I thought to try out this digital banking. I’ve seen the advertisements on television, and they make some attractive arguments. The interest rate is certainly better than you can get at your local bank. So, I opened an account to check it out for myself.

I have been issued an atm/debit card, and it works the same as all the others. At “in network” atm’s there is no fee for using it. Walgreens and 7-11 stores have those ATMs. Withdrawal from your account is simple enough, making a deposit, not so much. You have to pay a fee to deposit cash, not to the digital bank, to the store accepting the deposit on their behalf. There’s always a fee somewhere.

The digital banks really want you to have direct deposit. The one I joined even offers a reward for doing so by increasing your interest earned by .5%. But, there are no physical checks available to you. No checkbook and as a result if your card is lost, stolen or simply doesn’t work for any reason, your funds are basically frozen in place. The only solution is to have another account, at a physical bank, where you can electronically transfer funds from one account to the other. You might have to wait a few days for the funds to become available though.

I have discovered that deposit amounts are limited to a maximum of five hundred dollars per deposit. You can make two deposits a day. Not that it is a big issue with me but that seems a bit strange. I’m wondering if it is supposed to limit money laundering or some other illegal activity with cash deposits. It’s going to take me ten days to deposit that 5 grand trump is giving me.

There are other perks, like overdraft protection, you get paid two days early and you can earn a bonus for attracting other customers. The downside is obvious enough, no physical bank. You can call if you need to, I haven’t tried that yet to gauge the response. All in all, I’m thinking this digital banking may not be the thing for me. I have to maintain another account, with the associated fees for that, because of the reasons I stated. I’m not certain it is worth the hassle.

Well, I am old but not adverse to trying new things. Sometimes the new things aren’t better than the old things, just different. There are still fees to be paid no matter what you’re doing. Irritates me every time I have to pay a fee to either spend, withdraw, and now deposit money from my account. Digital banking is not fee free.