California’s largest credit union, Golden 1, continues promoting its free checking account. During March, 2012, a simple two-panel marketing flyer or buckslip is being distributed inside the branches in brochure holders located at the teller windows. While this is great news, the words “FREE CHECKING’’ are the smallest words on the front of the flyer [...]
This page-dominant ad for free checking being offered by the Nebraska Bank of Commerce appeared in the January 15, 2012 edition of the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper. The downside to this free checking ad is that it contains what could be mistaken as three competing headlines. The key point to be made with this ad [...]
While I encountered numerous online articles about this move, it was one sentence in the article by JD Malone of Allentown, Pennsylvania’s newspaper The Morning Call that got my attention. The sentence reads: “Wells Fargo told Reuters that it believes 80% of customers will avoid the fee altogether and that it is offering a $2 discount on [...]
TIMEFree Checking Accounts Are Coming Back To Big BanksBusiness InsiderIn the second half of 2011, the number of checking accounts without a monthly maintenance fee increased to 39 percent, up from 35 percent earlier in the year, according to the lates…
Free checking is labeled “free” for one simple reason – the word “free” is the single most powerful word used in marketing. Consumers love acquiring something of value that’s free. The free checking account as we know it today was first introduced in 1982. At the time, it was launched as Totally Free Checking and [...]
Update About Bank of the West: Bank of the West is owned by the large French bank, PNB Paribas. It is very likely the decision to no longer offer free checking accounts wasn’t made locally, but in France. With the Euro under attack and Greece about to fail, most of the big European Banks are [...]
Attention bankers and consumers: Free Checking is alive and well and isn’t going away anytime soon! On the other hand, if you believe a majority of the media stories on the future of the free checking account, you would already have come to the conclusion that your valued free checking account is going the way of the [...]
Belmont Savings Bank employees will be on-site at the Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants to greet customers and provide them with the opportunity to enter a raffle for the chance to win a free Keurig Single-Cup Brewer. “Free checking is just the latest in a series of new Belmont Savings products and services designed to offer real [...]
Refusing to follow the lead of the nation’s four mega-banks, Huntington Bank keeps its free checking account while simplifying its checking account product line. Huntington retail customers now have their choice of two checking accounts – Asterisk-Free Checking and Huntington Plus Checking. Huntington Plus Checking pays interest and the fee is waive each month the [...]
Currently, absolutely free checking, which doesn’t charge a monthly account fee for whatever reason, is not available at the four largest banks in the U.S. by deposits. Free checking accounts are more commonly found at online banks such as ING Direct and Ally but many consumers prefer checking accounts at banks with local ATMs where [...]
Free checking and debit card incentives are here to stay regardless of what happens with the Durbin Amendment because both continue to make sense for banks. Fact No. 1: Net interchange revenue, the focus of Durbin, is only about 15% of the total revenue of the average DDA. Fact No. 2: On average, 85% of [...]
Amid widespread speculation the banking industry may be considering increasing fees for checking services, the monthly Financial Security Index found 64 percent of respondents would consider bolting if slapped with more expensive accounts. Just 28 percent said they’d tolerate them. “With restrictions on overdraft fees and a proposed cap on debit card swipe fees, financial institutions [...]