By David Shapiro

Saturday, May 31, 1997

Give me a bank where
the customers rank

Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank are exemplary corporate citizens of Hawaii.

One or the other of Hawaii's two leading banks drives virtually every important private effort to improve the state's economy and business climate.

You can't go to a major charity fund-raiser without seeing First Hawaiian's Walter Dods, Bankoh's Lawrence Johnson or other top bank executives at the head table.

The banks enrich community life through sponsorship of events like Bankoh's Molokai Hoe and acts of generosity like First Hawaiian's donation of its historic building in downtown Hilo for a tsunami museum.

From the way they support my community, the two banks have every right to expect my support. Which is why I feel awful guilt about looking elsewhere for a new checking account.

When Bank of America, where I now bank, sold its local branches to American Savings Bank this week, I decided to shop around in case the switchover doesn't meet my needs.

I did call Bankoh and First Hawaiian first, but quickly ran into the reason I took up with Bank of America in the first place: The customer service of the Big Two doesn't match their community service.

While banks around the country aggressively compete for customers with new services and expanded hours, Bankoh and First Hawaiian are mostly standing pat with outdated hours and services that limit me to visiting my money at their convenience, not mine.

Automated tellers and debit cards make it unnecessary to actually go into a bank much anymore. But when I do have to interact with the bank, I want three things:

Convenient hours. Bank of America won me over by staying open until 6 p.m. every weekday and until noon on Saturdays. First Hawaiian and Bankoh branches are still open only until 3 p.m. on weekdays except Fridays and offer no weekend hours. Wake up in there!

Bankoh is experimenting with supermarket branches that are open during off hours, but that only works in a market where you shop often. A special trip to the market to cash a check is more hassle than a trip to the bank.

Drive-through tellers. It's silly to have to find parking, go in the bank and stand in line for simple transactions. Bankoh has plenty of drive-through tellers but, incredibly, First Hawaiian has few, none anywhere near me.

Telephone bill paying. It used to take me an hour and a half to collect the bills, add them up, write checks, address envelopes, find stamps and mail them. Then came Bank of America with telephone bill paying. I dial the bank computer, punch in a few numbers on my phone and my bills are paid in minutes. No checks, no envelops, no stamps. And the computer has never gotten a payment wrong.

Bank of Hawaii still has no telephone bill paying. First Hawaiian, to its credit, does offer the service now and also is a local leader in banking by personal computer.

The Big Two require checking balances of up to $1,500 -- triple my current account -- to earn 1.5-percent interest. You could invest the $1,500 in the stock market and, with average returns, cover the 1.5-percent interest, pay checking fees and have enough left for a little trip to Las Vegas every few years.

Each bank meets only one of my three basic needs. Community service counts for a lot, but there has to be competitive customer service too. Give me convenient hours, drive-through tellers and telephone bill paying and I'm yours. I'll even overlook the crummy interest rates.