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Laura Grace Tarpley
- I love my online bank account, but an in-person account was the best way to get European cash.
- Chase was offering a $300 bonus at the time, so we opened an account in my husband's name.
- Since my name wasn't on the account, I could be eligible for another Chase bonus in the future.
Almost four years ago, I closed all of my accounts at my national brick-and-mortar bank and switched to one of the best online banks instead. My spouse and I opened our first high-yield savings account and even opened a checking account with the same online bank so we could move money between accounts easily.
Online banking isn't for everyone — if you get paid in cash or live in an area with poor internet connectivity, it probably doesn't make sense for you.
But it has been the perfect fit for me, and I will sing most online banks' praises to anyone who will listen. No monthly service fees? The best high-yield savings rates? And, at least with my bank, 24/7 live customer support? What's not to love, people?
For years, I swore I'd never need a bank with local branches. So imagine my surprise when my husband convinced me to open a Chase checking account (while still keeping our online bank accounts). And it turns out … he was right.
We needed to exchange foreign currency
My husband and I had been planning a trip to Europe for a long time. We planned to use our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card for most purchases since it didn't charge a foreign transaction fee, but we still wanted to have cash on us just in case. (This came in handy. We had trouble with our card at a few small gas stations, and there were a couple of locally owned shops that only accepted cash.)
The problem? Our online bank doesn't exchange foreign currency.
There are plenty of banks that exchange foreign currency, but most of them are in-person banks. Oh, and you have to be a customer with most of them. We could have tried to get euros or francs from an airport or foreign ATM, but these are definitely more expensive options than using a bank.
My instinct was to call around to local credit unions to see if any would let us exchange currency without opening an account. But my husband suggested we save time by simply opening an account at a large bank we knew had plenty of experience exchanging currency — in this case, Chase.
We earned a $300 cash bonus
So, why did we choose Chase over other big-name banks in our area? For the cash bonus.
We're long-time Chase credit card customers, so the bank mails offers to our house regularly. Usually we roll our eyes and throw them in the trash. But now that we were looking for a brick-and-mortar bank, an offer in our mailbox caught our eye: Chase Total Checking was extending an offer to earn a $300 checking account bonus.
The exact offer we received isn't available anymore, but other offers from Chase usually have similar requirements. We just needed to open an account using a coupon code and make direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days of coupon enrollment.
So we transferred $500 from our online checking account to Chase, and the $300 was deposited into our account within 15 business days. And we got the foreign currency we needed.
Ultimately, we got the best of both worlds: We saved for our trip in our high-yield savings account and earn a great rate on those funds for months. Then we got the cash bonus from Chase.
We closed the account — for now
I'm the kind of person who likes to keep all of my bank accounts at one place, so when we returned home from our trip, we closed our Chase account.
But what happens if we need to exchange currency again one day?
We can always open another brick-and-mortar bank account before our next trip, maybe even with Chase. The bank has a rule that cash bonuses are only for new customers, but here's the thing: This time, we only opened the account in my husband's name. I wasn't associated with the account at all. So next time, maybe we'll open an account in my name and try to get another cash bonus.
I'm still a big advocate of online banking, but no two people's financial situations are the same. Sometimes it just makes sense to turn to in-person banking, even if you never thought you'd go back.