Ideas to Sell Checking Accounts
- Sell more checking accounts with these approaches.balancing checkbook image by palms from Fotolia.com
Checking accounts are one of the most lucrative types of accounts for financial institutions. Wherever a consumer holds his primary checking account, he is most likely to take out loans and open certificates of deposits and retirement accounts. Overdraft fees on checking accounts also help boost a bank's profit margin. Most adults generally have a primary checking account, so in order to get more business, it's important to be creative. - Offering to waive the customary monthly account fee if the customer has his wages deposited directly into a checking account at your institution is a great way to satisfy the customer and bring in more business. Direct deposit of wages means that all the customer's money will be coming into the bank and she will have to use her debit card or checkbook or make a personal visit to withdraw funds. Part of successful banking is to make your institution indispensable to the customer, and by holding the checking account where his paycheck is deposited, you will become his primary financial institution.
- One way to attract new accounts is to partner with a company that you already are doing business with. Say, for example, your financial instiution had a business account with a local electronics store. Your chief financial officer can meet with company officials and arrange a bulk purchase of, perhaps, 400 clock-radios. Then your bank advertises that whoever opens a new checking account will receive a free clock-radio. This can also be an incentive for current customers; if they refer a friend who opens a checking account they will also receive a free clock-radio.
- When trying to attract a customer who has a lot of money and isn't necessarily draining his checking account each week, offer him a tiered checking account. These accounts offer higher interest rates to customers who keep more money in the account. The tiered account would require a minimum deposit equaling at least the top of the minimum tier. So, if the tiers were $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000, then the deposit would need to be no less than $5,000. This approach works quite well, especially if the interest rate being offered on the tiered accounts is higher than the interest rates offered on certificates of deposit.
