Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Your Hometown North Myrtle Beach Bank Offers Services You May Not Expect

When you think about high-end banking services like zero APR introductory rate credit cards and advanced small business checking accounts with loads of entrepreneur-friendly options, you may not think of a local North Myrtle Beach bank. Those kinds of offerings are generally thought of as part and parcel of a corporate financial institution's repertoire. But as the recession has driven many conscientious consumers away from the all-powerful arms of the big banks, local and regional banks with a Myrtle Beach branch and atm have responded by stretching hard to reach the bar that the big banks have set.

If you're thinking about moving to a smaller bank for your needs, you don't necessarily need to be worried about a lack of elite functionality. Of course, you'll have to research each specific North Myrtle Beach bank in order to find the ones that offer precisely the services you're looking for; not all will offer everything.

One thing that you can count on with local and even regional banks is mortgage rates and services that are on par with -- or in some cases superior to -- those provided by a big bank. When the subprime mortgage market collapsed and brought the hyper-leveraged derivatives market down with it, the bigger banks had to tighten their belts to protect themselves, which resulted in them turning away even qualified customers. Smaller banks, particularly some of the smarter managed North Myrtle Beach banks that hadn't over-leveraged, remained much more able to service the remaining mortgage market.

This can be very important for a potential home buyer, because it means that their local North Myrtle Beach bankwon't tie up their mortgage into something exotic like a synthetic collateralized debt obligation and sell parts of it to investors in other countries -- a common practice in the world of the bigger banks. Smaller banks are much more likely to hold on to a mortgage rather than get rid of it, and that can prevent a lot of confusion and give the banks greater security. Many are the horror stories of homeowners whose mortgage products were sold by the holding bank right in the middle of a sale or a foreclosure, with the result that chaos rained down upon everyone involved.

Of course, that doesn't just apply to mortgages, either. North Myrtle Beach banks have a vested interest in keeping wealth right here in the Grand Strand, unlike big banks who make most of their money moving wealth away from the community and even the country!

By taking the money they make collecting interest on loans and mortgages, and giving it right back to the community in the form of startup loans, personal credit, and other cash infusions, the local banks of North Myrtle Beach perform a powerful service to their community -- and that's something that everyone should be able to get behind. More money in the community means a better standard of living all around, and that's something that no big bank can offer -- only a North Myrtle Beach bank can give you the satisfaction of knowing that your deposits, mortgage and car loan payments are helping people right down the street from you