If I had to pick (which I won’t) I’d say Bank of America simply because they probably have the most locations, convenience factor.
Otherwise I’d say a credit union.
I’ll vouch for USAA as a great place for a civilian to bank. So awesome, I’ve never missed having a branch to visit in the 10 years I’ve banked with them.
BOA is perfect for me. Teller Fees? never heard of that, been with them over 20 years, free checking, free online, free everything I need. I have used them in Korea, and VI, with no problems.
I bring a little different set of experiences to the table with Wells, as well as the other banks listed. I work in a field where banks are our primary clients, and Wells runs–by far–the tightest ship of those listed. US Bank is a little flaky, Citi is downright abusive, and BofA’s right hand definitely has no clue what the left hand is doing. My experience with Chase is a little more limited, though I have had a card with them with no ill effects.
I’ve banked with Wells for about five years and am none the worse for wear. No fees, very good interface on the website, nice ATMs that remember my personal history and accomodate it. Customer service at the branch I go to is beyond reproach as well.
I’m a little down on the whole “bank local” philosophy because it’s burned me when I’ve had to relocate. If you think you may be moving a lot, using a national bank removes the stress of having to change all your accounts when you relocate. YMMV.
Credit Unions.
Hope I wasn’t too subtle.
I used to bank at BB&T and they had the most friendly customer service people that I have encountered in a bank. Sadly, I moved to Texas where they did not have any. I would recommend them if they are around you.
Nope, not at all. I’ve been a Bank One customer, and now Chase customer for over 10 years. 3 consumer accounts - 1 checking 2 savings, Visa Rewards Debit Card, 1 small business account (now closed by me), mortgage loan, investment/brokerage account, and Visa credit card all with Chase. I have never had a problem with their products, the service I receive, and in my opinion they have one of the best online and mobile banking services in the marketplace. With the recent addition of Remote Deposit Capture to their mobile banking application, I don’t think I’ll ever need to go into a branch again for common banking transactions.
In over 10 years I think I have had 2 occasions where an error on my part resulted in an insufficient funds situation. One quick phone call to customer support and I’ve had the fee waived without argument or escalation. Of course I’m not the type of consumer who thinks the bank is EVIL because I’ve spent more money than I had in the account. Since they loaned me the money to cover my irresponsible behavior it is not UNFAIR that they’ve charged me a fee. That said, it is nice that they have recognized my history with the bank and waived the fees.
MeanJoe
USAA is the finest bank in America. Outstanding customer service, great mix of products from banking, credit, mortgages, insurance, brokerage, etc. I use all of their products happily. No bullshit nickel and dime fees. They really are a standout company in everything they do.
Also, they have arrangements with other companies to give discounts to their members. I have a discount with Sprint for our cell phones, FTD sends flowers at 25% off, special pricing for ADT home security system monitoring; there are others.
Being well run, they survived the meltdown in fine form. If you can join, do so.
Same here - I got a Chase VISA card out of college about 20 years ago, and have used Chase as my bank since I started at a job in 1994 that offered free checking with auto-deposit of my paychecks through Chemical Bank. A few years later Chase and Chemical merged (IIRC actually Chemical bought Chase but kept the Chase name as one that was better recognized), and I found it quite nice to be able to view my credit card, checking and savings accounts info on the same website and transfer money between them freely. Their website was among the first to go up among major banks (back around 1995) and was already very functional then. Setting up automatic bill payments, extra principal payments on loans, etc., are dead easy.
As for “customer service”, I’ve never really had a need to use it - my banking is all pretty routine, of the money-comes-in, money-goes-out type, and their online interface and phone menus make keeping track of that activity painless (something I do almost every day). I can’t recall ever being charged checking fees but those are associated with minimum deposit amounts that I don’t think I’ve been at risk of falling under, even without the “no fee” tag on my account from way back. The few times I’ve had reason to call in for customer support - twice for suspicious activity on my VISA card, and once for some kind of electronic transfer from my checking account - I’ve gotten my money back without much fuss, though it did take longer than it did with American Express. I may have had to do the “navigate the phone menus until you reach a live person” routine, but that’s par for the course to me for dealing with any large company.
I now also have my home mortgage with them (they offered very competitive rates), and their online/mobile services are very nice - I can even deposit checks up to something like $3,000 without ever visiting even an ATM, by using an iPhone app that takes pictures of both sides of the check.
Finally, their ATMs are EVERYWHERE where I live, easily the most numerous. There are no fewer than 3 Chase branches within a 3 block radius of my office; another 2 within 10 blocks of my house; 2 or 3 more near shopping districts that I frequent; etc., etc. And when I need to visit a teller window (like to get a money order or certified check) I never have to wait more than a few minutes.
If you’re still in doubt, do control-F on this page and count the positive mentions for USAA. Evidently not the well-kept secret I believed it was. I’ve been a very satisfied customer for nearly 20 years now. Hold times are nearly nonexistent, superb representatives, “press zero to speak directly to a rep” always works, superb international support, superb execution of the remote-only banking model.
The only drawbacks of USAA are:
1: No safe deposit box (just comes with being a remote bank)
2: Loan rates not terribly competitive
3: CD rates not terribly competitive
4: Credit card rewards not terribly competitive
But personally I don’t mind if they bag those features in favor of outstanding customer service.
OK I went to look it up. As of this year, a checking account with Chase will involve a “monthly service fee”:
Basically all it takes to avoid the fee is to set up your paycheck to direct deposit to your checking account, get paid on at least a monthly basis, and make more than $500 a month after tax in the final deposited amount (even if you then immediately spend it all). I’m a little surprised that there would be so many people finding this onerous - WaMu customers complaining about the “new fees for checking accounts” - but then again I’ve only worked for fairly large corporations my whole life, so my view may be skewed to the view that “almost everybody gets paid through auto-deposit arrangements, and surely makes at least $6,000 a year after tax and before expenses” .
I just saw on the news where Chase was screwing over active duty military families by overcharging on mortgage payments and then trying to come after them for non-payment. The people who were being harassed could not get satisfaction from anybody at Chase until they took it to their congress critters and embarrassed the bank, who is now paying back some $24 million in overcharges. Chase is all wide-eyed innocence in this whole affair.
Chase is also the bank that wanted to charge me an extra fee for my online credit card payment to post within a day or 2 rather than 3 or 4 days.
There are fees aside from the monthly account fees. For example, Chase charges for using non-Chase ATMs, and canned Overdraft Forgiveness. No, it’s not burdensome some maintain an account balance above zero dollars, and foreign ATM fees are fairly standard, but it sucks that all of the things that made WaMu the good big bank have been trampled on. Fuck you, Chase! I have real free checking now!
Another +1 for USAA.
Just this morning I got an email from them advertising a new service: I can now make deposits at my nearest UPS storefront. Not that I need it (I’m eligible for their scan-from-home deposit service), but those leary of mailing in your deposits might want to look into this new feature.
Heh… having been involved in S&L closures in the early 90s, the way you describe it is reasonably close to how that happens - the Feds show up at 5 PM on Friday. Generally, the banks know it’s coming, just not necessarily when. Then that weekend there are a LOT of negotiations with any bank(s) that might be interested in acquiring the failed bank’s assets and liabilities. Not exactly “handed like a present”; the receiving bank had to basically purchase the bank’s assets. Presumably at a steep discount. We closers LOVED when a S&L went P&A (Purchase and Assumption) as it was a LOT less hassle.
As all such threads trend, you’ll get a lot of recommendations to join a credit union (and I concur). They’re accessible from pretty much any ATM; if you’re not at a co-op type ATM, at the worst, you’d pay a few dollars in fees. Check to see what networks the CU is on, and whether those networks are international (you’d need to do the same check with any of the banks). That’s the real kicker - whether you’ll be able to find shared ATMs.
Really, unless you have an absolute need to be able to visit physical branches in multiple cities, you don’t need to stick with any of the megabanks. Almost everything can be done by mail. It’s nearly trivial to find a CU that’ll let you join - even if you’re not in their primary target group, there are a LOT where you could join by being a member of an association, club, whatever (which may be free and is sure to be cheap). And once you’re in the CU, you can drop out of the club.
Let’s see… what is the best orifice in which to have a red-hot fireplace poker inserted?
-VT, yet another broken-record credit union evangelist
Double check that: they may be affiliated with some credit union networks where you can make deposits in other CU’s ATMs (mine is; in fact I often make my deposits at Pentagon FCU just down the street).
Wow, I really had no idea about USAA before. But, it does look much better than our problem children big banks who don’t give a crap about the little guy it seems.
Credit union = lower fees, fewer bullshit fees, usually better interest rates (though ours is not always as good as a megabank for mortgages). Our savings account rates aren’t as exciting as, say, ING is supposed to be… but they’re better than we get on our small account at BB&T. For an average balance of 300+ dollars, we got twelve cents from BB&T last year.
When we refinanced our mortgage back in 2003, through Wells Fargo, they suggested we open up a HELOC at the same time. This made sense. Then they insisted on additional closing costs (several hundred dollars) plus an annual account maintenance fee if we didn’t carry a balance. We declined. A couple of months later we got a better deal (no fees, no closing costs) through the credit union.
We could get a car loan for up to 100% of the car’s value, for 2.9% right now.
Any time we’ve needed credit, it’s been approved in about 10 minutes. Last year I decided to add an overdraft line of credit to my account (having accidentally debited the wrong account and incurring a 20 dollar fee). The lady called me up to finalize the paperwork and said “by the way, do you need a credit card? I see you have a balance at <megabank>, we can transfer that for you for no transfer fee”.
The one thing our credit union doesn’t do well, that a megabank probably does, is have Quicken Direct Connect download. Some other CUs do.