FirstBank wraps a bus in a giant ad promoting free checking and tops it off with a 25-foot long propeller on top. The ad reads, “Heli-Skiing, now as affordable as Free Checking.” Read more at Motivators
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 [...]
Two weeks ago, Wells Fargo said it will impose a $7 monthly account fee in six states, including Connecticut, effectively ending free checking. Just days earlier, it was disclosed that BofA was testing new fees in three states as a prelude to imposing fees on basic checking accounts. Kim Reid of Hartford, who opened a [...]
Safe Credit Union advertises in the newspaper with the ad copy: Thanks to SAFE Credit Union, you can get cash rewards on purchases you make at your favorite retailers. Use your SAFE Visa Debit Card to make your purchases, and you can start racking up the rewards! With Cash Rewards, its SAFE to say that [...]
Talk about confusing the consumer. Ally Bank offers a free checking account that pays interest – yes, pays interest. The problem is that it failed to name its account Ally Free Checking. Yet, we see in this magazine ad in the February 24, 2012 issue of The Week magazine, Ally manages to use the powerful marketing word [...]
Full page newspaper ad placed by Liberty First Credit Union. “Liberty First can help you fill in the blank.”
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!
Bank of America displays a small square ad online for Free Checking as an online-only offer.
First Bank placed a banner advertisement facing a busy street with an additional poster on an office window in the background. The banner states, “We still have FREE CHECKING!”
Golden1 Credit Union places an ad in the Sacramento Bee touting Free Checking To Go! Free Checking Has All The Right Ingredients.
Billboard over parking lot for Golden1 Credit Union advertising their free checking and cash back accounts.
Another online bank introduces Free Checking. The week of February 13, 2012, teachers’ retirement plan tiaa-cref launched an online consumer bank named tiaadirect. One of its product offerings is a free checking account. Unfortunately, like its competitors Ally Bank and ING Direct, tiaaDirect failed to name its free checking account Free Checking. Instead, like Ally [...]