Ask the Readers: Best Brick-and-Mortar Banks?
Published on - October 19th, 2007 (Modified on - February 18th, 2008) (by J.D. Roth) Last March I shared a list of the best online high-yield savings accounts. Rates have been dropping, and I intend to post an update. Meanwhile, I’ve received a couple of questions recently about the best choices for brick-and-mortar banks. Alex wrote, “I would love to see a write-up on the best banks for regular checking accounts (in terms of customer service, minimum balances, overdraft fees, etc.).”
Paul has a similar question:
My wife and I have three checking accounts, all with Citizens Bank. Our wages come into a joint account, and we “pay ourselves” a weekly allowance for daily expenses to our personal accounts.
But we do not like Citizens. I have a heck of a time getting its information into an online manager like Wesabe or Mint. Also, we’re paying fees on the joint account (it’s an old one), and Citizens have been less than helpful in removing those fees.
What brick-and-mortar bank do you recommend for our joint account that we can have wages go to, and have the ability to easily deposit checks (which rules out ING Direct), that has great online management, and can easily hook into online services? Fees are obviously nasty and to be avoided.
Could you recommend a checking account for us? (We’re in Massachusetts, if it matters.)
A good place to begin searching for a financial institution is the Bankrate checking & saving rate search tool. But while this will help you compare the stats for various banks, it won’t help you with the intangibles:
- How convenient is the bank?
- How is the customer service?
- What is the web interface like?
- What are the bank’s check-clearing policies?
- Do you have free access to cancelled checks?
For that sort of information, it’s useful to get feedback from current customers — from people like the readers of Get Rich Slowly!
Of course, different people can have conflicting experiences with an institution. I loathed U.S. Bank when I had my account with them. Yet Kris thinks they’re great to work with. (The difference, I think, was that she has a no-fee account, which U.S. Bank would not give me. Also, because I was a poor money manager, I was hit with far too many $28 overdraft fees for my liking.)
A couple years ago, I switched to a local credit union. I love it. Sure, there are only four branches. No, there aren’t many ATMs. But the people are friendly, my accounts have no fees, and the web interface is superior to the one at U.S. Bank. My favorite feature: no bizarre check-clearing rules — you make a deposit, the funds are available.
What about you? Can you recommend a good brick-and-mortar bank for Alex and Paul? Where should they open their checking accounts? Which banks should they avoid? Or does it all boil down to personal preference?
Addendum: In the comments, CP points to an article by Liz Pulliam Weston that describes why you should ditch your bank for a credit union.
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US Bank had worked very well for me. I have a checking and a credit card account with them. I find it is convinient as they are everywhere (at least to all the places I have been to!). I did have overdraft problem several times and when asked nicely, they do remove them all the time. The customer service is great and no hidden costs or unexpected charges. I love their cash back features with the credit card. They don’t offer as competitive CD rates as online banks, but I like them because I feel secured banking with them. But then again, that is my personal choice…they do have a low house mortgage interest promotion that ended yesterday. Sometimes you have to wait to get some good offers from them.
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I have used Bank of America from when it was Fleet Bank out of Boston. The transition to B of A was sort of a pain, but since I’ve been with them for around eight years now I get treated very well.
Lose my ATM card, all those charges are wiped out even before they investigate it.
Whenever I walk into the bank for help with something, after they check me in and see how long I’ve been with them the demeanor totally changes and the big smile comes out.
Plus they’ve retooled their online site and have added those awesome ATMs where you don’t need an envelope anymore to deposit checks or cash—you just feed it in and the machine counts the cash and even finds out how much the check is for. Great!
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i used US Bank for years, both for personal and business. i was never charged a single fee, they were great. Unfortunately the only reason i am currently switching is b/c of their hold policy. a BUSINESS check for 10K or more has a 7 day hold. i deposited a check on a thursday and it wasnt available until a week and a half later.
i am currently going with 5/3 (fifth third). no fees for anything, and all deposits are available the next day, no matter the size.
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My bank was bought by Capital One.
On the whole I’m satisfied with C1. They have excellent web-access. I can see my balances, transfer money between accounts, view canceled checks and download account activity as a CSV file.
Their money market accounts have dropped to 4.75%, but that still pretty good. You can only write a limited number of checks on the MM acount, *BUT* you can electronically transfer money in and out of it *all you want*. That makes it an excellent account for savings.
http://www.capitalone.com/directbanking/hymm/index.php
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I love every aspect of banking with Bank of America, both face to face and online.
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I used to bank with Chase, actually the bank I banked with was acquired by chase. I had about 5 accounts with them and i still received crappy service.
One day I had enough and closed all of my accounts, refi’d my loans through other lenders and opened an account at a credit union. It was one of the best financial moves I have made.
When I opened the account there were no ‘free checking accounts’ but they waived the fee for the first year. After the introduction of free accounts the transitioned my account over in minutes after I asked, into an interest bearing rewards account.
Any issues I have had have always been addressed promptly and always to my favor.
Most credit unions operate locally, but with my credit union I can make deposits and withdraws and access ATM’s (no fee) at any accredited credit union. You can find a local credit union on this site
http://www.creditunion.coop/cu_locator/quickfind.html
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I use Bank of America for both checking and savings accounts. The regular checking for Mass. has a fee unless there’s a minimum daily balance of $750. (I keep enough in my linked savings to avoid the fee, but no mention of a savings account was given in the question.)
But right now they’re offering a special online for their “My Access” checking account with zero fees.
http://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/checksave/index.cfm?template=check_myaccess
Checks are returned with each monthly statement, and scanned images can also be viewed online. For check holding, I think they usually deposit up to $100 immediately, and hold the rest for clearing. I’m not entirely sure on this anymore though, since I’ve been using direct deposit for over a year. (Direct deposit is available immediately.)
The online banking they provide is excellent. They just recently integrated a branded Yodlee(?) program called “My Portfolio”. It provides account aggregation (I have my Fidelity 401k listed in it), and runs spending and budget reports automatically for categorized charges. So far I haven’t had anything categorized wrong, though a good number of restaurants I go to show up as uncategorized.
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I had a horrible experience with Bank of America in Los Angeles. I had just moved there and needed to open an account to pay my rent. I made the initial deposit with a bank check for several thousand dollars. I kept checking my balance but the check wasn’t clearing. It turns out they had a policy to hold all checks for 30days on new accounts for the first 6 months. I had to go down to the branch, wait in a long line, and threaten to take my account to another bank before the manager removed the hold on my account.
I suspect that this is not really BofA policy, it was this branch, which happens to be in a Latino neighborhood. Either way, I will not be giving them my money again.
I am currently at Fifth Third bank. I have a free checking account that earns interest (granted, less than $.25 per month!). If I recall correctly, they did not charge for checks when I opened the account. The service has been great so far.
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I’ve used Bank of America all across the country. For business clients, it’s unparalleled in the number of features they offer. Being able to access it almost everywhere you go is also nice, if you work with other businesses across the country.
Customer service is usually tolerable, but if that’s what you’re looking for, I would almost certainly recommend a smaller bank or credit union. Build a relationship with them, and a good one should treat you better than any of the big banks are capable of.
This is especially true if you might start a business in the future. It’s MUCH easier to get a loan and deal with a smaller bank that has history with you than try to negotiate with Bank of America. We don’t even bother going to them with loans anymore.
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I’ve always had good experiences with local banks. If you’re in a very small town, you may not be able to get online banking, etc., but the customer service tends to be very good.
In less-small towns (read: more than 3 stoplights), I’d say a local bank would have most if not all of the convenient features of a big chain–and the customer service still tends to be good, AND there aren’t any stupid check-clearing policies. =)
I’m in Texas, so this wouldn’t help Paul too much, but for anyone looking around here…Frost Bank is *great*. It’s statewide, very people-oriented, very “this is how I want a bank to work.”
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He really needs to consider a credit union. The service is amazing, you can’t beat it. I am a member of two.
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For those of you in the NY, NJ, PA area, Commerce Bank has been great for me. In fact, I moved there after my credit union at work decided to hold onto a personal check for 14 business days.
Checking accounts require a $100 minimum balance, they have no foreign ATM fees and they even refund the fees you incur from other ATMs if you maintain a certain balance in your checking account. Their branches are open 7 days a week and they open even on holidays and during the evenings. In each of their branches, they also have free coin counting, even if you’re not an account holder. (I shudder when I see people paying the 8% fees at the grocery store.)
That being said, they’re being bought up by TD Bank. The aquisition hasn’t gone through yet, but here’s to hoping that they keep their great service.
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I’m a big fan of credit unions. They don’t have a profit motive so they can give back to the customers. The ones I’ve used have all offered interest on both savings and checking and anywhere from 1-2% cash back on credit cards with no annual fee. They tend to have lower interest rates for loans and such as well. If you are concerned about wide ATM availability you can generally use any other credit union ATM with no fee and my new one will rebate the fees of any ATM anywhere to you. Good deal.
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Agree with the comments on credit unions. Once I joined one and understood the difference, I wondered why I messed around with banks for so long. Here is an article that breaks down the differences a bit…
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/BetterBanking/DitchYourBankForACreditUnion.aspx
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My local bank was purchased by JP Morgan Chase. I was initially skeptical, but it’s turned out well. I have a checking with a linked savings account, that has no fees if I maintain a 2500 balance on both accounts. If I have an overdraft, it will pull money from my savings account for a $3 fee, instead of bouncing the check for a $30+ fee.
When I rolled over my 401k into an IRA, I went with Chase again. It turns out that when I did that, the combined dollar amount of all my accounts with them qualified me for a higher level of service, and my checking account now bears interest (incredibly low – like .5% but that’s better than nothing) and my savings account is a money market making competitive interest rates.
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I hate U.S. Bank. About a year ago, I called to see if I could get the credit limit on my card raised (I have a linked credit card since it offered good rewards and made it easy to adjust to having a credit card while in college). I have never had a late payment, always pay in full, and never utilize more than 15% of my credit limit. They said sure, but then somehow accidentally dropped my limit. When I called to point out their error, I was told they couldn’t increase my credit limit since I hadn’t been paying at the “new level” for three months.
I was incredibly frustrated because I had approximately 10x my credit limit sitting in my checking account, but didn’t want to use my debit card for major purchases and couldn’t use my credit card. Now, four years after opening my account with them, my credit limit has been bumped by $1000 total, despite a perfect track record and great credit score. I am so frustrated with their customer service it makes me want to scream.
Also, if I try and roll over to a “real” account (this I got when I started college, so its automatically a student account), I was told that they won’t look at my credit score when determining a limit so I would be stuck at this same low credit level. Obviously, my biggest issue with them is their credit cards, but I find the overall practices distasteful.
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US BANK has been just fine for me. They have tons of ATMs all around the country. They offer their 5 star guarantee: If service is bad, you just mention it and they put $5 in your account.
I recently switched to ING Direct, but keep my US BANK account open just so I can deposit checks (but then have to transfer the money to my ING – depending on what that money is for).
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I used a Credit Union for 10 years, and was very happy. Great service, and credit unions aren’t trying to make money off of you so the fees and such are very sane.
When I switched jobs and was no longer able to get to that credit union as easily I switched to Citizens. It’s been OK.
I use citizens for checking only and save at my ING account. ING currently offers 4.3% interest, a bit lower than when I started but way better than a brick and mortar savings account).
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CU would be the best way to go. They usually are a lite weight version of the bank (which is both good and bad). Customer service is usually good and there won’t be very many day to day issues to deal with them. On the flip side you won’t find many ATMs within the city itself so you can expect to pay fees when you travel and use other ATMs. Also, if you are going to make wire transfers etc. (domestic/international) check with the CU to make sure they offer those services (didn’t I say it was a lite version
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In the mainstream banking area I’ve banked with Bank of America, Chase and Citibank. While I’ve had great customer service with all three of them I only retained the Citibank account and closed the others. Chase was good but had issues with their online banking (website related issues like the annoying machine identification). Bank of America’s website was the best of the three but their fee policies were ridiculous.
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IMO, the best banks are the small regional ones. They have all the features the “big boys” have without the hassles. My experience has been that big banks are always getting creative in an attempt to squeeze more fees out of their customers while regional banks are focusing on customer service and then fees. If you have to pay a fee for any normal checking/savings account feature . . . find a new bank!
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I always like the bank with the most ATMs and no fees for using them. That tends to differ by region. Overdraft fees don’t matter to me since I keep enough cash as a buffer. When I was in MA, I was happy with Bank of America.
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I use Bank of America, and have for several years, because they’re convenient and I do all my banking online so I never run afoul of their customer service.
BoA has one practice that borders on predatory that I’d warn anyone considering BoA against. That practice is “reordering” transactions — for example, deliberately holding a large cheque until several smaller transactions are also pending, then putting the large transaction through before the smaller, which may just make the account funds low enough to let them collect fees on some or all of the smaller transactions. They’ve also been known to hold deposits inordinately long periods of time, presumably for the same reason. I have personally had one week’s paycheque, (pay date on the 15th of the month) clear by the 17th, while a later cheque from the same employer and for the same amount, deposited on the 31st, didn’t clear until the 7th.
If you’re the kind of person my last ex was, who keeps a lot of money in the checking account at all times, you won’t have any problem with BoA. If, on the other hand, you have less of a cash buffer to begin with … find yourself a credit union. BoA is likely to inconvenience you more than it helps you.
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I have to second Whitney and David on the smaller/regional banks. I’ve had an account with My Town Bank for 7 or 8 years now and had nothing but good experiences with them – including proactive phone calls from them a couple of times to warn me about a potential fee and give me an opportunity to fix things even though it cost *them* money because they then didn’t get to charge me the fee. Nearly all small banks and credit unions hereabouts are part of the SUM network, so it’s easy to avoid ATM charges. I also – and I may be a bit of a sucker for this – prefer banking with someone who feels more like part of the community than the megabanks around the corner.
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Depending in where you are in Massachusetts, consider the East Cambridge Savings Bank. It’s a small bank, but has lately expanded its branches outside of Cambridge. No fee checking. Excellent customer service. Small enough that the tellers actually get to know you, if you can believe it. Very easy online account management. The only thing I can’t vouch for is downloading data into electronic bookkeeping applications. I transferred all my accounts there, away from Fleet, Chase, and Bank of America.
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Another credit union fangirl. No overdraft fees at my CU; they simply deduct the overage from my savings to cover the check. I moved halfway across the country, and still maintain my account with the CU. Paychecks are auto-deposited, and I move money between accounts through their online interface. If I get a paper check for some reason, I just mail it in to be deposited. Great telephone support as well.
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I love love love Citibank here in Los Angeles. They turn my deposits around quickly, the online banking is never off by more than a day, and they have a nice money market (Ultimate money) account that pays 5% if you have a checking account and use the bill pay service. Since those are both things I’d be doing anyway … why not? The branches I’ve been in all seem to run efficiently and the tellers are awesome.
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I am really happy with WaMu. If you open a checking and a savings account online, the savings account pays 5% APY. It’s amazing to have a high-yield account with brick-and-mortar convenience. (Assuming you have WaMu in your town–they’re all over the place here in Chicago.) The checking account is nice, too–free ATM withdrawals, free checks, and one free overdraft a year, among other things.
I’ve found the customer service to be great, and the Web site is easy to use.
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Bank of America lost me as a customer as their customer service became very poor in the DC area, and I just couldn’t get the help I needed.
That, and their mortgage rates are horrible compared to local competition.
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Let me jump on the Credit Union bandwagon. I’ve been with mine since I was 16 and took out my first car loan. When my wife and I got married 6 years ago (today!) she was with BoA and she hated it. The customer service was horrible and they were constantly dinging her with all kinds of fees. She switched to my credit union and we opened a joint account. We get free checking, free online bill pay, if we accidently overdraw our checking account, they charge us $1 and take the money out of our savings to cover it. We recently considered going back to BoA to enroll in “Keep the Change” but we couldn’t go back to that services.
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I’ve always been happy with Wachovia. Their online billpay and banking are superior. Of course, because they are a large Borg-like company, they could actually be as evil as Satan himself, but in day to day dealings, you couldn’t tell by me.
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Keep your current bank. Open an ING bank and link the accounts. Keep a low balance in your current bank and do most of your banking with ING.
You’ll have the ability to deposit checks in your local account. Then move the money to your ING checking. Online bill pay works great with ING. Moving funds between your ING Savings and ING Checking takes seconds.
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As a proud credit union member, I will concede that there might be fewer branches and ATMs than one would like. Since my online banking capabilities are good, that normally isn’t an issue.
If it is, I can do much of my banking at a shared branch two blocks from my work, and there is another shared branch 10 minutes from my home. There are a few more networked ATMs within a mile or two if I need them, as per the link in comment 6. And my actual branch is just a short subway ride from work if I really DO need to go in.
Finally, I’d like to point out that if you need to withdraw cash and can’t find an in-network ATM, most drug stores and groceries will allow you cash back with purchase. I’ve used “the Bank of CVS” to get cash out any number of times.
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In Mass, I’ve been really happy with Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU). They have several branches out in the suburbs, but I mostly bank online. The loan and CD rates are good, customer service is VERY friendly and helpful in person and on the phone, and I’ve never had trouble with fees in 10 years of banking with them.
https://www.dcu.org/
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I have to put in a vote for your local bank. I recently purchased a house I checked with every bank in town for financing. My bank (local) was the only one that helped me out at all and was willing to change the terms of the loan the day before closing to make things work out better for us with payments. The only advantage I can see to a big national bank is if you travel a lot and use ATM’s frequently
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Sounds like these folks are looking for a bank with:
Direct Deposit
Convenient places to deposit checks (facilities or ATMs)
Great On-line Banking
Easy dump down of data into personal software
Fees to be avoided
In my opinion (I work for a large community bank group in the Midwest) this person is looking for a Big Bank. They have the most number of locations to make a deposit and usually have the most sophisticated on-line baking and software. With these types of banks, you can usually get some sort of “Free” checking, but to avoid any fees, don’t do anything stupid that will get you a fee charged. All banks have these fees.
The credit union argument is moot here. They do not have many locations and they’re usually slightly behind on on-line services. These are the two major items that are important to the reader that wrote in. But, they do have great loan rates and usually are nicer about fees (but once again, if you follow the rules, fees shouldn’t be a problem at any bank!)
Not sure where this person lives in MA, but here is a list of the top 5 banks in the Boston MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) ranked in order of summary of deposit market share by the FDIC. The higher a market share, the more “popular” a bank is in a market (for the most part):
BANK OF AMERICA NA
CITIZENS BANK OF MA
STATE STREET BANK&TRUST CO
INVESTORS BANK&TRUST CO
SOVEREIGN BANK
Good luck!
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Forget B&M banks – look for a local credit union. My wife and I both use the one from our university we attended, and it has been nothing but great. No fees, great customer service (whose hours are something insane like 6am-9pm!). When I was buying my car, their loan rates beat out everyone else, and I was able to even close the loan completely over the phone from another state – I never had to step a foot in an office. Our house loan was flawless, too. I’ve got nothing but great things to say about our credit union, and between them for checking and online high-yield savings accounts, I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a regular bank!
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DCU is a great credit union. If you live in central to eastern Mass there are enough local branches to get you started. Other than that, look at your true local smaller (often locally owned) Savings banks in your area. Of course, if you live, say, in Boston proper, you may be stuck with the mega-banks if branch convenience is your priority (here in Mass, BofA is no perfect child either….)
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I’ve been a happy Washington Mutual customer for 13 years. They have a free checking account, and I’ve generally had good experiences with their customer service.
I hate BofA. I had horrible experiences with their customer service, and I refuse to do business there anymore.
I also haven’t had a great experience with my local credit union, though I know that’s not the norm. We kept our savings at our local credit union until about a 2 years ago, when they added astronomical fees for everything. $10 a month to keep your account open there, charges for walking into the bank instead of using the website….things of that nature. I transferred everything to ING right away, and I’ve never looked back.
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What we want from banks is surprisingly personal. I use a credit union. I am there because I can get a free checking account if I keep a certain average balance, which I can easily do because the part of my paycheck I leave in there until bills are due averages out just fine. Also, they never get bought by scummy banks. Also, if they have a new policy and everyone complains, they change their policy. Also, they clear all my deposits right away, even personal checks from other banks. And I have a nice low-interest credit card from them in case I ever am having a cash flow problem.
However, some other people don’t like my credit union. They certainly charge big fees whenever you bounce a check, and I can’t remember, but they might be one of those places that cash the bigger checks first so they can bounce the most checks and collect the most fees. Since I don’t live close to the edge like that, I don’t have to care about that. Also, keeping up the minimum is easy for me because I get paid monthly; if you get paid more often, you may never have that giant amount in there to increase your average. Also, interest rates used to be better than at other places, but now they suck and even their CDs suck, so I also have an online savings account. Also, I have no idea whether it’s easy to get my information on an online money manager because I don’t do that.
I almost never use ATMs, and I have many plus an actual branch in walking distance of my job, so that’s no problem. I don’t travel much, maybe once or twice a year, and usually I only need an ATM zero to one time per trip, so any extra fees are no big deal to me.
I can access my information online easily. And I can see copies of checks for several months, which is good when I forgot that I wrote a check! But after that time, they make it very difficult to find a check–you have to know the check number you want or at least the exact amount of the check. Saying “I wrote a check in March or April to [a specific organization] for about $100 doesn’t cut it!
One of my first experiences with a bank was cashing a check I got as a camp counselor at a local bank at which I was not a member when I didn’t have an ID. They let me! I have never seen such a cool bank since. One of my next experiences with a bank was when I tried to open a checking account as a college student and was told, “Checking accounts are for adults.” I just left thinking “But college students need checking accounts,” forgetting that I might have looked fourteen to them. I even went without a checking account for a couple of years once, getting my friends to write checks for me when I needed them, because I couldn’t find a decent bank anywhere that I could get to!
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I’ve been a Wells Fargo customer for years. Recently I’ve been very happy with their online services, specially the ability to easily transfer money to any other Wells Fargo customer. No hoops to jump through – if you have their account number, you can send them money. This works really well for my fiance and me.
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For personal banking, I use my local credit union. For my business accounts, I use WaMu. In both cases I have an individual that I connect with whenever there is an issue. I think that is key. If you can get a real person on your side at just about any bank, your likely to get good service.
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My grandfather was the head of the local credit union where my mom grew up and so I’ve always been biased towards credit unions. We switched to Wells Fargo after we moved away so that we’d have more ATM access in both cities. I then found out that it’s not just bias, usually the credit unions can offer you better service and rates with fewer fees.
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*sings* Credit Union, Credit Union, Credit Union, Credit Union, Credit Union, Credit Union!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you shop around a little, you will find that they have the best rates on just about everything (given that they aren’t for profit), and the people will more likely be friendly to boot!
I am in Wisconsin, so I can’t speak for Mass, BUT, my credit union has deals with OTHER credit unions in the state, where each of their respective ATMs count as in-service ATMs for the others. In other words, if I go home to visit the ‘rents, I can use one of the local ATMs there.
Another idea for your questioner: They could set up a local Credit Union/Bank account for cashing of paper checks, but ALSO have most of their money in their ING account? This type of thing would seem to be to be the best way to maximize their moolas.
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I second your thoughts on a credit union, J.D. I’ve never been a member of a bank, however, I’ve also never had problems with my credit union. Mine is part of the Co-op Network, which allows me to use ATMs without fees across the country as long as the ATM is part of the same network (they publish pamphlets with locations). I have a credit card through them as well and online payment is relatively easy (though I wish they’d make it so that I don’t have to log in to see my savings and checking accounts to get to the website to check/pay my credit card balance).
The easiest of all was joining: they have a branch on my college campus and the only requirement was being enrolled at a school. When a friend who was not a student wanted an account, the rep signed her up for a one-year (free) membership with some organization and told her that when that membership expired, her account with the credit union would not.
My only real problem now is that I’m ten miles farther from campus than I used to be and finding a branch can be troublesome. There are, however, several service centers in the area that are also part of this Co-op Network, therefore serving members of many area credit unions.
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I use two credit unions. One for my indivdual account and one for my car loan. Chartway CU has been good with their customer service and I haven’t been hit with fees. If tehre’s a problem, it usually ends in my favor.
My other CU,is overall alright, but lately having problems with my savings accounts.
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No one has mentioned Wachovia…In high school, I opened an account with First Union, which was bought out by Wachovia…I stuck with them for 6 years. Their customer service was great, even for a college student who lived on the edge like me. They usually refund any bounce fees if you just ask. You’d be surprised how many people don’t. Also, their operators are nice, not condescending.
Unfortunately, I had to switch to BOA because I moved to San Francisco a few months ago, and at the time, there was no Wachovia. I always kept a BOA account, since they are everywhere (I travel alot), and I could hit my parents up for money that they could deposit directly into my bank account. They also make interbank transfers easy, you can do it online. But, BOA’s customer service SUCKS….lately they have tried to be better, especially now that I have a steady income, but they were very hard to work with before.
After reading all these posts, I think I’ll try out a CU co-op. I’ve shied away from them since I am out of town so much, but a co-op might work.
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I’ve had a Wells Fargo account since the end of high school (~8 yrs), have never paid a fee (free account). The web interface is good, you get free images of canceled checks online, transferring money is easy. I like them because they have ATMs everywhere (at least in CA and MN). I’m not sure what any fees are (overdraft etc). I almost always deposit money into the ATM and it’s available in a few days. I don’t know what their regular wait times are, though. Every time I go into a branch (very rarely) the service is good, but I don’t do anything too complicated.
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I can’t say I love National City, but I suppose they aren’t bad. Their web site is fairly easy to navigate, but their customer service is pretty hit or miss in my experience. I would really love to switch to a credit union, but it’s just such a difficult and time-consuming process.
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I agree with #35 that the requirements Paul stated do tend toward a Big Bank. I’ve used Bank of America for over three years and in that time, I’ve never been charged a fee that I can recall, certainly not one that I didn’t expect. I’m not saying that they never do that, this is just my personal experience. All I’ve asked of BoA is a place to deposit the occasional check and a plethora of ATMs that are convenient to work, home, and nearly anywhere else I go, and that’s what I’ve gotten. I also think they have a pretty good online banking interface, and I love the online bill pay and e-bills.
I’m sure it’s true that you can get better and more personal service at more local banks or credit unions, but I don’t require much of that. It all depends on what your priorities are.
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*ugh* credit unions
I absolutely loved Wells Fargo, but unfortunately moved to Michigan where there are no Wells Fargos. I know they’re a big evil bank, but they were nice and competent, which is more than I can say for the other simpletons credit unions and banks I’ve dealt with here thus far. I’m on my 4th without being impressed yet. I will say this for my credit union, they don’t hide the fact that they think it’s 1955.
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