undefined | Better HN

0 pointsnknight14y ago0 comments

Yeah, tell me, how much are those electrons costing the bank, again?

Unless they're also giving you free checks, that's pretty much the cost. A human being will rarely look at anything. Everything is handled by automated computer systems.

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

notJim14y ago· 3 in thread

I think you're missing out on a lot of things. The bank definitely has costs that go into supporting its customers: branches and employees to staff them (most banks, not all of course), phone support people, the very computer systems you talk about, and people to keep them running and add new features to them. Most mainstream banks' free checking accounts make these things available to account holders, so I don't know how you can say they don't cost anything.

nknightOP14y ago

I haven't set foot in a bank branch in over a year, and then only to deal with a problem caused by the confluence of their antiquated model and that of another company.

I've never once made a phone call to, or received one from, my current bank in the ~7 years my current checking account has been open.

I don't know who you think they're maintaining such anachronisms for, but it ain't this free checking user.

The computer systems have to be created and maintained for their wealthy depositors regardless. The marginal cost of adding less affluent customers is laughable, and more than paid for by the interest they can earn from a few hundred dollars in deposits.

enjo14y ago

Next time you walk by a bank branch, take note of how many people are inside. That would likely indicate that your something of a anomaly.

1 more reply

notJim14y ago

The thing that matters is that those are available to you. The bank does some modeling on how much use all of those facilities will get, and plans accordingly. You figure into that planning whether you go or not. I don't know the stats on how many free checking users use bank branches, but we both know it's more than zero. Same with phone service.

As far as the computer systems, those scale with number of accounts, not number of dollars. Given that the majority of accounts are likely to be free, or low net-worth accounts, it stands to reason that free checking customers make up a significant portion of the cost of operating these systems.

cturner14y ago· 1 in thread

In some countries regulation will state that the bank needs to send a physical account summary to people every so often (month? quarter?) which has a mail cost to it.

adrianN14y ago

My bank charges me for that.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse