Now it’s even easier for students to keep their hometown banks rather than switching to the small chain banks in the DeKalb area.

Technology is playing a major role with today’s banking. With online, over-the-phone banking or ATMs as options, students rarely find themselves heading to the bank.

Most students already have checking accounts at their hometown banks, but when making the move to college, they often discover that the only banks available are small chain banks.

Bigger chain banks such as Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank and Washington Mutual are non-existent in the DeKalb area.

In the past, people would have to go to their bank if they want to deposit a check or receive cash. Today people can mail in checks at most banks.

The increased use of direct deposit for many jobs is also a reason why banking is becoming more external.

Shane Winn, a spokesperson for Washington Mutual, said it’s a lot more affordable to keep hometown banks when going off to college.

Washington Mutual encourages their customers to do banking by mail. There is no charge for mailing in a check to be deposited into their account and account holders can use a local bank’s ATM for free.

At other banks, students are still capable of depositing without going to the bank. Chase allows account holders to deposit checks into any of their own ATMs as well as mail them in.

“We do have an ATM in every Walgreens and Dominick’s to deposit checks into,” said Kinga Swedrowska, a personal banker at the Chase-Bloomingdale branch.

When students need cash, Wal-Mart, along with many other grocery stores offer cash back, which can eliminate paying ATM fees for cash altogether.

Students can also pay their bills online as well as get an update of their account balance.

A new feature Chase offers is text updates for accounts. Account holders at Chase can text a command such as “balance” and will get a response of how much their balance is via text.

Alerts can also be sent through e-mail, phone call or text to remind an account holder to pay their bills, Swedrowska said.

“It’s a lot more convenient than it ever was,” Swedrowska said. “Unless there’s an issue, you can do banking without going to the bank.”

However, a drawback to external banking is the in-person experience students miss, Winn said.

“We believe online banking is an excellent resource but it doesn’t replace the in-person experience you get when you walk into a bank,” Winn said.

“If there’s a question on a balance or charge its easier to walk in the door, sit down and talk to them.”

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