Brick-and-mortar and clicks-and-mortar banks offer more convenience. It's nice to be able to drop in on a teller during your lunch break, or to complain to a branch manger when the bank makes a mistake. You can't do those things with an online bank. And with many online banks, you can't make a deposit at an ATM.

It's harder to make deposits at online banks. With most, you have to mail deposits or transfer money electronically from another account. Even if you set up direct deposit for your paychecks, you still get the occasional check, whether it's a gift, a payment at a garage sale, or a product rebate.

A few online banks have attacked this problem aggressively. Juniper Bank, for example, lets you drop off noncash deposits at Mail Boxes Etc. locations, and so does National Interbank.

Other banks make arrangements with regional ATM networks to allow account holders to make deposits at the machines. Juniper, NetBank and First Internet Bank of Indiana are among the online banks that take deposits at ATMs, but the banks cover some areas better than others.