Goodbye, big corporate bank

After 7 years, I have finally gotten around to kicking my big corporate bank to the curb.

My partner and I opened a checking account at a local neighborhood bank this week. There are some disadvantages. The bank opened very recently. There are only 2500 customers, and so far there is only one branch and one ATM. Still, they're growing fast, and they are opening a second branch next year.

But I think I'll enjoy the small-town feeling. While we were opening our account, the manager walked by and recognized me, because I was in there six months ago grilling her about their online interface. They let our recently potty-trained son use their bathroom, and the security guard told me all about her mother's recent illness. Their advertisements all have pictures of local small-business owners, many of whom I recognize.

I'm hoping we'll be with this bank for a long time, and that the bank will help the economic situation in our neighborhood while giving us good, personal, small-town service.

For that, I'm willing to put up with the inconvenience of having only one ATM at first.

Now, all I have to do is spend some time setting up online billpay and linking the account to my credit cards and my brokerage account.