Norwich — Dime Bank has introduced a new line of checking accounts that enable account holders to save money at local and national retailers, an initiative Dime’s hailing as a win for merchants and customers alike.

DimePerks, as the program's called, will help the bank generate new revenue from fees.

In a partnership with BaZing, a discount network launched in 2012 by Brentwood, Tenn.-based StrategyCorps, Dime is linking checking customers to merchants eager to enjoy the benefits of what amounts to free advertising. It’s all achieved via a mobile application that account holders can download for free from the Apple Store or Google Play.

Participating retailers tout discounts and other money-saving offers, and customers call up coupons for the offers, print them out and present them at the point of purchase.

Since debuting DimePerks on June 1, Dime has been moving existing account holders into the new checking accounts and adding new customers at the rate of 10 to 15 a day, according to Joshua Brier, Dime’s senior vice president of retail banking, sales and marketing.

Five to 10 local merchants have been joining DimePerks every day, Brier said, their participation involving no cost beyond the discounts they provide.

“We’re very excited to join the DimePerks program,” Olivia Formica, managing chef of East Lyme’s Flanders Fish Market, said. “We can customize our offers based on what’s available at the market and the weather conditions. Today, it might be a special on hot chowder, tomorrow chilled shrimp." 

One day this week, the market offered DimePerks app users $2 off per pound of swordfish, salmon or tuna.

Other local merchants enrolled in the program include the Harp & Dragon Irish Pub in Norwich and Muddy Waters café and Bean & Leaf in New London. Eventually, the list could grow to virtually any provider of goods or services, including gift shops, auto body shops, lawyers and tax preparers, according to Amber Martin, a Dime vice president and director of marketing.

“So why bank at a national bank when you can save some money at places you already go?” Brier said.

On its website, StrategyCorps says the financial payoff for a bank that joins the network is about $75 a year in “customer-friendly" fee income from 40 percent of the bank’s checking customers.

For holders of Dime’s new top-tier checking account, DimePrime, the DimePerks service is free provided they maintain a combined monthly average balance of $15,000 or outstanding consumer/residential loan balances of $150,000. Otherwise, DimePerks is $20 a month. Holders of DimeWired accounts get the service free if they maintain a monthly average balance of $7,500. Otherwise, it’s $6 a month.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck