What can you do if your local bank branch closes?
Recent bank closures have left customers scrambling to find ways to carry out their financial transactions. Here’s what to do if your branch has closed.
Banks have recently been closing branches due to many factors such as the popularity of online and mobile banking, which has made it less cost-effective for financial institutions to maintain in-person operations.
A great majority of Americans- around 95%, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation- have a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union. The FDIC says that mobile banking has increased sharply from 15.1% in 2017 to 43.5% in 2021, while the use of a bank teller dropped from 24.8% in 2017 to 14.9% in 2021.
Nonetheless, certain segments of the population, including less-educated households and older households continue to prefer going to a bank branch.
The recent rash of bank closures has thus left many vulnerable customers among those who are at a loss regarding how to attend to their financial transactions. Affected customers have to go farther to go to a physical location to make deposits or withdrawals.
Here are some steps you can take if you find yourself in this position.
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What can you do if your local bank branch closes?
Choose another bank
You could consider moving your savings or current account to another bank with a branch in the area where you live. Look for institutions which may offer incentives to new customers, such as switching or welcome bonuses. Of course, taking this option also exposes you to the risk of the branch eventually closing, taking you back to square one.
Check ATM availability
If your banking transactions can be done mostly through ATMs, you may only need to go in-person a few times a year. In this case, if you find that your bank has an ATM nearby that will suffice for your day-to-day deposits and withdrawals, you may not need to switch banks.
Switch to online-only banking
Online banks do not have branches, usually offering their services on websites and mobile apps. According to personal finance website Bankrate.com, more than a quarter of Americans use an online-only bank, 88% of which report that they are satisfied with the institution’s services. One advantage of this kind of bank is that they may offer higher interest rates on deposits, and that transactions can be done anywhere. A downside is that they may offer limited services.