Paperless checking: new to online banking
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Some downsides
ING Direct customer Jim Bruene, who is also the founder of the Online Banking Report, likes the account but says Electric Orange seems to be missing something without the checks. He points out that using bill pay for local bills can mean having to send payments considerably earlier to allow for the five days required by the account.
"Everybody who does bill pay comes to that unfortunate
recognition that this isn't e-mail. I just put a check in the mail
today to Seattle Light; it'll be there tomorrow. I don't think that
ING Direct wants to be your transaction account, the place where
you write 25 checks if you're still doing that. I think they still
want to be a supplement to your local account. If you have a $1,000
average balance in your checking account, this doesn't benefit you
that much. But if you have a lot of excess cash and you need to
make a few transactions, it's a nice place to park your money, but
you still wouldn't give up your local credit union or bank."
Other online banks will offer
checking, too
Frank Trotter, executive vice president at EverBank, realizes that old habits die hard, and he says he isn't about to pry his customers' fingers off their checkbooks any time soon.
"Many of our customers don't write many checks
and some don't write any, but we feel the bottom line is to provide
full value," Trotter says. "I think our customers and
the customers we seek to acquire feel that having a checkbook is
important. I really don't know many people who never write physical
checks. The key is we've been in this high-value checking account
business since we launched and it really is attractive to customers
and helps cement their relationship with EverBank."
HSBC Direct is expected to launch a high-yield, online
checking account later this year, although it's not clear if it
will be paperless. E-Loan is planning a paperless, high-yield checking
account for sometime this year, also.
While a lot of people still want paper checks, with younger generations latching onto totally electronic banking, it's hard to imagine anyone writing a paper check 20 years from now.
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