An Ohio woman who just turned 100 has taken customer loyalty to the extreme: She's still using a bank savings account that's been around almost as long as she has—since the year before World War I. June Gregg recently mentioned to a friend that her account is the same one her father opened for her in January 1913, when she wasn't even a year-and-a-half old. Gregg still has the little blue passbook, which shows an initial deposit of $6.11. Her father, Gilbert, a farmer who grew corn, wheat, and hay, was a Savings Bank customer and wanted his only daughter to learn thrift.
The bank toasted Gregg on her 100th birthday yesterday with a party complete with balloons and a cake with large candles of the numerals "1-0-0." Bank employees sang "Happy Birthday." As a gift, the bank will bump up Gregg's interest rate for the next 100 days to around 5%, about 5 times the average going rate, according to the bank's general manager. Other 'long-term' customers stay with the bank for 30 or 40 years, sometimes more, but "It seems less prevalent today because we're seeing such consolidation and so many changes in banking, and incentives for consumers to move," the manager said. (More savings account stories.)