First Northern Bank, founded in 1910 in Dixon, California, continues offering Totally Free Checking to its customers in the surrounding counties which includes Sacramento. In addition to Totally Free Checking, the bank also offers 50+ Free Interest Checking (for customers age 50 and older) and Direct Deposit Free Interest Checking. These three checking accounts were [...]
Secretary of State William F. Galvin vowed to press Bank of America and other big banks in Massachusetts to offer free checking accounts to young adults and the elderly, something most community banks already offer. Galvin said he is seeking legislation to bar banks from holding state or local government deposits in Massachusetts unless they [...]
I’ll start by setting the record straight on the origin of the free checking account. It wasn’t created by a banker. It was created in 1982 by a team of experts working at a small direct mail agency located in Lincoln, Nebraska.
It was one of seven unique checking accounts that were combined with a free gift and marketed as a complete turnkey marketing program under the name of Totally Free Checking and a Free Gift Too!
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 [...]
More than 4 million accounts have already moved away from the nation’s largest banks and this trend will only increase according to Moebs Services, an economic research firm in Lake Bluff, IL. Previously, large banks with over $50 billion in assets held 45% of the 130 million consumer checking accounts in 2009. That number has [...]
Once again, a financial writer for a local newspaper fails to do his research on the future of free checking before writing his article. As you’ll see in the article below, which appears in the March 18, 2011 edition of the Sacramento Business Journal, the writer’s opening statement reads: “Once taken for granted by consumers, free [...]
In an amazingly unanimous vote, the Republican and Democrat state senators condemned a specific amendment from U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and the corresponding proposed rule from the Federal Reserve implementing a debit price control scheme that benefits Walgreens, Home Depot, and some of the nation’s biggest retailers and shifts costs to consumers in terms [...]
Here’s a story that’s almost too good to be true. It’s your classic David versus Goliath story. Instead of sitting back and remaining silent as the big mega-banks attempt to destroy the free checking account while adding new and higher fees to all checking accounts, the Long Island-based Bethpage Credit Union is taking action. Not [...]
Attention financial writers – many of the articles over the past year about the pending death of free checking are based on erroneous information. One of our goals with this site dedicated to the free checking account is to provide the truth about free checking. As a financial writer we trust you’ll visit this site [...]
These typical “death of free checking” stories that pop up everywhere the mega-banks have locations say free checking began in 1994 at Washington Mutual. Wrong. Free checking was not invented 20 years ago by the executives at another regional bank either (as some stories claim), or by any big bank. ACTON Marketing was the first [...]
(Lake Bluff, IL) August 31, 2010 –According to a recent Moebs Services survey of 2,300 banks and credit unions, 91 per cent of Wall Street Banks (greater than $50B in Assets) now offer free checking for businesses, up from 64% in 2009– a 42% increase. 2010 Free Business Checking 2009 Free Business Checking Community Banks [...]
August 15 has passed and the Reg E Amendment has impacted bank revenues less than expected. Yet, the media drumbeat of “free checking is dead” continues. Of late, publications like the Philadelphia Inquirer have stated, “No-strings free checking is now very hard to find.” In addition, the Miami Herald said, “The free account is a dinosaur.” TheNew [...]