Personal Finance, Business and Finance Solution

Whenever you have some bank errands to finish, you would usually have to get off early at work. For some, this may just be as easy as asking your boss for some leeway but for most of us, this is an almost impossible thing to do. And since most banks are closed on weekends, your only real choice would be to either go during your lunch break (when the bank queues are so long, you end up not eating at all) or during your 15 minute breaks. Ask bank clients everywhere and they would usually say that one of the problems they have are the banking business hours.

That is why most banks now are offering extended hours to increase client satisfaction, to compete with other banks that offer longer hours of service, to capture a wider audience and to meet customer demands. The pay off though for extended hours is overhead costs will tend to increase, with the longer electricity consumption, the over time hours and the night differential paid to employees that are to cover the latter part of the day.

Thus, are longer business hours really worth it? Take Commerce Bank for example. Their branch has an average visitor of 40,000 a month mostly attributed to the fact that its banking business hours are longer, covering periods that are more convenient to the average client. And since the start of their new hours, their deposits are now rising by 28 percent!

Commerce Bank also offer services during Sundays which was initially a test run that had to be permanently put into place as the response from the customers was so positive, the initial Sunday working hours were even extended.

Aside from Commerce Bank, TCF also offers service up until 8 pm. This bank also covers weekends so you can do your bank transactions without having to think that you are eating up precious weekday hours on doing bank transaction that you’d rather use to spend time with your family. They are also open during a handful of those holidays where you have to scour the whole metropolis looking for an open bank.

Some Wachovia Bank branches in Atlanta and Greater Washington area are also joining this trend as they offer extended weekday hours and weekend hours to serve their clientele better. However, not all branches operate this way so it is best to call Wachovia at 1 – (800) -WACHOVIA to note which branches practice the long hours.

Bank of America on the other hand, only offers extended hours depending on client demand. What happened before was that due to a high volume of customers wanting Certificates of Deposits savings, Bank of America decided to extend its banking hours and operations until Saturday of that particular week.

In whichever angle you look at it, extended banking business hours are definitely a plus factor to bank. If you juggle your family, your demanding career, put in a dash of traffic and office romance, you get to see that you end up with less and less time to do other things. Thus, having a bank that will adjust its hours for you so it can fit your schedule is a real blessing.