Banks & Credit Unions
Valley First
About Valley First
It says something about a farming district that a village of sixteen hundred people supports more than one place to bank. Valley First keeps a spot at 704 7th Avenue in Keremeos, on the street where most of the village's business gets done, close enough to the shops that banking can be folded into an errand rather than made into a trip of its own.
Branch banking in a small community tends to divide into two kinds of work. There is the counter side, deposits and withdrawals, bill payments, drafts and the ordinary running of an account, and there is the desk side, mortgages, loans, business accounts and the longer conversations that go with them. The second kind usually runs on appointments, and in rural branches the person you need may be in the building only on certain days, or may work with you by phone from somewhere else entirely.
Anyone opening an account or moving their banking to the valley should bring two pieces of identification and, for a business or a farm, whatever registration paperwork exists. Ask what can be signed at the counter and what has to be arranged with an advisor, and ask about telephone and online service, which counts for more out here than it does in a city. If you are driving in from the orchards or from further up the Similkameen, sort out the appointment first rather than take a chance on walking in.
Visiting Valley First
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Keremeos on Labour Day weekend: fruit stand capital at full draw
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