Opening your own savings account as a kid was once a rite of passage.

It was used to teach you the concept of thrift and putting aside money for things you wanted.

The account, of course, opened initially as Verna Wyatt for Dennis Wyatt, given the single digit nature of my age.

It meant the account wasn’t exactly mine as it required my mom to withdraw money.

Then at age 16 it was changed to a true joint account before I had the ability to remove my mom’s name when I turned 18.

Initially, the amounts I deposited were miniscule.

They ranged from $1.25 to $10 and were what I earned selling Christmas cards door to door and later as an eighth grader working part-time at the Squirrel Cage, the frostie my mom owned and worked at seven days a week so she could support four kids after my dad died.

When I started working for the weekly Lincoln News Messenger as the sports editor and photographer at age 15 and then a year later covering council meetings, the amounts I put into savings increased.

It wasn’t a lot given we had to help with expenses such as buying our own clothes but it allowed me to save money to buy my first car and to go toward college.

Without the reminder I needed to set aside for savings the proverbial hole that money burns in a teen’s pocket would have been a lot bigger.

Savings accounts for kids are financial training wheels.

It teaches delayed gratification and — given the fact you couldn’t access it instantaneously and physically had to go to a bank (at least back then) between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays (until 6 p.m. on Fridays) to withdraw funds from savings — you gave a lot of thought to “big” purchases and the impact on your savings balance.

That first savings account I had was with Bank of America who worked mightily to get me to never ever again to do business with them.

I stayed with them through honest mistakes including when they “lost” my savings account with $2,000 in it when it was switched over to a joint account.

When they drained my account by posting checks written by a Denise Watt against my account and putting some of my checks into her account, I stayed with them.

I was none too happy that the branch staff back then that hand processed checks were busy reading the names on the checking account rather than the numbers given I lived in a small town and they were clearly snooping.

I even stuck with them when BofA still held the Visa credit card business they originated, declined to issue me a credit card even though I had a personal account, business account, and a savings account with them.

A week later, I applied to and secured, a Chase MasterCard that I ended up eventually getting up to a $15,000 credit limit thanks in a large part to the wedding and portrait photography business I had.

Bank of America finally made it clear they didn’t want me when I had $2,500 worth of camera equipment trashed in a free-for-all at a wedding reception.

My credit card limit at that time was $2,000 and I needed new equipment.

I asked BofA for a personal loan of $2,500 secured in part by my car that was valued at $4,000 but they wanted a co-signer.

I walked across the street to the community bank — The Bank of Alex Brown.

I got the $2,500 loan that day without any collateral and ended up paying it off in 12 instead of 24 months.

Needless to say, as I became a bit better off financially or if I had a windfall of money, not one penny went to BofA.

Over the years, BofA based on mass mailings of various offerings, has probably burned through a small stand of trees as well as spent close to $300 on the cost of printing and mailing trying to entice me to do business with them after I became a desirable customer.

Big banks — and not just BofA — ended free checking accounts decades ago.

I get that checking accounts cost money to maintain. But what I don’t get is why a bank would chase off a large chunk of customers who have the potential to become profitable for them as their earnings increase over the years.

It’s a free country and BofA can stray as far as they want from the roots planted by Amedeo Gianni that built Bank of Italy he renamed as Bank of America on the strengthen of working with the small guys.

BofA and other monstrous financial institutions can turn big profits by walking away from the concept of being a local banker for Main Street and putting most of their money into Wall Street.

Meanwhile, community banks remain laser focused on working as a partner with customers and the markets they serve to grow communities and not hedge funds.