial concerns with online banking was the potential ATM fees. Though we don’t frequently withdraw cash, we visit an ATM a few times a month. Plus, my husband travels for work quite often, so there’s a likelihood he’d need to get some cash instantly from any place in the world. However, top online banks have a workaround for this by either refunding ATM charges or having a vast network of ATMs with no fees.
In addition, our selected online bank offers free checks (which we use a few times a month), provides daily compounded interest, and does not levy a monthly maintenance fee – benefits that our former conventional “national” banks in the vicinity did not offer.
