The Future of Bank Branches? How Often Do You Visit a Branch?

With the rise of internet banks, online banking and mobile banking, it seems likely that we will be seeing fewer brick-and-mortar bank branches in the future. The megabanks with vast networks of brick-and-mortar branches still dominate so there won’t be any quick disappearance of branches. However, most megabanks offer online and mobile banking to make it easier to bank without local branches. So even if you’re a megabank customer, you have probably been making fewer branch visits. That is causing bank executives to worry. According to this Huffingtonpost article:

What terrifies bank executives is their core customer is doing more and more of their business outside the bank. As a result, it's getting much harder to cross-sell them new products to build a lifetime relationship. That means customer loyalty is increasingly up for grabs.

What’s the answer for banks? The article says banks need to "Attract new clients by consistently educating and informing them." Do you think your local bank could build a lifetime relationship with you by being a portal of knowledge? I have my doubts.

I don’t know if the bank branch is the best place for financial education, but I know many still consider a local bank branch as very important for many banking services like safe deposit boxes, notary public, Medallion stamp guarantee, cashing in savings bonds and making deposits. Some of these will likely become less important in the future, but there will likely always be some services which people will want from their local bank branches.

Poll: How often do you visit a bank or credit union branch?

I thought this would make for an interesting poll. How often do you visit a local bank branch? Is it just once a year, once a month or once a week? And in the comments, please let us know what kind of banking transactions you do at a branch. Is it to deposit money? Or is it to access your safe deposit box? Or is it some other banking transaction?