Banking as we know today as a lot of different from the banking when they first saw the light of day all those centuries ago.
At first when banks started up during 3rd millennium B.C they all started life as a religious temple owned by Religious Leaders. The deposits that was made into these religious banks at the time were consisted of produce such as grains and later on even cattle. There were even also agricultural appliances that was deposited and later also precious metals like gold.
Temples seemed the obvious place for this sort of system due to them being a safe haven. Priests from the temples then started to offer loans to the people of the land.
When the Ancient Roman and Greeks employed a banking system it was a more sophisticate version. These systems were employed by civic societies and private institutions as well as the traditional temples. In this banking system you could make deposits, take out loans, use currency exchanges and there was even a coin validation service.
Many money lenders of the time would keep books on their transactions. Around the time of the collapse of Roman Empire and all the hostility of the Christian churches bankers were deemed unnecessary.
Later on the church prohibited interest charging. This led to the rise of religions such like the Jews and the Knights Templar practicing banking.
The Lombard’s were an Italian banking family who gradually replace the Jewish bankers. The Lombard’s first introduced us to what we now call double entry bookkeeping. The German Fugger family usurped another Italian family of bankers, The Medici’s and went on to deal with the finances of both the papacy and some great princesses of the day.
The start of the 16th century brought us the system where merchants were allowed to access on their money from other places without transferring any physical money, and also the development of the cheques. Throughout the 17th century this system started to get more accepted in society. This system gradually grew into the system that we now use today.
Now you are bombarded with advertisements both online and off of bank, credit unions, savings and loan associations, insurance companies, and investment brokers for a myriad kaleidoscope of accounts. Banks come in all size for a lone small-town bank at the edge of some piney woods to local or state chains to National and International banks willing to make you feel at home if you have money in the bank (their bank).
Not only can you have different types of checking and savings accounts, but all types of loans and mortgages used to acquire all types of goods and services.
With checking you can have free checking if you maintain a minimum balance, or at some banks if you don’t write many checks, then at other banks you just have to be 50 years or older. If you can not meet these qualifications, with some checking accounts there is a small monthly maintenance fee. In your checking account you should have little more in your account than is necessary to pay your monthly expenses. You should also get overdraft loan protection so you won’t bounce any check and to offer large fee plus the humiliation of having a bad check. Also with most checking accounts you can request a debit card for use in automated teller machines.
Author of this article is Jack Wellington. He is a famous blogger and works at unh stock prediction service. Jack is from Miami, Florida.