Want to open a checking account? You know the drill: Go into a bank branch
during your lunch break, wait for a customer service representative, choose
quickly among all the account types, fill out the paperwork and hand over your
ID.
Or if you pick Bank of America, you can go online, follow the link on the welcome page, and open your account from work or home, at your leisure. Fellow megabanks such as Citi and Wells Fargo offer the same convenience, as do Citizens Bank and Sovereign Bank – though they may not promote it as visibly on their Web sites.
Now, aware of the competitive edge a good Web site provides, Bank Rhode Island has upgraded its site to not only accept online account applications, but encourage them, and make the process as quick, easy and paper-free as possible.
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As of last Monday, consumers can open BankRI accounts entirely online, funding them with a credit card or by debiting another bank account. The new technology, developed by Andera Inc., of Providence, relies on Equifax Inc. to instantly confirm the identity of the applicant, as required by the USA Patriot Act, eliminating the need to mail the bank copies of a driver’s license or passport.
Unlike Citizens or even high-tech Bank of America, BankRI won’t send customers a printout of their application to sign before the account is activated. The only paper in the setup process is a signature card, which can be printed off the Web and mailed in within 21 days of opening the account. In the meantime, the account is active.
“Combined with our free online banking and bill payment service, customers can now conduct almost all of their banking through our Web site,” said Jim DeRentis, executive vice president for retail banking and marketing.
While the bigger national players are onboard with Web account opening, BankRI is the first local bank in the Rhode Island market to offer the service. Neither BankNewport nor the Washington Trust Company have it, though Washington Trust says it’s working on an online application for deposit accounts to be available by December (the bank already takes loan applications online).
At Bank of America, a pioneer in online banking since the late 1980s, spokeswoman Betty Reiss said she didn’t know how many customers open their accounts online, but a survey earlier this year did show that 17 percent of customers who opened a deposit account at a branch had reviewed their options on the Web site first.
According to the comScore Media Metrix ranking of top 50 U.S. Internet properties,
nearly 11.9 million unique visitors visited bankofamerica.com in May, making
it the No. 41 site among U.S. Web users. The bank has also said more 40 percent
of its contacts with customers are online.
