Questions: 

• How would your family have answered this question? 
• Are you surprised that over 60% of families had written a paper check in the last 12 months? What might be reasons they write checks?
• Analyze the changes since 2016. Which of the two (online banking or paper checks) saw a more dramatic change? 
• Why do you think that more than 20% of families don't use online banking? 

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 2020):

Among families that did not use online banking, 85 percent visited their main checking account branch and 81 percent visited their main savings account branch. Yet, even among those families that used online banking, 79 percent visited their checking account branch and 67 percent visited their savings account branch.3 Online banking appears to be an imperfect substitute for at least some physical financial services, including visiting a local bank branch.

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Want your students to get experience managing an online bank account? Check out the NGPF Bank Sim here. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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