Given the recent news about Wells Fargo I am thinking about moving my checking account from Wells to some where else. The question is where?
There are a few things that are important to me.
Online bill pay. In this day and age probably any bank or credit union will work fine.
Lots of ATMs. This is Wells Fargo’s big strength. They have ATMs everywhere Chase and to a lesser extend B of A also have a good network of ATMs. Credit Unions are sort of lacking here because they are regional. Credit unions do seem to have agreements with each other for free ATM use so maybe this is not deal breaker for Credit unions.
A different big bank like Chase or B of A.
Credit Union
One of the various online banks like Ally. These mostly seem to refund ATM fees up to $10 to $15 per month which is probably good enough.
I would be interested in people’s experiences with using ATM from credit unions outside of their home area. ATM use with online banks and just general thoughts on things to consider with banks.
I have used a credit union for almost 10 years now. They have something they call “shared branches” that essentially allows you to use the ATMs or banking services at most other credit unions. I have not had any problems finding ATMs or walking into credit unions in other cities or other states and completing my business with the same ease (and lack of fees) that I would find using my home bank.
There are advantages in using multiple banks. Not only does Bank A have advantages X and Y while Bank B has advantage Z–so you can have X, Y and Z–but they are problems with identity theft resulting in your account is frozen. With multiple banks you can easily switch to alternatives.
You are running out of options. Every time I open an account at a small local bank, they sell out to a bigger bank. The big banks are gobbling up the business.
Myself, I use a small branch of a local bank where I can talk to someone who has the power to make decisions. I don’t think there is anything a big bank can do for you that a tiny branch of a local bank cannot do, except place policy obstacles in the way of what it can do.
Of course, the choice of where to bank depends on the kind of banking you do. The only reason I even have a local bank is so I can cash the $2 refund check I get if I lose coins in a faulty laundromat machine. But once I have a nice banker, I occasionally find other ways to use it. Always avoid any kinds of service charges or fees or penalties, let the foolish subsidize your free banking.
I’ve used a credit union exclusively for over 20 years. It has one branch which is not too far but not very convenient. Thank goodness I never really have to go there anymore, and they have a very nice ATM that reads my checks as I deposit.
Like **SD **mentions, I can use any credit union ATM for free. There are a couple others that are close to me that I have used. I used to be able to use something like US Bank or Key Bank for free, I forget. That deal ended but then a local gas station chain started having fee-free ATMs so I’m back in business. With all those options I’ve generally been able to avoid paying fees for the last 20 years.
Yes there are hardships with a credit union but it’s never, ever been so overwhelming that I felt the need to switch to a “regular” bank. A credit union is so mellow and casual compared to a “regular” big bank that I found regular banks to be very overwhelming when I started working with them for my business. I always felt like the credit union was like keeping my money in a shoebox under my bed except it’s safe and collects interest.
Keep in mind that some credit unions aren’t the little mom-and-pop operations people imagine. A few are as big as a mid-sized bank. PenFed Credit Union (the Pentagon Federal Credit Union), for example, has $20 billion in assets and 1.4 million members.
I’m sticking with Wells Fargo. Its a pain in the back end to change banks and I need a larger bank - a credit union doesn’t have the investment arm I make use of.
[ul]
[li]Free ATMs everywhere in the shared network[/li][li]Deposit physical checks by taking a picture with my phone[/li][li]Nice online tools[/li][li]They may not be mom & pop size, but they won’t likely get swallowed up in a merger[/li][/ul]
As for investment arm, I don’t see an advantage to working investments through a bank, but that’s just me.
IMHO it’s important to avoid overreacting to the latest scandal to break out. All these banks are fundamentally the same. (They’re all going to try out this or that trick. Any trick that works for one will be taken up by the others, and any one that doesn’t will be dropped by the first.)
Prior to this incident, WF had a sterling reputation in the banking industry. You switch banks because you’re worked up about the recent news with WF, and tomorrow your new bank will be caught up in some comparable scandal and you’ll be right back where you started.
I don’t happen to have any bank accounts with WF (I have a mortgage with them) but if I did I wouldn’t be looking to switch over this scandal.
This. Honestly, every single big bank has been charged with doing something illegal/stupid/anti-consumer. Not to excuse WF, because this was…really bad. But you might end up at another bank that maybe foreclosed on a bunch of homeowners when they shouldn’t have, or colluded to keep your interest rates high. You could go to a credit union or community bank, but you’ll definitely lose some benefits, like ease of moving funds across borders. Also, YMMV, but I’ve always gotten better loan terms from big banks than I have from credit unions.
This is essentially my view, and our checking account is with Wells Fargo. Also, changing your checking account is kind of a pain. Interestingly, we specifically avoided using Wells Fargo as our mortgage holder because (a) the broker tried to farm us out to her preferred real estate agent in a shady sort of way and (b) based on the testimony of nearly everyone involved in our house hunting adventure, including the seller of the house we ended up buying, they have a terrible reputation for closing on time. That can be a deal breaker in very competitive markets like the Seattle area.
Oh hey, I get to be the first to recommend USAA. While their insurance requires some relationship with the military, IIRC their bank does not. I’ve used their online bill pay for everything but my rent check (which I could probably set up but I haven’t bothered to yet). They refund $15/month in ATM fees, which has been plenty for me. They let you deposit checks with a smartphone app or desktop scanner. And their phone customer service is the best I’ve ever dealt with.
Huh. I see that USAA opened up banking membership to the general public in 2009, but restricted it again in 2013.
Still, under current eligibility requirements, the military relationship doesn’t have to be direct. You’re eligible for their bank accounts if, say, a parent or spouse had USAA insurance as a military dependent. IMO it’s worth looking in to.
This scandal seems somewhat different to other scandals. It is beyond just anti consumer behavior and more towards flat out not being able to trust them.
My CU is ± 100 miles from where I live. They used to have shared branching, essentially a CU branch multiplier as you can bank any participating CU branch, not even limited by your home state. However, they did away with that when they got RDC a few years ago (depositing checks via mobile device). I pay all of my bills via bill pay. As for withdrawals, Wawa (a 700+ store convenience chain in the mid-Atlantic & FL) & 7-11 have free ATMs; some other convenience chains do to. New car loan documentation was handled via FedEx.
Also remember that the largest banks are running their own software but the small & mid-sized ones are almost always outsourcing to one of the few big providers like Fiserv or Jack Henry which means they can get The Latest Thing[sup]®[/sup] as quick as the big banks as long as they’re willing to pay for it (& only paying some fractional percentage of development costs). They’re not necessarily limited by having a small IT dept.
I’ve been with Boeing Employees’ Credit Union (BECU) since 1989. They’ve got everything I need. I just took a trip from Seattle to San Jose and back, and used ATMs participating in the CO-OP network in Oregon and California. They have an app to locate member branches. I had NO problems finding a participating CU near wherever I was: