If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times: mobile banking is going to change the banking industry. Sure, it won’t be overnight. But from all of the research I’ve seen, it won’t take long. I recently spoke at a Jack Henry Banking Educational Conference, where I held up my iphone and asked everyone what it was. As you can image, they all answered, “a phone.” I … [Read more...]
The switch is on – switching banks is becoming a lot easier
For several years now, I’ve been preaching about how banks and credit unions need to get their customers to use online bill pay and direct deposit. The reason is simple: the more bills a person or business pays online, the less likely they are to switch to another financial institution. Once a person inputs all of their vendors and monthly bills, they won’t want to go … [Read more...]
Community Banks and Credit Unions Catch a Break with Bank Fees
It’s been all over the news for weeks and people everywhere are getting fired-up about it. Even President Obama recently aired his complaints to ABC News, saying it was unfair to customers. We’re talking about bank fees. So what’s up with these bank fees and why are banks charging them to customers? It’s simple economics, really. Banks profit by loaning consumers and … [Read more...]
What are they doing on those phones?
Everywhere you look these days, people are on their smart phones. They are on them while they’re waiting for their flight at the airport, while waiting for their food at a restaurant, and even while waiting for the movie to start or the light at the intersection to change. They are either checking e-mails, sending text messages, watching movies, playing games, taking … [Read more...]
Times are a changing…
As a small business owner, I remember the days when deposits had to be made at my bank by 2:00 PM. The mailman would sometimes be late coming by my office, so I would always stress out over covering the checks I needed to pay or had already written. I even kept a map of all the bank branches so that if a client called to pick up a check, I knew where I could make the deposit … [Read more...]