Characters can only carry a certain amount of items on their person using their standard inventory slots and bags. However with crafting playing an integral part in the game, your inventory can get full with all sorts of quest items and reagents. So how do you get around this problem? The solution is simple.

How do I get an account?

Each of the 6 major capital cities in the game has a bank and these are usually found in a central location within the city, such as the Trade District in Stormwind. Despite being called a bank, you don’t actually store any money there, the bank is purely for item storage and if you have played Diablo II before, the word Stash comes to mind. Money is always carried on your person and takes up no weight or space and cannot be stored in the bank. Also, money cannot be lost because players do not lose money or even any experience points through death. [Alright, you have to pay equipment repair costs but that is a seperate issue. See Death System.]

In addition to the 6 major cities in the world, banks can also be found in the neutral towns of Booty Bay, Ratchet and Gadgetzan. Due to the usefulness of the banks, most trading and auctions actually take place in front of them.

How much will it cost me?

Your bank account

All players start with a 24-slot bank to store items when they start the game. It’s free. However, you may purchase up to 6 bag slots where you can place bags to expand the size of your bank, so if you purchased 3 bank slots and placed 8-slot bags in all 3 of them, you will double your bank space. The costs are as follows:

1st slot = 10 Silver
2nd slot = 10 Gold
3rd slot = 25 Gold
4th slot = 50 Gold
6th slot = 100 Gold

Note that purchasing the slot merely opens up the slot for usage; you still have to find a bag to put in that slot, so placing larger bags in each slot is the best way to maximise your storage space in the bank. You can remove a bag from the slot if you wish, they’re not bound there, however once a bag is placed in a slot it becomes soulbound so you can’t trade it with another player.

Where & How do I do my banking?

Like a real bank, your bank account is your own, it can’t be accessed by any other player. Getting access to your bank is very easy, just pop into any branch in any friendly city location and you will have access to your bank. You don’t have to be in the same bank you placed your items to retrieve them later on, any bank you visit will have all the items you placed in it. This is similar to a cash point system in the real world. To activate the banking window simply talk to the Banker NPC which will open up the banking interface. Items can then be moved between your inventory and your bank account.

With the two factions of the Alliance and Horde playing an integral part in the game, Alliance players cannot access Horde banks and vice versa. Each character you create also has its own bank and you cannot share one of your character’s bank accounts with another of your characters. However, you can mail items using the postal system to your other character assuming they are both on the same server and faction. [See Postal System]

It is important you use your space well and due to the nature of the questing system, it is sometimes worthwhile holding on to certain items that may crop up in a later quest. A prime example of such an item is Murloc fins, these have a tendency to crop up in more than one quest so having a store of these to utilise later may be a good idea, saving you time on completing a quest.