4 Little-Known Perks of Online-Only Banks

Welcome to internet banking.

I remember opening my first-ever checking account at nearly 17. I had just started my first "real" job that wasn't with my dad's business (a painting and home improvement company), and I needed a place to deposit my paychecks. Dad took me to his bank to open my account, which had exactly one branch, located in a town next to the one where I grew up. This meant that any time I needed to deposit a check or wanted to withdraw cash without paying an ATM fee, I would have to drive to that bank. I don't remember this bothering me at the time; gas was fairly cheap, I was a newly licensed driver and truly enjoyed driving, and I thought having a debit card was the coolest thing in the world. Nerd alert.

More than 20 years later, the internet has taken over banking. You can now deposit checks by taking a photo of them on your smartphone (this blew my mind the first time I did it). While I still have accounts and credit cards with a big national bank, I have both a checking and a savings account with an online-only bank now, too. Banking with these institutions has a lot of perks. I opened my accounts at one earlier this year, and it took about five minutes and was incredibly easy. I even got a free debit card when I requested one. The mobile app is easy to use and very intuitive, and offers a lot of handy features to help me manage my money.

So far, the benefits mentioned are all fairly common, but here are a few of the perks of online-only banks you may have overlooked.

1. Reimbursement for ATM fees

If you too hate that little message you get when you take money out of an out-of-network ATM, informing you that you'll be assessed a fee by the machine's issuer and also your own bank, then have I got the perk for you! Many online banks waive or reimburse up to a certain dollar amount of ATM fees per month. You can consult your bank's mobile app for details and where to find ATMs they partner with (which are zero-fee).

2. Larger check deposits are allowed

Some online banks will give you the privilege of making higher check deposits through their mobile app than a traditional bank allows. Since my online-only bank accounts are so new, I haven't yet had a paper check to deposit into them, but I decided to check the deposit rules at both of my banks. I discovered my check deposit limit was five times higher for my online bank than for my traditional bank.

3. Wider customer service hours

Online-only banks, by definition, only exist on the internet. You cannot visit a physical branch. This means that online banks are saving a ton of money on the overhead costs of building upkeep and paper and everything else it takes to operate a bank branch. As a result, online banks put a lot more money into their customer service. You can often access a human customer service rep by phone 24/7, and some offer text chat help, too. I checked on my bank's website, and it has a feature that tells you how long the call wait time is, so you can save some precious time not waiting on hold. So useful!

4. More eco-friendly

I have only received one physical piece of mail from my online bank: the envelope and single sheet explainer that came with my debit card. It sends me no paper statements, and I receive no junk mail. This is great for the planet (as well as my mail carrier). And remember, an online bank also doesn't have the ecological footprint of constructing and then heating, cooling, and lighting a physical branch (or a whole slew of them).

If you're in the market for a shiny new savings account, I recommend you check out online-only banks. As I noted above, there are a lot of reasons to consider them besides just convenience and no fees.