Before you open a bank account, it’s really important that you choose your bank very carefully. You need to exercise great caution while choosing a bank. But don’t worry, the process is quite simple if you can get the answers to some important questions. It will surely help you in selecting a bank with good financial assets and excellent service.

Before Opening a Bank Account

In case you are a frequent traveler, you need to go for a larger bank with multiple branches spread all over the country. A money withdrawal facility from all major towns and cities is also necessary. In this way you won’t have financial worries on your mind, and can easily withdraw money from any branch or ATM of the bank. On the other hand, if you don’t travel a lot, a local bank is enough and no large network of bank branches or ATMs is necessary.

If you would like to maintain a traditional saving account, a general banking system will also work for you. But if you want express banking by ATM, phone, or Internet banking then a big bank with the latest technologies is suitable for you.

If you need to write a lot of checks everyday, you need an economy account. An account which maintains a minimum balance and skips overdraft protection will be necessary. If you don’t want that, you can open only an overdraft protection account.

You need a carbon-copy check facility if you want to keep detailed records of your payments. If, however, you don’t want your records to be that meticulous, cancel the carbon-copy checks. You need to know whether account access is free of charge or has to be paid for. You need to know which bank charges the lesser amount of fee. You should also know the charges for electronic bill payment.

Ask somebody about online operations before signing up for Internet banking. Ask whether the bank has any regulations with your state banking system. You should also know whether you would need special software to set up an account. If this is the case, the bank will provide you with the facility to download the software. Most of the banks provide this software to download without any charge.

Think of the online services that you could benefit from. Do you need to check your savings account balance? Do you want to know about their credit card, mortgage loan, auto loan facilities or about their line of credit? You should think whether you could contact the bank or credit union in case of any dispute arising in transaction or bill payment. You should also know the number of days that it would take to resolve the issue if such a dispute actually happened. Most of the banks take 10 business days to resolve such disputes.

The security of the bank account is one of the most important issues. Ask if it would be possible to directly meet the manager or account officer on occasions. You should know about the time taken to complete different online services and the mode of service. You should also be aware of the discontinuation procedure, in case you don’t want to go ahead with your online access or if you are not satisfied with the bank’s customer service.

For teaching about banking please see:
Teaching Banking and Savings Accounts
Teach and learn about bank savings accounts, banks, and interest rates.