Banks have a lot of motivation to get customers to use online banking services. The main reason? It saves banks money; paper statements, copies of cancelled checks, marketing and advertising all cost more on paper than they do online. Encouraging a bigger percentage of customers to use the Internet for most or all of their banking needs doesn’t just make banking services more convenient for you, it saves your financial institution a bundle of money.

In scouring the world wide web for banking deals, I especially like to find promotions that make sense–both for the bank and for the customer. The days when you received a free toaster for opening a checking account are pretty much gone, and with good reason: banks want their promotions to scream “online banking!” To that end, AnchorBank is giving away a chance to win an Acer Netbook to customers who sign up for e-statements by February 28, 2010.

Separately, AnchorBank is also catering to the younger, tech-minded crowd with a Facebook-based giveaway. The Madison, Wisconsin bank is granting entries to win a USB flashdrive when you become a fan of AnchorBank on Facebook. As banks continue to crowd into the online market, look for more financial institutions to follow AnchorBank’s lead, and offer promotions based on tech-goodies giveaways. BankShout will keep you posted.