Recommend me a new bank

So my wife and I are sick of the shenanigans and chicanery and fees with Bank of the Assinine. We should have dropped them years ago, and with our freq-flyer rewards program ending we have drawn a line in the sand.

The problem is, their competition isn't much better - the brick and mortar banks we've looked at so far are rife with labyrinthine rules and ridiculous fees and penalties.

So now we're leaning toward either a local credit union or online banks like USAA and ING Direct. I've had a savings account with the credit union for over a decade, but they only have two locations and their online self-service & bill-pay capabilities stink. We're USAA members and have been receiving enticing promotions from ING Direct, but don't know anyone who uses those services and hesitate to jump in uninformed.

Have any advice?

I've been with Wells Fargo for many years, I have no complaints. Current interest rates on savings and checking are basically zero, but that's the case across the board.

wells seems to be pretty good, I have them and boa. swmbo despises boa and made the change to wells and she is happy.

Credit Union and State Farm Bank would be my recommendations. I have a savings and checking account with a credit union that I'll be transferring over to another credit union soon, and I'm going to close my Chase account soon and go to State Farm Bank as well.

SFB has free ATM use for almost any ATM as long as you have something getting direct deposited into the account once a month.

I've has an account and previously had an auto financed at First Citizens. I've been very pleased until recently when I started getting charged a monthly maintenance fee on checking. Apparently it's my fault for letting the checking balance fall below1$k. But I have a wad in a savings account with them.

Local Bank or Credit Union, not one of the Federally protected Too Big Too Fail Banks.

I just opened up an account with Navy Federal Credit Union and I have been amazed at the personal service and the cheap rates/fees.

You do not have to have been in the service to get an account there. You just need a relative who's been in the service.

Wells is where I'm at. For big bank.... they're not bad.

Go with a credit union and leave for profit banking to cater to rich folks as they've always done. For profit banks don't give two turds about you. I'm glad you've noticed and are planning to switch.

I left for profit banks behind decades ago and never looked back. I'm now a member of 3 different credit unions. Teller fees? Nope. Overdraft fees? Sure, but I call, we talk, they remove them as I don't tend to overdraft and they're understanding of this. Atm fees? Not if I use their ATM or another credit union's ATM.

Just do it. You won't regret it.

My girlfriend dislikes Wells intensely, finding them to be difficult and unpleasant to deal with. Since I can't remember the details of what's sucked so much, I won't rant and rail...

We've both opened accounts with local credit unions and are quite happy with them.

EDIT: Re: ATM fees. Nope, neither CU charges me for using their ATMs, or anyone else's ATMs. Further, they reimburse me for the other institutions' charges for using their ATMs.

Go with the Credit Union. I switched from Awful National Bank a year and a half ago and have never regretted it.

Fees are usually nonexistent, and the ones they have are tiny compared to a bank's.

No low-balance fee. No monthly fee. No service charges for going to the branch. They'll respect your request to decline card purchases that would overdraw your account. The overdraft fee is half as much. Checks from out of state clear a couple hundred dollars the next day and fully within three.

The money you deposit gets lent to local businessmen and homeowners by someone who knows the region and business climate. Credit Union loan officers actually turn people down for loans when they aren't convinced they'll be paid back.

I'd wear an Aggieland Credit Union t-shirt in public.

nderwater wrote: I've had a savings account with the credit union for over a decade, but they only have two locations and their online self-service & bill-pay capabilities stink. Have any advice?

Try a different/larger credit union.

Click here

The economy of scale prevents some of the smaller ones from keeping up with technology solutions, and there is a fair amount of denial from small CU management about the importance of this.

I love my Credit Union. I would recommend a credit union too.

Banks suck. Made the move to a Credit Union over 10 years ago, and I'm still smiling.

I used commerce bank for decades, they were great....but all good things must come to an end, and they were bought out by TD, and instantly botched automated payments and lost deposits, and added nsf fees due to their own errors, and never completely owned up to the damage they caused.

I closed all my accounts there fairly quickly. They failed to "properly close" one of my accounts, charged fees into an account that had been closed for over a month, and the dispute is still on my credit report (for $7)!

I tried a few others banks for a while and hated them all. The I discovered credit unions. I've never been more satisfied with my banking experience. If all credit unions close, I will put my money in a tincan

Credit Union for checking account.

Ally bank for savings and just about everything else.

I use a bank that is, I'd say, regional-but-under-the-guise-of-local.

That is to say, it's a local bank that has evidently been bought by a larger group...but I don't think it's one of the "too big to..." banks.

We actually have two local-ish banks like that. I've been happy with both of them.

There are zero fees for the things that I need. In addition to a bunch of branches near home, they have a branch in the town where I work (30 minutes from home) and in the town halfway between work and home. That's very convenient.

I do a lot of online banking and a lot of cash transactions (no handwritten checks).

If I need something notarized, they do it for free since I'm a customer. That has been handy since my divorce when occasionally one parent needs a notarized form of permission from the other.

I'd be totally on-board with a credit union...but I haven't had a need to move from where I'm at.

Clem

I have had KEY bank for year. I didn't choose them, things sort of morphed into it from various changes.

I also have some invesments through them, including my IRA. The other day, the investment manger called me to come in to go over some accounts.. turns out it was to meet with the financial adviser, which is a no cost service. Turns out it was for my IRA account that was getting almost no interest, but he had a plan where I could roll it over into a new account that would pay considerably more interst. At one time, the financial adviser, the bank manager and investment manager were al involved. So with that kind of sevice I will stick with KEY.

I use a credit union, my wife uses ING. We both have no complaints.

PHeller wrote: Credit Union for checking account. Ally bank for savings and just about everything else.

This (almost).

I use Ally for most of my money, and a somewhat small bank (Suntrust) for my check/credit cards. I'm only with Suntrust because my parents have a good relationship with them, and I have a student account, which means no fees of any kind. If they weren't so nice, I'd do all my banking with Ally.

We use a local bank. I think they have 25 or 30 branches in SC. I switched from Wells a little over a year ago because their people are idiots that aren't alowed to think.

Just so y'all know, Ally Bank is the former GMAC and is roughly 3/4 owned by the United States government, as a consequence of the banking bailout.

Linky

Credit Unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives owned by their members. There are no shareholders and their boards of directors are volunteers who are not paid for their services.

We moved from a small, local, bank that was very personal, had great internet service, but had problems with our international wire transfers. Went to Citi Bank for the enhanced services. Well, this did not work out very well. Lot's of features there, but internet banking sucks. Do not show current balances, can never be sure how much money is there/ available. Will be moving again to Chase. They seem to have everything we need. I hope.

I have3 been teaching the 9-year old about saving.....opened a junior savings account - no monthly fee's AND no interest.

I lie because she got $0.01 interest on the $950.00 she has in savings. Whoo Hoo!

I also very much prefer our local credit union to BoA (we have accounts with both, plus Sallie Mae for savings). In the OP's position however I would take a close look at USAA as they have a pretty good reputation.

bludroptop wrote: Credit Unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives owned by their members. There are no shareholders and their boards of directors are volunteers who are not paid for their services.

That sounds like some kind of socialist thing to me.