Bank — Complete Banking Intelligence System

What This Skill Does

Most people have the same bank account they opened as a teenager or young adult. They have never seriously evaluated whether it is the right account for their current life. They pay fees they do not need to pay, earn interest rates that round to zero when better rates are available, and use products that were sold to them rather than chosen by them.

Banking is infrastructure. Bad infrastructure is invisible until it fails or costs you money. This skill makes your banking infrastructure deliberate.

Core Principle

A bank is not a relationship. It is a vendor. You are paying for services — either explicitly in fees or implicitly in the spread between what they earn on your money and what they pay you for it. The customer who evaluates banking decisions with this clarity consistently gets better terms, pays less, and earns more than the customer who treats banking as a loyalty relationship.

Workflow

Step 1: Assess the Banking Scenario

BANKING_SCENARIOS = {
  "account_optimization": {
    "goal":    "Ensure current accounts are the best available for actual usage patterns",
    "review":  ["Monthly fees paid", "Interest earned", "Features used vs available",
                "ATM costs", "Transfer fees"],
    "trigger": "Any time fees exceed $10/month or interest rate is below current HYSA rates"
  },
  "account_selection": {
    "goal":    "Choose the right account type for specific purpose",
    "types":   ["checking", "savings", "HYSA", "money_market", "CD", "business_checking"],
    "key":     "Match account features to actual usage — not to what sounds good"
  },
  "dispute_resolution": {
    "goal":    "Recover fees, resolve errors, escalate unresolved issues",
    "process": ["Direct request", "Formal complaint", "Regulatory escalation"],
    "success": "Most fee reversals are granted to customers who ask specifically"
  },
  "business_banking": {
    "goal":    "Separate business finances, build banking relationships, access credit",
    "needs":   ["Business checking", "merchant services", "business credit", "payroll"],
    "key":     "Business banking affects how lenders evaluate you — build it deliberately"
  },
  "international": {
    "goal":    "Minimize costs on cross-border transactions",
    "products": ["Multi-currency accounts", "international wires", "foreign ATM access"],
    "key":     "Traditional bank international fees are 3-5x what specialized providers charge"
  }
}

Step 2: Account Architecture