Banking Overview

Your history with a bank becomes one of the first items on your credit report. Your credit report determines the interest rate you have to pay when you borrow money, or whether you'll even qualify for a loan or credit card. Each item on your credit history follows you around for a long time ( up to 10 years), so it's important to build a positive rating from the beginning. A good beginning starts with selecting the right bank for you!

One of the best ways to make important decisions is to ask others about their experience in similar situations. With that in mind, you will interview someone who has more experience with financial institutions to find out their experiences so that you have a basis from which to make good decisions.

Contact someone you know that would not mind talking with you in general terms about their banking experiences. Ask in advance if they wouldn't mind answering a few questions about the banking services they use and how they selected the bank or banks that they currently use. Here are the questions you will ask them.

Questions

1. Where do you bank?
2. What services offered by the bank do you use most frequently?
3. How did you choose this particular bank?
4. What is your single most memorable incident in your history of dealing with this bank?
5. How many other banks have you conducted business with?
6. Which bank is/was your favorite and why?
7. What is the one thing that you think I need to know as I begin to choose a bank for myself?

Now, use these answers to develop a list of "Top 10 Things We Need to Know" before choosing a bank and submit it to the dropbox.