A banking alt is simply an alternate character stationed at a capital city to take in mail and either bank items or put them up on the auction house. Simple enough idea, but if you don’t have one, make one because they are invaluable to making gold in this game. Making one isn’t hard either as 99% of banking alts are level 1.

Banking alts serve as a focal point for items that any character near a mail box can send to. This lets your main or other alts dump the goods to sell to a single character and continue as normal without having to rush to an auction house. Banking alts can also store items if your other characters don’t have space or if they aren’t actively using certain items.

Making a banking alt is pretty simple, just make a new character, get them to the closest capital, and get them some additional bags. Investing in the banking alt pretty much boils down to buying newer and bigger bags, more bank slots, and maybe some clothes. Yes, believe it or not, many banking alts run around naked all day long (see Penny Arcade Comic: Contested).

If you want to spice your banking alt up, go for a couple professions like tailoring, jewelcrafting, enchanting, or inscription. Something that won’t require them to go out and about to level it. The downside is that you will eventually have to level the banking alt to make the profession worthwhile, but once it gets going, you can more easily provide services with the alt and supply them from other sources. It’s only as practical as the amount of time you’re willing to put in though.

Don’t make your Death Knight a banking alt, there are far better uses for an instant level 55+ and keep in mind you only get one per server. Just pick a class, any class. I currently use a mage, but a rogue would also be a good choice. Class abilities like portals and lockpicking can definitely help if you’re bored on a Saturday night.

Don’t put your banking Alt in Darnassus, to this day it’s still the worst designed capital city in the game. The auction house should be at least walking distance to the bank, not flung halfway across the city. Ironforge or Stormwind are much better. The Exodar can work if you’re leveling jewelcrafting. Horde wise, Silvermoon or Undercity work decently.

Your banking alt will also serve as a central gold hub (all those auctions will add up) for all of your characters, so it’s a great way to keep track of your gold intake and will help keep your spending in line.

Make sure you have an auction house addon and go out and grab the Postal addon as well as that just comes in handy for all of your characters.

This pretty well covers the basics of the banking alts. We’ll probably mention them heavily down the line, but just be sure to have one set up and get in the habit of using them for your auctions. The world will work that much easier when you do.