[mindslight]

I completely agree about the features of brick and mortar banks. My complaint specifically is about letting the large chain banks dominate your view. For example, BoA seemingly has the gall to charge a monthly fee on a savings account.

I'm lucky to have a competitive market for local banks that hasn't (yet) been completely borgified, and I do keep an account / safe deposit box [0] at one and use them for many of the things you mentioned. If you don't have any independent banks around, there is the common advice to look for credit unions instead.

I actually do keep an account at BoA too. It's the only link to another account that would be a huge hassle change out. Their ATM network is nice, the automated cash deposit feature on their ATMs is one of the easier ways to get available funds into the banking system on short notice, and I can stand keeping the $2k minimum balance for now. But still, they've got to be kept on a short leash.

[0] It's an inexpensive place to store external hard drives for rotating backups.