I’m in the market for a new bank. I’ve been jerked around by Chevy Chase Bank enough. Their customer service is good, but I’m looking for a bank that caps their NSF fees (I got hit for $650 in fees because of one small mistake!) and offers a credit card. I’d also like a bank that will automatically transfer a specified amount from my checking to my savings account every two weeks. I know Bank of America does these things, but I’ve heard nothing but bad things about them.
Since my research online to find bank reviews has turned up nothing, I turn to you. What bank do you have, and do you like it? Do they offer the programs above? Please let me know!
I’ve been happy with Bank of America so far. I’ve heard bad stuff too but they’ve been pretty good to me up to now. My specific branch has excellent customer service.
There are tons of credit unions in the area - I have 4 different credit union ATMs within 2 miles of my house. Chances are good you could find one that would give you an account. Through your workplace, through your physical location (e.g. there’s one that admits all residents in our county), through some affiliation or another…
I know NASA Federal Credit Union offers memberships to people who are in some special interest groups (some of which are free to join). Many other credit unions do the same, I just remember NASA because Typo Knig was walking by when they had a grand opening of a new branch and they were trying to talk him into joining.
If a family member is in a CU, chances are they’ll also extend you banking privileges.
Oh - and re your specific posts:
NSF fees I have little experience with fortunately. Overdraft protection which issues a loan, is another matter. It is my friend when we have brief cash-flow issues.
Credit card: we do have several (one joint, two individual) through the CU.
Scheduled transfers: mine offers that. I can set it up online.
Wachovia used to be wonderful, when they were a North Carolina bank (BB&T was as well, for what that’s worth). I banked with Wachovia for a number of years before moving to the DC area.
Chevy Chase: I was in a local branch several times recently to deposit cookie money, and I happened to notice that the sign on the door says “a Capital One company” or something like that. I think that explains a lot. You couldn’t pay me to bank with Crapital One.
If you’re a civilian employed by the federal government or are current/former military, you qualify for Bank of America Military. I find they’re a bit better than the regular BoA.
I’ll second the credit union recommendation. TONS of them out here.
Sadly, the downside is they typically don’t have a lot of physical locations/ATM presence. But if you find one that’s convenient for you, try to find some way to join-- the rates and service are positively stellar for some.
BTW - at least in the DC area, it seems like you can get cash from any credit union’s ATM without paying a fee, as long as you’re drawing from another credit union’s account. Our credit union presently has only two physical locations, both of them now hideously inconvenient to us (Typo Knig used to work right near one of them). We have branches of Apple, Pentagon and Navy FCUs near us and I get cash at which ever one is closest to where I’m going. We can make deposits at the Apple FCU location, or mail them, and other stuff can largely be taken care of over the phone / via fax.
PNC has a branch convenient to me. Do they offer the services I’m looking for in the OP? Their website didn’t yield a lot of information.
As for credit unions, I used to be a happy member of Navy FCU, but closed my account for a stupid reason and can’t go back. Either way, I don’t think they have any branches in Baltimore, so it wouldn’t work out again anyway.
I have Nations Bank, because my DC area local bank I had my first account with as a kid kept getting bought up by bigger banks until the music stopped on Nations Bank. I don’t care for it, but I don’t have it enough to do anything about it.
Right. My first stint as a civilian Federal employee had me next door to the IRS. My agency didn’t have its own credit union so I joined the one in the IRS.
I don’t even live in the area anymore! And I was never a customer of BoA, but my brother-in-law was. Here’s what happened to us, with BoA:
We wrote my BIL a check for something, I don’t remember what. His bank was Bank of America. They said the check was returned for non-sufficient funds. He called us. The check was not returned. We had it, cashed and canceled, in our hands. I called BoA. They said “You have to fax us a copy of the check, canceled and cashed”. So I did. Then they said “Well, you didn’t fax us both sides, so we can’t credit it”. So we went to the trouble and expense of faxing both sides. At which point, BoA said “Well, we need a copy of both sides of the check”, which we sent.
In the meantime, everything my BIL wrote bounced, because they had failed to credit the original check that started the whole problem, which was perfectly valid.
It took him about three months to get the whole mess sorted out and credited back to him,
We bank with Wachovia because Mrs. Cliffy has been with them since she was a kid and doesn’t want to leave. This is a source of a certain amount of tension in the Cliffy household.
PNC is supposed to be great, and it’s where our 2-year-old has her first account, but it’s only been open a few months, so I have little first-hand experience yet. The one thing I’ve heard about them is that you can get money from any ATM for free – they not only don’t assess a “foreign ATM” fee like many banks do, they cover the transaction and network fees assessed by the institution whose ATM you’re using. Who knows if there’s a catch?
We have an account with BB&T, which is really only a savings account. They do charge you if you use Quicken though, which I only found out about after I logged on. We got charged $18 in a month for it. Other then that they’ve been ok.
All the other banking we do is through a Credit Union. We use the State Employee CU (SECU), which is good, and we also each have one at work. A lot of the Credit Unions will allow a lot more people in now, and I’d much rather work with them then a normal bank.
As for ATMs, we never use them. I don’t think my wife uses cash much at all, and I will just get cash out when I get groceries or some such. That doesn’t cost anything.