Bank of Dudley

Choosing a local bank for your checking account offers personalized service, community investment, and modern conveniences. Unlike national banks, local banks build genuine relationships with their customers, providing tailored financial guidance and demonstrating a vested interest in your community’s success. Local banks can offer digital banking tools and nationwide accessibility similar to their bigger competitors, ensuring convenience without sacrificing personal service. At Bank of Dudley, we’ve been dedicated to relationship banking since 1905, helping individuals and businesses achieve financial success with a hometown touch.

When it comes to managing day-to-day expenses, most people turn to their checking accounts. After all, that’s what a checking account is for – to provide you with quick and easy access to your funds not only at the bank but also at individual points of sale in the community. Whether you’re paying with cash, a debit card, your digital wallet, or a check, you’re using your checking account to make purchases and pay bills.

Even if you use a credit card, the odds are excellent that your monthly credit card bill will be paid with a check or an ACH transfer from your checking account.

There are thousands of banks, each one offering some variation on the standard checking account. Some of those banks are massive, multinational institutions with branches around the world and multi-million-dollar ad campaigns promoting their services.

But is that the bank for you? This month, we’re exploring some reasons why the smart money may be to look past the big ad campaigns and consider choosing a local bank for your checking account, instead.

A Local Bank Gets to Know You

Lots of banks talk about “relationship banking,” but few of the larger banks can actually practice it. With tens of thousands or even millions of accountholders, how can the employees at even one branch get to know each individual customer?

When you choose a local bank for your checking account, you won’t just be an account number. From your first visit, the folks at a local bank will, first and foremost, be interested in getting to know you. Local banks don’t expect you to be financial experts, and they will want to help you find the exact banking products that are right for you and your family.

Through that process, they’ll also get to know you as a person.

Why Is That Important?

People see banking as a strict, numbers-only game where the only thing that matters at the end of the day is the balance in your account. That might be true for some banks, but local banks approach things a little differently.

Local banks don’t define success by the number of products and services they sell—they define success by how successful their customers are. They work tirelessly to ensure that their account holders actually get the guidance they need to build a stronger financial future.

• They’ll help you evaluate your savings goals and determine which types of accounts and investment accounts you should use to grow your wealth intentionally.
• They’ll help you stay up-to-date on changes in the banking and financial landscape, and offer guidance regarding what you need to do to continue on your financial journey.
• They’ll be with you when the unexpected happens and help you overcome your difficulties.

A Local Bank Is Focused on Your Community

You’ve heard the expression, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Nowhere is that more evident than in the economies of small and medium-sized towns. For a community to thrive, all of its members need to thrive, as well. In smaller communities, the success of one business or one family can ripple out and affect the population at large in positive ways.

A local bank understands that its success is dependent on the success of its customers. When more people and businesses in town are successful, the economy will be more successful, and the results will be better for everyone involved. When the account holders aren’t successful, a local bank will quickly find itself struggling to keep the doors open.

Why Is That Important?

Since a local bank is part of the community, they have a vested interest in seeing the community grow. That means that the decisions they make about everything from interest rates to mortgage lending are based on one simple question:

Which course of action will be better for the community?

At a national bank, the livelihood of your community probably doesn’t figure as heavily in the calculus. Their performance is measured on an average of success across their entire account base – most of which lives in larger cities. They put their energy where the money is, and that usually means “not in your community.”

As a side benefit, your local bank will actively invest in the community. Any profit they make from providing services stays in the community and doesn’t get whisked off to a corporate headquarters in another part of the country.

A Local Bank Is Just as Convenient

People will tell you that local banks aren’t as convenient as national banks. That may have been true 15 years ago when things like digital banking were new and cost-prohibitive for many small banks. But the world has changed immensely since then.

Today, small banks offer the same conveniences as major national banks. Sure, it’s true that they may not have branches in every town or village you visit across the US. However, with the prevalence of digital banking and mobile solutions, do you really even need to visit a branch when you’re on vacation or a business trip?

With a debit or credit card carrying the Visa or Mastercard logo, you’ll have access to your money here at home, in every corner of the US, and most locations abroad. With the bank’s app or website, you’ll have control of your accounts from anywhere you can get an internet connection.

Why Is That Important?

As we said at the top of this article, your checking account is where you keep the money you use on a day-to-day basis. If it’s not convenient, you’ll either:

• Stop using your checking account and start using more convenient but less secure methods of managing your money – such as carrying cash, which is both easy to lose and easy to steal.
• Close your local account and change to a larger bank that offers less personalized service.

Today’s local bank isn’t the isolated, provincial entity of the 20^th century—it’s a fully connected, globally accessible place where you get the best of both worlds: convenience at the cash register and a familiar face at the teller window.

Convenient, Customer Focused, and 100% Local: Bank of Dudley

Since 1905, the team at Bank of Dudley has remained dedicated to helping our neighbors find financial success. Our local bankers are always ready to help you navigate the complex world of personal and business banking. Plus, we’re 100% committed to helping you find the products and services that work for you – and helping you meet your financial goals.

Call today and discover true relationship banking: 478-277-1500

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