[legulere]

A German perspective here: In high interest times all banks can offer free bank accounts, in low interest times people flee from brick and mortar banks when they start to ask fees. Even if your bank does not have a physical branch, you can still nowadays easily get your money: you can withdraw cash at the checkout of the supermarket when you are shopping for groceries, and a lot of banks offer free withdrawals at other banks.

Brick and mortar-banks have their advantage too. Most in Germany are either a credit union or owned by the public. You have someone responsible for you you can speak with in person and they can often offer you better terms on loans.