What does it take to make you switch banks?
When I was 14 years old, I opened my very first checking account at Bank One. That’s where my Dad banked and so that’s where he drove me when I asked to open an account. Over the years, I continued to give them my business.
By 16, I had opened another checking account (don’t ask me why) and a new savings account, too. At 20, I started my journey into credit cards with… yep, a brand new Chase credit card. (Note: Chase ate Bank One in 2004.)
At 21, I opened my first Chase business checking account and, at 22, I funded $1000 into my new Chase investment account. When my wife and I married the following year, we canceled her National City account to combine our finances with… Chase.
You get the point. While this may not seem too out of the ordinary, there’s only one problem: Neither of us really likes Chase Bank.
In fact, I’ve never really liked them that much. I’ve wanted to switch to a local credit union for years, but just haven’t done it. I’ve been eyeballing USAA ever since they opened their checking and savings accounts up to civilians. Mentally, I want to change…but physically I’m still a Chase customer.
What Does It Take to Make You Switch Banks?
There are plenty of reasons why someone might switch banks. A couple factors that come to mind:
- Higher rates. This not only applies to rate chasing to find the highest interest rates, but any form of benefits offered. Maybe there’s a 0.5% better savings rate at the bank across the street. Maybe another is offering a free $100 when you open a new account. These are all situations where the bottom line may be the primary influence.
- Customer service. I love great customer service and I’m willing to pay more for it. In banking, this now includes both in-person and online customer service features. While I abhor having to call Chase (try it someday, it’s terrible),I love a couple of the people at my local branch. I know the branch manager and business banker well, and they always greet me by name. In addition, I have specific online banking features set-up that I’ve been using for years. Their online services aren’t perfect, but they’re above average.
- Length of history. As I outlined above, I’ve had a Chase account for over a decade now (and I’m only 25). In this day and age, customers will longer histories at a single bank are more rare. Anytime I have an issue on the phone, I immediately have them look up my history. While I’m not a big fish to them in terms of money, my account history tab shows dozens of accounts over nearly a dozen years!
- Principle. The longer I’m involved in personal finance, the more I prioritize this category. I’m not a huge fan of big banking. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I won’t be picketing in Washington, but I like the idea of giving my business to a local bank. “Principle” is a major reason Courtney and I reject credit cards, and many people point to this reason giving their business to credit unions.
- Accessibility. Years ago, the only factor I cared about was how close my bank was to my house. Here in the Midwest, no one does that better than Chase. It’s almost as bad as McDonald’s (almost…)! With the rise of online banks, the walls of this one are coming down. For some, however, it remains a huge factor in choosing a bank.
So, will I walk the walk? I’m not sure whether Courtney and I will switch our bank. We want to, but we aren’t compelled to…at least not yet.
I’d enjoy supporting a local credit union or a testing out a bank with a reputation like USAA. I’m not much of a rate chaser and accessibility isn’t a huge priority. I much would prefer a bank I feel good about supporting and that offers me fantastic customer service.
At this point, Chase seems to be just doing enough to keep us around. But after writing this, we’ll see how long that lasts!
Have you recently switched banks? What was your motivation? Any suggestions for me?
J.D.’s note: I stuck with a lousy bank for a l-o-n-g time. Ultimately, I moved my accounts to a local credit union, and I love it. I’ve since added an online bank to the mix (ING Direct). Neither of these banks is perfect, but they both provide excellent customer service and above-average deals, so I’m pleased to stay with them.
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There are 170 comments to "What does it take to make you switch banks?".
I do not switch banks often either. The things that I do not want to deal with are switching my direct deposit forms and also electronic linking of checking accounts. Not that these are both particularly hard things to do, I just am not motivated enough to do it.
I bank mostly with ING and Bank of the Internet. Neither has been bad so that is probably what has not prompted me to move, even though I have seen some other banks I would probably like to try.
We switched to a more ethical bank after news about large bonuses the head of the bank we were at received while at the same time things were not going well at all for that bank.
I really like having our checking account at our local credit union. It’s located right by my grocery store, so depositing checks and using the ATM is very easy, and I really just do prefer having a local bank for checking as opposed to an online bank.
Now, for savings accounts I am totally loyal to ING…I hardly EVER keep money in my credit union savings account.
We have all of our checking accounts and our primary mortgage with Wachovia, also have one small savings account there. Customer service with Wachovia is, I’ve found, great. I get great service, my accounts fit what I/we need, there are no fees, the locations are plentiful and within walking distance from our home, etc.
The bulk of our savings is at ING and again I’m happy with ING but with rates so low I’ve been researching banks with better rates, we’ve got $25,000 in emergency fund money that I’d like to earn a better rate on (keeping it liquid and secure). I’ve also been researching credit unions since I hear such good things about them. It took me a while to find any that I can join in my area and the rates on savings are not nearly as good as ING, the best credit union offered .03% for its high yield savings with a minimum of $2500. I don’t have issues with service at Wachovia, in fact I think the service is great, so I have no desire to move because of that issue.
I have USAA as my bank (and insurer, and investment manager, and just about everything else) and I don’t have any reason to switch. For me it is much more about customer service than chasing rates. I can call them up any time and KNOW that I will have a pleasant experience on the phone and that whatever problem I had will be solved by the time I hang up. In addition, they offer great perks for being a customer (ATM fee reimbursement, free banking, great website & iPhone app).
I’m not sure what it would take to pull me away from them, but it would have to be substantial. If you have the opportunity to sign up, I say do it. At least try it out with a new account, and then only close your existing one once you’re settled in.
What made ME switch to a local credit union?
FEES!
The regular banks helped themselves – well, regularly – to some of my money every month and I didn’t like it! I don’t pay monthly fees to access my own money with my direct deposit.
My attitude is, they make money off our deposit holdings anyway, they don’t deserve more than that.
We just went through the same thing. We ended up sticking with our bank, but I’m still looking into going with a local bank or credit union.
http://ultimatemoneyblog.com/should-we-switch-our-main-checking-account-to-ing
I think people get use to a bank, that they are confortable with it. To go through the hassle of transferring your money, reconfiguring your automatic online distributions, and paycheck… It’s all a big hassle.
So to make me want to move, the benefits of doing so would have to be amazing (or maybe my bank would have to drop the ball and start charging dumb new fees).
We’re creatures of convenience, and to change banks every year or so is such a pain…
Baker, I think you should do a post on health insurance- like what are you doing for health insurance while you are overseas. It would be interesting, I think!
What made me change banks? A reward checking that offered 4.00% interest on the account, while the highest savings I’ve seen is American Express at 1.50% APY. Considering that my checking is paying well above prime rate, and savers are getting nailed in savings, I’d say I found one heck of a deal.
USAA is open to civilians now? Is this for all their services or just their checking and savings accounts.
When I switched banks, I put some money into a new account and didn’t close the old account. Then I switched over the auto payments as I had time.
I had a problem in the past with Chase charging me because I had closed the account, but there was a random auto charge still attached somewhere. If you keep it open for 6 months with a few hundred bucks, you can make sure you’re set before fully closing it down.
I started out with a local state bank, then opened up a new checking account at US Bank when I went to college. When I went home for the summer I didn’t actually have access to US Bank. (Sigh).
Not long after I opened up a checking/Savings account with USAA and LOVED it. I didn’t need a ‘branch’ and I got free ATM reimbursement with foreign travel and they sent free pre-paid envelopes in the mail so I could mail in any checks I received.
For a while I chased ‘high interest’ savings accounts keeping my primary USAA account for deposits and paying bills – USAA does not have great interest rates. But now ‘high interest’ does not really exist. In the end, I do love the customer service at USAA and how easy it is to use. I will probably always have USAA as my primary account.
Poor service would be my motivation to close the account. We have three bank account’s open and we have talked about closing two of them.One of my must have for a bank- must open on saturday. We are also in search for a good savings account.
We switched banks on principle, during the financial crisis of late ’08/early ’09. We needed to combine finances anyway with a joint account and both had individual accounts with the same big British high street bank, but we were so disgusted by said bank’s lending practices and subsequent need for government bailout that we purposely went elsewhere to a smaller bank not motivated by corporate greed. Very happy with that decision.
I can tell you exactly what is making my wife and I change banks. Just a few months ago, I saw a charge for $5.95 on my account with Wachovia. I called to find out what it is and they said I must use Quicken or Mint.com to check my transactions. I said I did. They said there is now a $5.95/month charge for that. Now we’re going to head over to the local credit union and cancel our Wachovia account. It was just that simple. I don’t think Wachovia is so great that they’re worth $72 in fees per year just for checking my balance through Quicken.
When I moved to this area, I opened a Chase account – mainly because my co-worker’s husband was a VP, and she said “we use Chase – you’ll like it!” Sure, there was a branch on every corner, but they charged me if used the ATM more than X number of times, and if I wrote too many checks, plus the service charge just for having an account . . . eventually, I closed that account and opened one with a “Community Bank” which I loved – until that bank was taken over by some Big-Box Bank, and I decidedly did NOT love it. Then, another takeover by Citizens Bank, which I HATE HATE HATED, for a variety of reasons, mainly to do with their customer service.
Ultimately, I closed all of the accounts I had there and moved them to our local credit union – which again, I love. We didn’t think we’d be eligible for membership, but it turns out that this credit union had their ways to make it work. . .
The wifey and I use USAA for some banking and all of our insurance and investing and they are great. We have been with them for about 25 years and have never had a problem with claims or service. Sweet wife tends to bang up her car every three or four years but or rates are still low. We do maintain our main checking at a local credit union where I can go in and look them eye to eye.
I have been with the same bank since I was a child, HSBC, but I have switched my money into higher interest savings accounts or investment portfolio options but the bank remains the same. I also use a credit union and basically anyone who gives and keeps me in a good interest rate. If the rate sucks and the hours suck,, I’m out. So far so good.
I used a local credit union for years with great results. However, as I prepared to move overseas, that wasn’t much of an option–so I went to Chase as they were in a correspondent relationship with our bank here in Ukraine.
Interestingly enough, they have frozen the account because of their “loss prevention” department after I made a sizable money transfer last Friday–because it was done from here in Ukraine from their correspondent institution. I am trying to get it straightened out at the moment–as I told them, they were informed when I opened the account I would be living here, and reminded on several occasions since then. It seems they don’t read very well.
This is the first problem I have had with Chase, though, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this time if they fix the problem promptly and don’t have it recur. Otherwise, when I am visiting back in the U.S. this year, I’ll be changing again.
If I still lived in the U.S. or if I should move back, I would be back with a local institution–probably a credit union–although I have also heard good things both about ING and about Ally Bank ( ).
By the way, I know an attorney who is a banking specialist and lobbyist for the banking industry–who has told me confidentially that if she were in another specialty, she would use a credit union herself.
I switched banks about 20 years ago. I had an account with Lloyds (UK) and so did my mother. She was diagnosed with breast cancer, which metastasized into her brain. We organised an enduring power of attorney because she was slipping away. We took it to the bank to get access to her bank accounts, and they insisted we had to fill in one of their own forms rather than accept the power of attorney. We filled it in and sent it back. She couldn’t sign her own name by that point and so we signed on her behalf attaching a copy of the power of attorney documentation.
On the morning of her funeral a letter arrived from the bank enclosing their form asking us to get the account holder to sign it.
That wasn’t what tipped me over the edge.
About 3 months later we sold mum’s house, and I made a very large deposit into my personal account. 24 hours later I received a letter from the bank manager I had roasted over hot coals about the ‘get the account holder to sign’ letter: ‘I notice that since we last spoke circumstances seem to have changed and you have recently made a large deposit; if you need any financial advice don’t hesitate to contact us’.
4 hours later I walked out of the branch with a bankers draft for the full amount in my account, which was closed. Sometimes you just have to tell them where to get off.
I stayed with a small, local bank for a decade–until they were gobbled up by a big one. During that time, most of the independent banks in my area disappeared in acquisitions and mergers.
Now that I live abroad and travel often, I use a large bank with international services. Therefore, I’d say my main criteria for choosing (or switching) banks is convenience.
In the past 30 years or so, I have changed banks three times. When I was a child (11 or 12) I got an account at the local bank (Canada Trust) that my parents used. I loved that bank, open 8-8M-F and good hours on Saturdays. They were also the first bank iin my home town to have an ATM.
When I got to University, I found that Canada Trust could not negotiate OSAP loans (student loans from the government of Ontario) and since my university was overrun with Bank of Montreal (BMO) bank machines and there was a branch just off caumpus, I opened an account with them. For a period of time I also kept my old account but when I got a summer job, the direct deposit went into the Bank of Montreal account. The next summer I also got a BMO MasterCard and in my final year I also opened an RRSP with them.
I stayed with BMO for a long time but eventually I got annoyed with their fees upon fees upon fees. The straw that broke the camels back was being charged for using their internet service to check my account balances more than a certain number of times in a month (this was probably 15 years ago).
I did some research and opened an account with Citizens Bank of Canada — which at the time was a newly minted virtual bank (and now sadly no longer offers personal checking accounts). I loved the service that I got from this bank — their banking website was a wonder to behold (for 15 years ago) and their call center was fabulous. Their monthly fee was $8/month but it included everthing and was about half of the BMO fees.
About 5 years ago I felt the need to find something without fees. Internet banking had come a long way and I felt that $8/month was now overkill. I ended up opening an account with Presidents Choice Financial (PC). PC bank kiosks (not really branches but more than an ATM) are available at Loblaws, Zehrs and other large grocery stores in Ontario and the ATMs are associated with CIBC. No monthly fees and I still do everything over the internet. Over the past 5 years, I have also opened a HELOC with them as well as a MasterCard. There call center is very much hit and miss with a lot of outsourced accents on the line but their website allows me to do most things that I need to do.
Oddly enough, my Mortgage is not with any of these banks but with another Canadian bank that offered the best deal to the Mortgage Broker I was using.
While I have closed down my old accounts, I still have my original BMO MasterCard as well as my Citizens Bank Visa to this day.
In summary I have changed once because of convenience/need (closer ATMs to university, could handle my student loans) and twice due to bank fees.
This was maybe 5 years ago, but I noticed that my first bank was offering me 0.01% interest, and the bank across the street offered 2.5% interest (it has since gone down, but is still over 1%).
That was that.
Holy moly, I have had the same bank since 1983. Ok, not the actual same bank since it has gone under or changed hands 4 or 5 times since then, but the same physical buildings.
I just have checking with them but each new bank has kept the orginal deal in place (free checks, interest on balance, etc.) that is better than any of their offered deals.
I have not looked at other banks since I am happy with the one I have. Doubt I will change unless they do something like change my account rules.
I do not know that I would switch banks unless my current bank really messed up an account or something. I bank with Bank of America and I have been very happy with them over the years. When we travel, there is always a branch close by if we need it. I like the peace of mind that gives me. They may not pay the most competitive rates, but I love my local branch and the service they give me.
One thing important to note about credit unions is that many are part of a shared network of ATMs and branches. So if you switch to your local credit union you may have access to many more ATMs and branches then you might have realized. I described these shared networks in my post about supporting your local credit union
http://www.depositaccounts.com/blog/2010/01/resources-to-help-you-support-your-local-credit-unions.html
We have all of our savings, checking, CDs and now, our daughters have their checking and savings through our local bank, which is actually a very strong bank, and not likely to be swallowed up by the big guys. We have never paid a fee, because we have enough (with all accounts totaled)in their system. Our savings are about 1.2% at the moment, which is low, but I’m not going to change anything.
When we lived abroad, however, we needed the availablity of an international bank, and we went with Citi. there is a Citi branch in every city we lived in (Dusseldorf, Brussels and Paris)and we maintained our local accounts in Ohio as well.
Our latest challenge, however, is having so many retirement accounts. We are in our late 40s, and with the different companies my husband has worked for, plus several IRAs, insurances, 401(k)s, and small pension plan, we have accumulated about 20 different accounts that need to be maintained (!!!)It’s getting more and more tricky to maintain them all, and we are wondering about how to consolidate them, so that life in retirement is simpler. We’ve always been good savers, and never borrowed against retirement plans, or used any equity in our home,and paid with everything cash so we’re sitting pretty well at the moment. We’d just like to simplify it all! Any advice to that?
I have switched banks and opened new accounts several times. Initially it was for the free money bonuses. However, I have realized that despite the extra effort of opening and handling a new account – I have learned what else is available. I have broadened my horizons and by doing so I feel a little easier about switching to a bank that relates to me, or works for me better, more than just sticking with the same one I started out with.
I switched banks after my bank got rid of one of their rewards for being an Air Miles Gold card member, which was to pay no banking fees.
I called them, explained that I had been with them for over ten years, held a decent amount of money in my accounts, and would like the fees waived. They refused. I asked to speak with a manager. She refused. I asked to speak to a customer retention specialist. I told them that I would switch banks. They said there was nothing they could do for me.
I set up an account at a no-fees bank, and came to my regular bank a few days later to close my accounts and withdraw all my money. Suddenly, without asking the teller to do anything more for me, the bank manager came over and asked me to stay with the bank, said he would waive all the fees, etc. I explained that I had already asked for this over the phone, and got nowhere. He said that maybe they thought I wouldn’t do it, but now that I was actually here closing my account, they would do what I had originally asked!!!
I said no thanks, and closed all my accounts.
Here’s what it took for me… 45 times more interest! I have been looking around at options for better interest on my checking account. My current bank is paying a dismal 0.1%. So when I found a rewards checking account that was paying 4.55%, this was an easy decision to make. Instead of eating a meal out at the mexican place, like we did with the $25 in interest I made last year, I’m looking forward to helping pay for a vacation, pay down some debt or update my house with the interest this year.
A little pain for a significant gain.
Ditto Bob! USAA is my…everything (financial). Didn’t used to be, but their OUTSTANDING customer service has completely won me over. I went through a (horrible) divorce a while ago and they gently and patiently walked me through it. I really can’t say enough about them; in a world of annoying phone trees (press 3 for more selections) it’s so nice to deal with a human who know her products and is pleasant!
I’ve used USAA for years, they probably have 75% of my accounts. The reason I am so loyal to them is their excellent customer service.
I recently (FINALLY) got my husband to switch banks! He was with a bank for over 20 years before I met him. I wanted to bank out of Wilmington Trust because of their rewards and the fact that if I have a problem, question, or concern, I know I can walk into our local branch and get straight talk directly from the branch manager.
The interest rates are all pretty much the same around here, (although we do keep our savings in ING), but its a combination of things for me.
As for choosing USAA, as a prior military member, I dont bank with them. I used to, but it was also when you had to mail checks to them, etc. I’m not a big ATM user, but still.. I havent looked at them recently but it would take a lot for me to go back with them.
I use ING and USAA. I’ve looked at local credit unions because I like the idea and one has interest rates higher than ING. What stops me is the ease of use. I do all my banking from my computer and I love it. I can deposit my checks on my scanner and pay all my bills online and transfer money easily. Local credit unions don’t offer that and that is what keeps me where I am.
Don’t think of joining a CU as helping a local business, think of it as helping yourself. You become a shareholder and are helping contribute to the health of the business you hold shares in.
My CU does a shareholder give back, where at the end of the year they give an extra couple points of interest on saving accounts and CDs. Thats a good investment and I doubt Chase does that, they give their stock holders the yearly bonus.
We switched from 5/3 Bank to a local credit union mostly due to customer service and partly due to principle.
In 2008 I seed a $5 savings account that I hoped to start filling once we’re passed Baby Step #2 (see Dave Ramsey). On the one year anniversary, 5/3 closed that account and charged a $5 maintenance fee. No letter, no warning, no phone call…just took my $5 – all for the sake of “inactivity.”
When I walked into the local branch, all they had to say about it was “It says in your paperwork that it would be closed after a year of inactivity.” No sympathy, no bending, *no apology*. Since then, I’ve been getting 4.5% on our checking at a credit union and have been BLOWN AWAY at how much better the customer service is. I think I receieved $.04 from 5/3 one quarter in interest on my checking…this month was closer to $20…
I even got my account confirmation emails from a real person’s email address. How crazy is that in today’s world?
As an original Bank One banker who was then absorbed by Chase and is now primarily an ING user, I say ease yourself away. Chase will eventually do something that pisses you off (as they’ve done to everyone in my family) that will remind you why huge mega-banks have some serious customer service drawbacks, and you’ll wonder why you patronized them for so many years. I use my Chase account as an in-person funnel to deposit money into my ING account because of the deposit-friendly ATMs, but that’s pretty much it. All of my savings are in ING where they earn more interest and I have yet to have an issue.
We have been with our local CU for over 23 years now. They have two offices in our town and couple in other towns nearby. They offer many different services, including online bill pay. Opened an ING account two years ago to help automate savings for specific things (property taxes, vacation, etc) and this has worked out very well. I like the convenience of the local offices & the ability to access ATMs without fees through the SUM network.
A timely subject and one that has personal significance for me.
I have banked with Alliance & Leicester (a British bank) for 6-7 years now, despite the fact that they have rotten customer service, poor rates and minimal functionality on their accounts. When I first started banking with them, I was eligible for one of their best accounts and was paying in £1000/mth or so.
A relationship breakdown and a credit default later and their stupid rules meant that I was only eligible for a ‘basic bank account’ (no debit card/cheques/interest) – despite the fact that I’d funnelled maybe £50,000 through their coffers over a 3-4 year period!
Despite this, I stuck around and put up with poor service, a useless account and staff who seemed frustrated that I would deign to waste their time… It is bizarre that we put up with so much nonsense from our banks.
I’ve since changed banks and was so surprised at receiving friendly service at my new bank that I almost fainted! Still, I’ve learned my lesson now and from now on I’ll be banking wherever offers the best combination of savings interest rates and service…
I loathe my local credit union – at one point, their service was so bad, I wrote a letter to their board of directors and got a condescending phone call from their CFO. But I don’t move my account because, you guessed it, no fees.
@Mrs. Money – While overseas we stayed in no place longer than a year. As such, we simply had travel insurance (we actually tried to get private health insurance in New Zealand for 6 months, but they told us we need to stick with travel!).
Since coming back to the States, Courtney and I have had a fun time researching health insurance. I’ll strongly consider talking about this experience. 🙂
@Everyone – Wow, lots of great feedback. At least I’m not the only one in the boat. I should point out we did have ING Direct for around a year. I ended up canceling because they couldn’t be my ONLY bank (I like simplicity) and they couldn’t do International Money Transfers (which was a pain if in an emergency overseas). I did love their customer service, though.
Thanks!
I recently switched to USAA. It was a long process making the switch with all our automated payments / deposits. However, the one thing I did notice was that I get our deposits at least a day earlier than at my old “big boy” bank. Once I realized that…I was annoyed at the old bank that they were floating my money to their benefit. It took a bit to get used to an internet bank…but I really love it. I am so happy that I converted. Can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner!
I stay with my main bank – current (checking) account, emergency savings and emergency credit card for a number of reasons. The customer service is stunning – I swear they feed their phone-people happy pills, and they aren’t outsourced to millions of miles away either, so I don’t have to deal with someone who hardly even speaks English (sorry, but my last bank was that poor). They have an ethical investment policy which I broadly agree with, so my money isn’t being used to support the arms trade or oppressive regimes (again, bank-1, I’m looking at you). As a bonus, it’s a co-operative, so if I register as a member (free), I get a dividend (share of the profits) added to my account each year.
My other savings accounts are chosen on the basis of rates, and customer service, with a nod to ethics, in the sense that there are certain banks that I will just not bank with. Given the choice, I prefer to put my money into building societies (owned by members, not shareholders), and I’d certainly consider a credit union if there was a convenient one.
Convenience is the only thing keeping me banking at Wells Fargo. They have branches almost everywhere near where I live and in the west in general. I do have an online bank account as well for a higher savings rate (but not that much higher!) I have been tempted to switch to USAA since I have my rental insurance with them. But the thought of mailing checks and having to wait for them to reach them has made me hesitate. Looking at these comments, though, I might look into it a little more. I guess I’m in the same boat as Adam 🙂
I too just switched to a local credit union after nearly 20 years. I was just so fed up with all of the new policy’s/fee’s and new management.
I switched out of a credit union because of convenience (lack of) and service.
There were only 3-4 branches/ATMs in my area.
The service was geared towards what pleased the employees rather than what worked for the account holders.
It was like banking with the Post Office.
I’ve maintained relationships with a few banks as sometimes a policy change can leave you high and dry. It helps that my early career was spent working for a couple of bigger banks, so those relationships were created somewhat organically. Expect to eliminate one of the relationships later this year. Although I’ve seen the light and am working my “debt snowball”, I received a major set back on rates even though I’m reducing my debt rapidly. Nobody gets to that and keep my business!
My wife and I just switched banks because our National City account was changing to PNC and we were going to have to switch all direct debit/deposits anyway since the routing numbers were changing.
Principle was our main reason for choosing a local bank, just to help the local community/economy.
It wasn’t too big a hassle. We had to both change our direct deposit, then change the automatic house payment, electric and water bills.
Until recently I was with a small Canadian bank that was owned by VanCity Credit Union (Vancouver), even though I don’t live anywhere near there. So it was all online, on the phone and by fax. I loved it. The fees were great (almost non-existant) and while the customer service went down hill in the twelve years I banked with them it was – even at the end – better than any bank I had been with before.
Then they decided to get out of the banking business. They still have credit cards and GIC’s, but stopped offering savings or chequing accounts. Thanks. :/
So I switched to one of the “Big 5” Canadian banks. The fees are more… quite a bit more … but the branch is right up the street from my office, and I pass it on the way home every day. The customer service has been amazing. The rates are even about the same as at the old bank. All in all? I’m out the extra service charges each month, but the ease of use makes up for it.
I didn’t switch banks totally. I simply opened a new account at another bank because they offered more online bill paying and transfer capabilities. So it was convenience for me.
I kept a balance at the previous bank because I can view my credit card transactions online and see exactly what is going on with that my card.
So my situation was not a cut-all-ties-switch.
I have to admit that when I’ve changed banks it’s not been for logical reasons at all but because I was angry at my bank for some reason.
For example, once I had an automatic debit from my regular account to my special savings account set up, and when I changed jobs and paydays I changed the day of the month that it happened. But for some reason it kept snapping back to the old day of the month (not consistently, just every now and then it would revert, so I’d change it back and then…).
One time it happened and I didn’t have enough money in the account to cover it. So I got charged a $30 fee for going into negative. I told the bank the story, and they said it’s my responsibility to check when the automatic debits come out regularly and they would not reverse the fee.
So I got really annoyed and changed banks the next day! Now I have a bank that doesn’t charge you for going into negative, not that I ever intend to. Not sure how that works, but I’m happy with it.
I changed banks about 15 years ago. I had banked at the same local savings and loan that I started with as a child until they were acquired by a regional bank which was acquired by yet another bank and finally acquired by 5/3 (or as I like to call them: the fractional bank). After they became 5/3 they changed their telephone listing to a 1-800 number that rang to a call center in another state. They repeatedly refused to give me the number of the local branch and had trouble “locating records” of my account. I hotfooted it to the local branch and closed my account. They never even asked why I was closing the account. Have been with another locally owned bank ever since. I’m a small business owner and like to do business with other local business owners.
I banked with a Texas/Oklahoma bank, IBC, from 1998 (I was 14) until two years ago. I initially chose IBC because it was where my mom banked and we had known the branch manager in our town for years.
What made me move to Bank of America? Well, it was a customer service issue. I moved to Houston for college and, although I was pleased with the service I received for a time, things slowly started to go downhill. The tellers at the branch I banked at started to deliver consistently poor service.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was this: the postal service managed to lose a $2000 check I’d mailed as a deposit to my wedding photographer. I called to cancel the check and, although my branch initially said this was fine and they wouldn’t charge me any fees, IBC ended up charging me a hefty sum for the check cancellation.
I called my branch manager and told him I wanted the fee removed — I’d never had to cancel a check before, I’d been a customer since 1998, etc. The manager treated me like an idiot…so I told him I’d be taking my business elsewhere. Eventually, he relented and refunded the fee, but said: “We will never do this again for you.”
I moved my money out of IBC the next week.
How do so many of you qualify for membership at a Credit Union? I just checked all credit unions in my area, and my husband and I do not qualify to be members at any of them.
I use USAA for just about everything. ING for some higher saving rates. The customer service is fantastic. I had a question about my change in my auto insurance rates that they were unable to answer right away, which is rare – they were able to answer my other 10 questions. The phone rep looked up the info and called me back within an hour with all the information I needed.
Without a doubt, USAA’s customer service is the best.
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/customer_service_2010/
USAA is now open to civilians, but I don’t believe it is open for some insurance options.
Just a note on USAA membership. USAA was setup to service and support Active and Retired Military personnel. Now over the years they have expanded membership to encompass a larger portion of the population, but please be aware that not all services are available to everyone. Pleasse use the link I have included to see where you qualify.
Also please note that for 99 percent of the country you will not have access to a brick and mortar bnk for USAA. They have one, yes one, physical location in San Antonio, Texas. I have been a member of USAA for 10 years and have never had a reason to go there, but you may. All transactions will take place via phone, internet, or other banks ATM’s.
https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=why_choose_usaa_eligibility_main
I will not do business with Chase and I told them I would let everyone know why. I was dealing with my dad’s estate 7 years ago. He had several credit cards with balances, one being Chase. I contacted them all and told them (as the executor)there was money in the estate so they would all be paid from the estate. All were nice and professional except Chase. They kept hounding me for their money, sending me letters with late fees and collection notices (we had to go through probate so it took a little while)and even went as far as filing a claim with the estate. They were ultimately paid like everyone else but I will not do business with Chase!!!!!
Either to my credit or sadly not I’ve been with the same bank for over 12 years. It’s gone through 4 or 5 buyouts the last of which was Wachovia.
Oh my Wachoiva. I hate big banks. Really hate them. I was recently overseas for work and had an issue with a payment. The “only” solution was to put a stop payment on that transaction (online banking) and reissue. Ok…..oh nooooooo……everything BUT that transaction got stopped. Now you would have thought this would have been no problem considering the transaction was to their mortgage company.
Call after call after call…..emails, calls, re-explaining. I’d copy and paste the previous email and still get some canned answer that had nothing to do with my issue. A month later it was finally straightened out.
When I returned back to the US I marched into my local credit union and opened an account. I have my ING savings, my credit union checking and savings, and Wachovia which I have not closed for the same reasons as those previous writers. My direct deposit, and bill pay are all set up. So the money flows in and then flows out. Very little is kept there.
The banking industry as well as the financial industry have played fast and lose with the facts, figures, and income statements. I don’t for a moment believe they are in crisis. They may not have made what they think they should have, but I’d bet they did make money.
Baker, I’d just switch. Why support a bank you don’t like, even if the local people are ok? My credit union is awesome and has excellent online services (including ability to SCAN in my checks for deposit!)
@Lizabeeth,
I’ve been a member of a credit union since, well, since I could bank (and I love it). But I did find some suggestions for you:
http://www.creditunion.coop/how_to_join.html
Credit unions are for everyone, but the law places some limits on the people they may serve. A credit union’s charter defines its “field of membership,” which could be an employer, church, school, or community. Anyone working for an employer that sponsors a credit union, for example, is eligible to join that credit union.
If you don’t belong, here’s how to find a credit union to join:
1. Call your state league. A representative will tell you about credit unions in your area that you are eligible to join. Here’s a list of contacts in each state.
2. Ask your boss. Your company may sponsor a credit union, or may be a select employee group (SEG) that has access to a credit union. Many employers offer direct deposit of payroll to your credit union.
3. Poll your family. Does your spouse’s employer sponsor a credit union? Most credit unions allow credit union members’ families to join. Each credit union, however, may define “family” differently. At some, only members of your immediate family are eligible. At other credit unions, family may include extended family members, such as cousins, uncles, and aunts.
4. Quiz the neighbors. Some credit unions have a “community” field of membership, serving a region defined by geography rather than by employment or some other association. Ask friends in the community if they know of a credit union you may join.
5. Read the yellow pages. Some credit unions rarely advertise, so you might not know about them unless you look them up. A yellow pages display ad may state a credit union’s field of membership. If not, at least you’ll know what number to call to ask about membership eligibility.
6. Call us. The Credit Union National Association can help you find a credit union by calling (800) 358-5710. You’ll hear an electronic message that includes the name and telephone number of a person at the credit union league in your state who can help you find a credit union to join.
7. Check the online database of credit unions. Use our credit union locator.
I have been with the same bank for 30 years, although they have since been acquired by Huntington. My local branch has always given me outstanding personal service. When I got divorced they only charged $250 to rearrange the house mortgage to my name only. When I needed a bunch of crisp new $100 bills for travel to a country which is under sanctions and has no trade relations with the US (meaning you cannot use a US credit or debit card there) they did it in a couple of days. When I needed a complete banking record for a couple of years for an immigration matter they did it on the spot and perfectly. You think I’m ever changing banks?
As for credit unions, the one at my workplace had an embezzling manager who is still serving prison time. Lots of people mysteriously had checks bouncing all over the place and had lots of dings on their credit scores because of that one.
I LOVE USAA. We use them for all of our banking, plus insurance.
A few days ago, an insurance agent called me and asked if I’d like to compare rates to what I’m currently getting and I flat out refused a quote on the basis of customer service and was sure to tell the lady that was my reason. I KNOW that we get fantastic customer service with USAA, so I won’t switch banks unless USAA ceases to exist or their service seriously begins to decline.
I’ve used local credit unions for the last 10 years. I was a Wells Fargo customer before that, but got tired of the asshattery.
I too have no reason to switch, particularly because I refuse to willingly[0] do business with big banks.
[0] Unfortunately, my mortgage is with Bank of America because they bought Countrywide, who in turn bought the small lender we originally borrowed from. Refinancing to get to a small lender again is too expensive with closing costs, and will just get bought out by a big bank, for sure.
We switched banks after our former bank significantly cut their rewards checking interest rate to .87%. We get 3.25% with our new bank.
I have a switching bank problem. Right now I have accounts at
ing – love the interface and the savings sub-accounts
pnc – wanted to try out virtual wallet, didnt love it
credit union – support my local credit union, family, individual, business accts
huntington – friend works there
schwab – atm re-imbursements I use when traveling
usaa – just signed up to try remote deposit
smarty pig – cute (my wife likes the colors) and good rates
Right now I’m pretty happy with using my credit union as my place to deposit checks, my hsa account, business account, and then managing all my family’s money at ing. I transfer the money out of the credit union (except for an emergency fund) and do automatic payments and savings at ing.
I may convert to just my credit union and use smarty pig for my savings, as they are offering more in online banking right now.
But, I just signed up for USAA, so we will see how that goes. They also have atm re-imbursements, which I like.
I wish I could just get it all at my credit union. High rates at smarty pig, low rates at credit union. ATM re-imbursements at schwab….
My wife gets mad when I switch us banks, so I’m trying to stop doing that so often. When it was just me, I switched banks every couple of years. Mostly because of customer service. If a bank treated me poorly, I was out the door.
Then my wife introduced me to the credit union and the customer service has been fantastic. If it had more features, I’d love to just stay there.
I can count on 3 hands the number of times I’ve switched banks.
Obviously it doesn’t take much. 🙂
I guess I’m in the minority here….we have our mortgage through the local credit union and absolutely hate it. Rude, poorly trained employees, lousy customer service, etc.
I bank through Wachovia and don’t mind driving 30 miles each way to deposit checks and run other errands occasionally. We moved that far away about 3 years ago and I’ve been pleased with their service for over a decade so I never bothered to switch. (And that same credit union is literally 2 blocks from my house but I won’t have a checking account there.)
I’ve been a customer at Wachovia for 10 years. I’m from the Southeast US, so it was always a local/regional bank for us, and the customer service was *excellent*.
BUT, Wells Fargo has ruined my bank. They’ve started to send me ads (that look like official documents) offering “free” credit monitoring (for one month, only $9.95 per month afterwards) and the customer service is terrible.
I’m switching, hopefully in the next month.
I recently moved my banking to a credit union. I got a savings account at 5% interest(yes, thats not a typo, check out the website above), a great low rate credit card and the satisfaction of actually knowing people at the bank and being treated well. Plus I get a dividend every year. Sweet!
I hate Bank of America. I have had to deal with them for my parents. They have slowly moved their checking and savings from there. BOA charges when a customer needs speak to a customer service agent?! My parents have been going to that bank since 1989 when they were Nations Bank. They have the most ridiculous and unnecessary fees. I wish something would stick it to them.
I have never had a horrible experience with Chase. I had to leave them because there are no local offices in my area. I now bank with Wachovia who is pretty good. No need to leave them yet.
It’s easier to switch savings accounts compared to a checking account. I had to learn the hard way to keep a check book handy, for the rare occasions that I need it. Everything I pay/owe is either through debit or online bill pay
I’ve just closed my checking and saving with Citi some days ago due to fees – yes fees. Citi wants to charge $9 monthly fee unless I maintain $1500 in those accounts, which doesn’t generate much interest at all. I used to use Citibank to transfer money online between banks for free, however I’d found out last year that I can’t make more than 6 free transfers and in a very short limit, right at the moment when I needed money for down payment. This monthly fee was the last drop – I am done with Citibank.
I still have accounts with Chase, BoA however most of my money goes to my SECU. Probably I will close with Chase soon as I don’t do anything with it. I’d opened to do online international wire transfers for a cheap fee ($10 at that time, compairing to $20 with Citibank), only to find out that the online function didn’t work. And the closest bank is about 4 hours driving from our house.
Holy cats!
I had to juggle the schedule at the last minute yesterday. April’s article for today was good, but more appropriate for 6-8 weeks from now, so we bumped it back and moved Adam’s piece forward. “We need something that gets comments,” I thought, “but I don’t think this is it.”
HAHAHAHAH. I was wrong. You guys have lots to say about banks! 🙂
If I don’t get a sucker in the deposit tube I drop them like a bad habbit. 🙂
I heard about a website to make moving from your bank to other local banks or credit unions. It is called Moveyourmoney.com. Should help to making your move from your old bank easier.
When I moved across country, I had to close down my account with a regional bank that I absolutely adored. I opened one with BofA because I travel a lot, and access to branches seemed important. I’m pretty neutral about BofA. I don’t like them, but I haven’t had any bad experiences.
My fiance has Citibank. Oi. They are determined to drive him away, what with charging a $10 monthly fee for accounts with less than $1500. When we move, we’re going to open accounts with either a credit union or a regional bank. We’ll see what’s available when we get there.
When you leave your 1$ at Chase, they can leverage it 100:1 to gamble on the stock market.
They are allowed to do this with the quasi-bank-holding-company-hedge-fund-investment-bank-status.
Your local credit union cannot.
Support your local credit union!
@45 Little House – USAA offers the ability to scan in check and it is like you are at the branch depositing them (you just don’t have to find time during banking hours to do this).
I love USAA but have to say I am gaining an appreciation of local credit unions. I am in a volunteer position where I have to deal with a local credit union for banking needs for the organization. Last year I wanted to buy some land so I can build on it in the future. Every where I went they had no idea of how to offer a loan on a lot, except one big bank. I finally called the credit union and they beat the big banks rates, fees, and closing timing.
Internet banks are great with the easy banking needs but if you don’t fit into their structure you need to go somewhere else that is more flexible.
I like my bank. When I was 17 or 18 and got my first job I decided to open my own chequing account rather than use the savings account my mom had established for me when I was little. I did my research, and selected one of the big banks in Canada where I live. I didn’t want to go to a smaller bank or credit union because I was worried it was more likely to fail in bad economic times. Not sure it’s a valid worry, but I do feel safe with my big bank.
Banks and credit unions compete with each other so they offer similar things anyway. I think it’s smart to always see what your bank has to offer based on what your needs are, and negotiate lower rates on everything you can. I’ve switched banking packages (and so on) based on my needs, but I have never felt the need to go to a different bank.
I think a really bad experience would put me off a bank, as it would any other company. I think it would take something pretty huge to make me switch banks, though. I have a history built up and I have had a lot of very positive experiences. I haven’t had ANY major issues *knock on wood*.
I changed when I got a divorce – moved from joint accounts to a single account for myself. I figured changing banks was safer than opening a new account at the same place, just in case. I picked the bank due to its numerous locations near work and home. I added my wife to the account and closed her old one when we got remarried. Now we have a mortgage through the same bank, so I can use one login to see both and make payments easily which I like.
I switched from Vanguard money market to ING recently for two main reasons:
1) ING rates are better
2) ING is FDIC insured (not a big deal, but a little extra peace of mind)
I guess for me convenience (both physical branches and online features) are the biggest draw.
Little House,
There is no wait on mailing in checks to USAA anymore. You can scan the check with your scanner on your computer and do your deposit from the comfort of your home.
Years back, when I was 21, I had an account at Bank of America that had $11 in it. It had originally been a local bank when I opened the account at age 16, but endured several buyouts until it became BoA. I opened my statement one month and discovered that they’d taken out $5 of my $11 for a monthly fee, and the very next time I went home from college, I closed my account.
Switched to USAA, since they charged no fees at the time and my dad had been in the Air Force and we had insurance through them, and been with them ever since, from telephone banking through internet banking through smartphone banking (depost checks via iPhone! Civilian members not eligible, unfortunately).
For laughs I did one of those Progressive online car insurance quotes last year, but nobody could beat my USAA rates because of my long-term customer (22 years, since I was 16!) discount. Even if they had, I wouldn’t have switched because of the customer service – when a body shop was unresponsive to me, the USAA agent I was working with patched me in on a three-way phone call with the owner of the shop and asked him to explain why my car wasn’t ready yet. She merely said “Mm-hm” several times while he stammered around the question, and then he said it would be finished that day and I could pick it up that afternoon.
Now that’s power!
I have been a avid reader of GRS for a number of years and love the content, JD!
I lived in the US for a couple of years and loved the banking system – everything is so convenient and mostly fee-free. I had accounts with ING, HSBC Direct and Wells Fargo.
Just for everyone’s entertainment I thought I should post what the banks over here in South Africa are getting away with. These fees are more or less the same for all the banks here:
For comparison, I will tell you that a a Big Mac costs R20 over here (20 units of our currency). These are for a lower-end checking account:
Monthly account fee: R69.00 (price of 3 Big Macs)
Bill Pay: R3.30 (for accounts in the same bank)
R13.25 (for other financial institutions)
Visa card purchase: R2.75/transaction (client pays explicitly)
Withdrawal: own ATM (!) R1 – R500, R5.50
R500 plus: R11.00 plus 1%
other bank ATM: R5.75 + fees
Deposits (!): 1.1% of value with a minimum of R16.50
Account payments (in bank): R20.00
Balance Inquiry: R3.00
(These accounts pay 0.00% interest)
I would so leave this bank, if I could, but all the banks here are charging more or less the same, so no point switching. Be grateful for what you have…
We get a great deal on banking through my employer. No fees at all, local ATM’s, branches in the grocery store (open 7 days a week), online banking and so on.
We switched from an online bank, whose service had declined and who had started charging fees. Picking up the branch service was very nice, especially since we switched to using more cash for budgetary purposes, and also since my wife’s business (which has it’s own account) relies on the ability to deposit checks and cash. We could, of course, do many of these things with the online bank, too — but it’s just easier to combine that with a trip to the grocery store, and we don’t have to do our cash budgeting in multiples of 20.
The switch did take us a few months to accomplish, though, and wasn’t something we did on a whim. We did a lot of research into the options and are happy with our choice.
We do maintain a savings account at ING, the “named account” thing is really nice for how we choose to save our money, with certain buckets going towards certain goals.
I’ve been using USAA for all of my banking and insurance needs for almost 3 years now. That being said, I love the bank. Absolutely love it. They are great to get in contact with (they do stuff over the phone that used to be a hassle getting my prior banks to do when I was standing in front of them) and are just overall fantastic. I like the fee-free checking and the ATM fee reimbursement. They are my bank and insurance company and they have my Roth IRA. If you have an iPhone, you can deposit checks with just a picture of the front and back; if you don’t have an iPhone, you can either scan the checks on your computer to deposit them (immediately available for use) or use the free deposit envelopes.
I will say that I’m disappointed in their savings accounts – the rates change frequently, and the rates on the Performance First Savings account (for balances over $10k) have dropped to .85%.
Their insurance is really easy to work with (I totaled my first car and had the insurance payment for it within a week and a half, no crazy paperwork needed, etc., and I got just shy of the purchase value back), and member rewards shopping (get money off of purchases made online with a lot of major stores – Barnes and Noble, Home Depot, etc. if you enter the site through the USAA portal) honestly make them worthwhile. If you use them for multiple types of accounts, you get discounts on their insurance as well, and their prices are very competitive.
That being said, I wouldn’t switch everything to them. I would keep an account at your local credit union for doing transactions like turning change into bills or to deposit cash (or get a bank check for the cash so you can deposit it online), as you can’t deposit cash into your account by scanning it in.
For me, it all comes down to “How much are you going to charge me to be your customer?”
I am 21 and have been using USAA for 5 or 6 years because my dad was in the navy. They have amazing customer service. The other day my debit card expired and they had not sent a new one yet. I called, was connected quickly to the right person, and then was one day shipped a new card. They also have great online banking. The only downer is no branches so I also have a local bank to deposit birthday checks and what not so I can then transfer that money to my USAA account.
I have been with USAA since 1991 and have NEVER been unhappy with a charge or operating procedure. I have all my insurance with them as well. When I lost my wedding ring that I had covered with my homeowner’s insurance, they jeweler told me I was the first person who had ever been happy with their settlement on a lost ring (they sent a new diamond plus $2,000). As far as banking, I didn’t like having to mail my checks in to be deposited, but now they have online instant deposits, which is easier than driving to a local bank. There are no local branches (except in San Antonio), but they reimburse ATM fees from any bank.
I believe USAA is open to the public, BUT they do not allow online check deposits for non-USAA members, which would probably be a deal-breaker for me.
I maintain a small free checking account at a local bank for things like cashing an occasional check, cashing in change (they have one of those change-counters, and my kids enjoy that), and short-term savings for a particular item (the kids and I are saving for our trip to Hawaii in June). If I had enough to worry about interest rates, I’d probably open an account with ING.
I just switched banks from Bank of America and Charles Schwab. I’ve been thinking about this move for a long time. Bofa is okay, but they do have crazy fees yet they aren’t accessible believe it or not. Charles Schwab has an amazing rate so I had to go with that.
Chase ate my bank too (WaMu). I actually liked WaMu — great service, friendly, and didn’t feel gouged at all. Rare for a big bank.
I do all my day-to-day stuff at Schwab. I prefer credit unions, and have used them in the past, but I’ve been moving around a lot recently and like the flexibility of the online bank.
The only reason I haven’t closed my Chase account is because I have a CD coming due in May. After that, I’ll be closing out next time I go home. I expect Chase won’t even squawk — they said nothing when I closed my savings account last time I was there. I suspect they’re pretty mad with the grandfathered in, awesome stuff that WaMu had, like completely free checking. I don’t even understand why anyone banks there when you have to pay for the privilege of keeping your money in one of their accounts.
I switched for ethical reasons from BofA to my local credit union. I’ll leave it at that…
If you are thinking about switching, stop pondering and just do it. Even if you aren’t prepared to move all of your funds, take the first step: open the new account.
Keep your old account(s) open for as long as it takes you to switch all of the direct deposits and bill pay autodrafts.
I sat on the fence and procrastinated for months because “it would be too hard to make all of the changes…” But, I actually got in gear pretty quickly after I opened the new account.
Funny, I recently change from Chase to USAA! The story goes like this: I was getting tired of Chase for various reasons, and I had recently opened a WaMu account that I was liking VERY much (it was closer to work and easier to deposit to, plus they had fun perks). I was all set to switch everything over to WaMu, and then Chase ate it. Grr!
Well, then I got married, and my hubby banks with USAA, so we combined over there. USAA is SO much better!! Please, you’ve got to stop putting it off and just switch. They have great customer service, easy at-home deposits, all the services you could want including the free checks with your free checking account. GREAT for service members (my hubby is in the Army).
The only thing I still have at Chase is a stagnant checking account (I have like $20 bucks in there because I’m afraid I still have a check out there floating around) and the credit card (which I don’t plan on keeping for long – they’ve been sneaky with some fees).
I once worked for Nationsbank (which got eaten by Bank of America) so we kept our accounts there for years before switching to USAA, even though we’re military.
It took moving to a State w/out any Bank of America banking centers for us to finally make the switch. I LOVE USAA. Not only is it fee-free, but they reimburse you for things like just using your check card, and for a certain number of atm fees each month. They also will send you postage-paid envelopes for mail-in deposits. Their website and bill pay is user friendly (and free, of course). I’d highly recommend checking them out.
I love USAA! I got an account with them when I was still an AFROTC cadet. There customer service is great and user friendly web interface. I set up direct deposit with them, otherwise deposits would have been a problem.
I haven’t seen anything about them opening all there services to civilians…at least the eligibility on their page has not been updated.
Please advise!
What does it take? Poor returns on my deposits.
I’ve begun moving a number of accounts from ING to several local banks. ING’s interface is simple yes, but they’ve reduced the interest paid on my deposits four (4) times since Jan. 1, 2010!!!
Given the nature of fractional reserve banking, that means for say, $100,000 of my money, ING has $1,000,000 in lending power (Austin Power pinkie to mouth). And for my efforts in making this happen for them, they want to give me $90 a month??? For holding onto $100,000 of my money? That’s not even keeping up with inflation!
When you can move to a local bank and get 3-4 times what ING pays for the same deposits, why would anyone keep their money there? For me, a pretty screen is no substitute for cold, hard cash.
For me that motivation hasn’t happened yet, although it should have by now based on what’s gone on in the banking world.
Of course, what I’m usually thinking about my bank when I go over there is the lack of a drive-thru ATM, which drives me nuts since I just don’t want to get out of the car!
I am intrigued by that whole online push towards moving money over to local credit unions; has anybody participated in this? Has it worked out for you or did you have regrets leaving the bigger bank?
-B
I’ve changed banks a few times over the years. I’m a firm believer that my money talks, and if the bank makes me unhappy by charging crazy fees, etc, then my money walks! I’m currently with a credit union associated to my employer, and I LOVE it. The ladies there recognize my face, and they’re always pleasant. My whole pay gets deposited there, so no service fees, and lower rates for loans & mortgages. I’m in Ontario, Canada, and for those of you who are concerned, deposits at Ontario credit unions are guaranteed by Ontario deposit insurance (like the “big 5” are covered by CDIC). I’m not sure if the other provinces have their own deposit insurance. I also bank with ING for my savings accounts. I love that I can nickname all my accounts and watch the balances grow!
I switched from BofA after they gave me the runaround regarding some overdraft charges that I thought were bogus. I set a payment to go out after I got paid (on Christmas Day) and they let it go 2 days before causing an overdraft and knocking me with fees. They blamed my car company for it but I insisted they were the bank and they had the control and what was the point of having Bill Pay if someone go get the payment whenever! I know bank with a local state bank and have a great experience and BofA is starting to screw with my credit card. Really shady dealings will make me change!
LOL! I switched banks after one outfit lost a $30,000 municipal bond. First went to a small, private investment bank–loved the service, didn’t love the high fees. Thence, to a credit union.
Credit unions are so superior to banks. I would never consider putting my money in a bank again. As for returns on their investment instruments: ??? I just don’t see a CD as an effective device to put your money to work.
We haven’t switched banks in ages. Bank relationships are very ‘sticky’ – once you’re in, they strategically make it hard for you switch – who wants to change all the automatic payments, online banking users and passwords, ATM PINs, etc.?
My fantasy: a high-touch bank that provides human beings to service your accounts AND that offers new customers the service of swooping into your old bank account, sniffing out existing automatic payments, etc. and transferring them over for you (and canceling all that stuff with the old bank, while we’re fantasizing). Oh, and going back to free lollipops would be cool too.
We only have one bank, so I have few options. I did recently open an ING savings (and set up sub-accounts, though).
Off topic…I’ve awarded you with the Beautiful Blogger Award. 🙂 http://www.econobusters.com/?p=4137
We primarily use ING and USAA and I’m not bothered by my lack of having a brick and mortar bank. My paycheck is direct deposited, any checks I receive can be scanned into USAA, and (unfortunately) I never get cash gifts sent to me large enough for me to consider depositing them. Instead, I just use the cash in place of a few ATM withdrawals. No biggie.
I’ve used dozens of banks and credit unions in the past, and I definitely enjoyed my current status multiple times more than working with the likes of BofA, Chase, etc – profit is their only motive. Customer Service is king.
Geographic location is still important for me. I have side ventures that pay cash, and I have to be able to get to a physical location to deposit funds. Even my primary job isn’t set up to do direct deposits, so that also requires a weekly visit to see Archie.
With that note, service can make or break whether I bank with a particular bank. My branch sees hundreds of customers each day, but the tellers still greet me by name when I walk in the door. Before I started with Compass, I have only had two tellers ever greet me by name, and they were both friends of the family.
@92: I have had HORRIBLE customer service from Bank of America, at least their credit card division which ate MBNA. After I canceled my card, they refused to stop making automatic withdrawls from my checking account.
When I got my very first *real* job, I joined the credit union affiliated with my employer. 39 years later I’m still there. Over the years I’ve gotten car loans, home mortgages and credit cards. While the closest branch isn’t very close (8 miles) they have a good no cost ATM network, no checking fees with direct deposit, free notary, free certified checks, good customer service, etc.
Interest rate isn’t great these days, but then it isn’t most places. As far as I’m concerned a credit union is the way to go.
I’ve had the same bank since I was 7 years old. My husband has banked with the same bank as I have since he was about 10. Virtually all of our accounts are held by them, as well as our credit cards and our RRSPs. The one exception is our mortgage- despite having all those accounts with them, our bank refused to match the rate we got via a mortgage broker to another Big 5 bank.
The fees are high, but so are virtually all of them with the Big 5.
The major reason we stay with them is particular though. As diplomats, we have certain financial considerations that tend to stump the other banks (high levels of currency transactions, frequent moves, different insurance needs, etc). Our bank has actually set up an exclusive office in our Headquarters just to handle these sorts of queries. The expertise we get from them is invaluable! Plus it doesn’t hurt to have a bank machine right in the (rather isolated) building…
I switched banks after 35+ years (I’m 45) and many bank name changes (Girard to Mellon to Citizens) two years ago. I did not close out the old account, but most of my business is now done with ING. I changed because I was entering a new phase of money management, and figured that a fresh start was needed to accomplish what I wanted to. The old brick and mortar bank had electronic features that were add-on features, rather than the ING model which had electronic features as its reason for being. The higher interest rates on savings and checking accounts (without have a minimum balance requirement for interest on checking) pretty much sealed the deal. The old account still exists and I use it for things that I can’t do easily with ING (writing quick checks for church or others), but it is definitely second to ING.
I recently switched over from my ING to a local credit Union. I love that the money is re-invested in the community, they have great Mortgage rates, and I earn 2.5% APY on the balance of my checking account. Can’t beat that!
I decided to move away from BOA last year. I have a mortgage with them, credit cards, checking and savings. I had not changed previoulsy because of the hassle and I really liked the bill pay. And, due to the mortgage I never paid any fees, free checks, etc…
The low rates on savings and lack of customer service pushed me to change.
I did a lot of reasearch. I see many comments refering to USAA. I considered them. But as a non-serviceman or veteran I would be given limited access to many of the products available to others. I also considered credit unions. In the end I chose:
Schwab High Yield Checking
Ally Bank Savings
I use Mint to view everything in one place and as a monitoring tool.
I get high rates and excellent customer service from both. Ally recently came out with a CD that offers 1 opportunity over the 24 month term to move your rate to their current rate for 24 month CDs.
Online banking is not a problem. I get unlimited ATM reimbursements (This is a principle issue for me – I’d go miles out of my way to avoid an ATM fee). The bill pay is great. They provide postage paid envelopes for deposits (if I really wanted to hand a check to a live person I can go to their nearest Investment office – about 10 miles away but I’ve never felt the need to do so).
I couldnt be happier that I switched.
Wayne
I was very interested in opening a USAA account for the Deposit@Home feature, but then I looked at the fine print… you can only use it if you are eligible for their property and casualty insurance. Eligibility for the property and casualty insurance still requires a military history or family background.
So, if you were thinking you could just join USAA and use this service… you might not be able to.
However, I did find a short list of other banks that do this. It can be found at the end of this blog post: http://www.bankfox.com/blog/2009/07/22/deposit-checks-online-computer/
I’m in much the same boat – 25 years old, and banking with Chase even though I don’t really like it. (Their online banking is so lame!) We are planning to switch to a new bank with an interest-yielding checking account when we have some more money to get it started.
My bank has been taken over by a huge bank that also owns branches of title loan companies and payday loans. I absolutely hate the thought of that. I love the credit union we’ve used to get a car loan in the past. I think any future accounts I create will be through the credit union, but now with automatic deposits and drafts, online bill pay features, etc., I’ll probably stick with the bank I’ve had since opening an account as a 15 year old. I am tempted to switch, though, if it weren’t for the inconvenience. If any extra fees hit or customer service becomes poor, I’ll probably make the switch.
About 15 years ago I had Norwest checking/savings and liked them. It was a pretty good deal for the time – free checking – and the branches were convenient, the people helpful. Online services wasn’t an issue then.
Norwest was taken over by Wells Fargo — bad day. I had accounts with WF during a short stay in California, and didn’t really like them, but breaking up is so hard to do… After the takeover, there were even more bank branches locally, plus there were branches in other states when traveling. Online service was pretty good. But over the years WF got more and more fee happy (surprise anyone?). At first, I could adjust my behavior to avoid problems, but that got harder and harder as they got more and more greedy.
Eventually it became “I loath WF” but now I’m married with his/her direct deposits and automatic checks, transfers and withdrawals. Feels like a massive undertaking to switch, so nothing happens. But I start to experiment with online banks by opening an ING account.
Then the straw that breaks the camel’s back — my husband is in Iraq for 6 months. We open a joint account at his credit union for transferring money from him to me. I withdraw from the credit union, cross the street and deposit the cash to the joint account. But somehow $100 goes missing in the 2 minutes between withdrawing from an ATM and depositing to an ATM. Wells Fargo knows nothing about it, and cares even less. (Lesson learned — never deposit cash in an ATM. Always go into the bank to a human being.)
Suddenly I got motivated — all our WF accounts got closed. I now bank at USAA (checking, car loans, insurance) and ING (savings). We even refinanced our mortgage away from WF (we didn’t initiate it just to get away from WF, but I made sure our new lender wasn’t WF).
There are some differences in the way online services work with USAA and ING that I’m not as happy with, but it’s a small price to pay. For example, with WF I could manage payee information and create/delete payments in Quicken, sending information directly from Quicken TO WF to create a check. With USAA I have to create payees on their site, and I have to log on to their site to create a check, which essentially means I’m having to enter the check twice – once online and once in Quicken. Also ING doesn’t allow automatic updates from Quicken – I have to actually log in to the ING site and chose to download. (Chase Visa account is the same way.) USAA, American Express, Fidelity — they all support automatic downloads. (What kind of laborious would it be to have to log in to the website of each and every financial institution and request to download from each individually?!)
Like Adam, I started an account when I was a kid at the bank my mother used. I didn’t evaluate that decision at all, until I opened a Roth IRA with ING. I caught their savings rate : 1.10. I wanted to change banks, but wondered if it was worth it, after all, what was I earning on my old one? IT WAS .10! Ridiculous.
Also, I moved from home for college, and the bank isn’t located up here. Instead I have to use the online banking, which isn’t as good as I’d like it to be (not as good as ING’s certainly, or as good as my debit card checking account’s). It was also impossible to get someone on the phone, and the people I did speak with gave me conflicting information.
Finally, my family moved and there isn’t a physical bank in our new town.
All that adds up to… changing banks when I get home for break.
Awful fees. Yeah, for a while it was $10/mth if checking account balance dropped below $250, and $4/mth if savings dropped below $350. I could manage that, most of the time, with a little juggling.
But I’m unemployed. I’ve been unemployed. Looks like I’m unemployable. All I get is unemployment, and only if they extend it again (haven’t worked enough since 2005 to open another claim).
Pricks at Chase changed my account to $15 – per month – if my checking account drops below $1500. Where the F am I supposed to get – and keep – that?
Closed both accounts – all $500 bucks’ worth – and hauled it over to Itasca Bank and Trust. Free checking. Good enough for me.
My wife and I are in the middle of switching from one bank to another (away from Fifth Third). We have suspected they hold transactions in a pending state, particularly after the 1st of the month as if they are expecting our rent check to come through. Then they post everything on that day to give us a negative balance, thus generating over-draft fees. Our suspicion was pretty much confirmed this month – we are using the other account for the rent check. When I called recently to complain about the last set of over-draft fees, I had to call the branch where I opened the account and not the one closest to my home. The first branch ‘owns’ my account, or so i was told. I called and hung up after the manager stated that our account did not ‘merit’ a fee reversal because we had had them done in the past. I wrote an e-mail to the bank’s corporate affairs office telling them that Fifth Third did not ‘merit’ having me as a customer. To date I have received no response. After we are finished closing the old account, I will follow up with a formal letter explaining why we moved out money. We had been waiting to receive my year-end bonus so we no longer will have to worry about over-drafts again for a long time. Our new bank is probably just as bad, but we felt compelled to make a switch based on Fifth Third’s shady practices.
I hate Chase because of their customer service on one issue and the fact that their “easier” ATM’s won’t accept all checks so you have to wait till they’re open to deposit weird-shaped checks (my husband is a sports official and gets all kinds of checks from school districts).
But, we only use them to deposit physical checks and never have more than $2000 in their accounts. All of our real banking is done with ING Direct. That makes me feel better.
I am with a statewide credit union. I have had an account with them for over 12 years. I have had checking off and on over that time. While I was married we had our joint checking/savings account elsewhere, but I kept the small savings account open at the Credit Union.
When we separated, I re-opened my checking account.
I used to live in a smaller town and used the branch there. Now I live in a larger city and have been using the branch here. Bigger is not always better.
I have gotten rotten customer service at the branch here. Rotten is actually a nice way to say it. I tried to withdraw $7500 from the counter when I was purchasing a vehicle a few months ago. I was told that I couldn’t because they didn’t have that much cash on hand. WTF? It is my money… or so I thought. I was told that if I went to the branch in the small town where I grew up, that I could get the money there because they kept more cash on hand. Again WTF?
A few other incidents happened over the course of the last couple of months. That was just the worst one.
I am currently searching for a new bank.
If anyone lives in South Carolina, avoid the SC State Credit Union in Greenville, SC. The branch to specifically avoid is the one on Cleveland St. (the only one in town). If you live in Seneca or Clemson, the branches there have always been super helpful. Just avoid this particular one. However, that means banking elsewhere if you live in Greenville.
I bank and insure through USAA until recently. Why the change? A $1000 premium on home insurance vs. GEICO. Their customer service IS impeccable, but $1000 is more than almost any customer service is worth.
I still bank and have most of my insurance with them, but I anticipate them refusing to renew my umbrella policy because of my home owners policy with GEICO, and when they do, I’ll probably move to GEICO fully for insurance. I’ll still save some $800.
USAA in Texas is an interesting animal — everywhere else they are cheaper than the competition, but here they really couldn’t compete. Not sure why, but in general, nearly $1000 would almost always be enough for me to move my business.
I always kept a local bank as well. It used to be a local NY bank, but when I moved to TX, I went with Chase (my wife’s bank). We’re closing that account promptly. Why? Refusal to waive a $7 certified check fee. My mistake caused me to have to reprint a certified check. Managers have the discretion to waive the fee, but this one insisted that I should pay the fee twice because my balance wasn’t up to snuff for their premium account privileges. Letter of the law, sure, but “the customer is always expendable” customer service and exorbitant, abusive fee structures are enough to lose my business. Next stop, local credit union.
Love the blog. Frequent lurker. Keep it up!
How do you become a civilian member of USAA? I cant seem to find anything on their site, which says open to Civilians.
For us the factor for us to choose our banking partner are Customer service, rates and goodwill too.
I haven’t paid monthly bank fees in many, many years, and I never will as long as it is possible to avoid it.
I was very happy with WaMu, opened my account there when they were new and always received excellent service. I also had ING for the better savings rate. When Chase ate WaMu, the transition was messy and caused a lot of hassle. Even though I continued to receive decent customer service, my husband received terrible service and I just felt icky giving my business to such an unethical company. I moved the majority of my checking business to ING, and for paper checks we both switched to a small local bank. (We tried a credit union but they wanted to put a 14 day hold on all checks. 14 days!!! No way.)
We are VERY happy with the small local bank. They have excellent service and are pretty convenient, and always pleasant when we visit a branch. They do good works in the community and don’t have any black marks against them like the big banks do. And they have free chocolate. 🙂 It took me a long time to change, but it was 100% worth it.
I also just switched banks for the same reasons some others have listed. Specifically the change at citibank which no longer has free checking. Specifically, I suppose, it was never free free but when I signed up it was free with a monthly direct deposit. What really irritated me was that (a) they did not continue to honor the account that I signed up under even though banks commonly maintain existing long-term customers even if they discontinue those programs (b) they gave only 2 months notice of the change and (c) they actually started charging the monthly fees 6 months prior to that — I had been calling every month to get them reversed and no one was able to tell me why I was being charged them. Now don’t get me wrong, I was never a fan of citi’s (although their online banking is the best interface I’ve used by a wide margin) it was a bit of work to move my direct deposits for several jobs. I have moved to capital one, which so far has a less-great but functional online interface, is very convenient (branches everywhere in NYC and evidently I’m the only one banking there because there is never a line) and takes way too long to process deposits and electronic transfers with my other accounts. But their free checking is actually free. For now.
I very much enjoyed telling 5/3 bank to go straight to the Devil several years ago as a result of them hitting me with overdraft fees several days in a row without notifying me directly. Instead they snail-mailed me a notice and they took full advantage of the delay in the mails to hit me with more and more charges. They truly did not understand why I was so angry with them. What goes around comes around.
Another reason I might want to switch banks is for Safety/Reliability. I might switch from a AA lower rated bank to a AA higher rated one. Even though the Feds insure upto 250000, I might still make that switch based on the AA ratings.
My bank has been bought and sold 4 times in 5 years. So I have been forced to switch.
Recently I started to hate banks because of the bailouts. Even though my bank was not one of the main culprits, the whole system got on my nerves.
I have never had issue with US Bank. Free checking, no fees, and not much hassle. Plus when I traveled they were pretty much everywhere I went. Never had an issue.. beyond the banking system.
So I recently opened an account with a local credit union. They were offering 3.5% on a checking account. Now I have two checking accounts, the CU for cash flow (gas, groceries, etc) and the USBank one for paying bills. The credit union has the same level of service I got from the the bank.
I also have an online account with ING and all three accounts are linked and I can transfer money where it needs to go accordingly.
But I have dealt with Bank One, Chase, Charter One, Citizens, and Bank of America, and as far as I’m concerned, they can all go to hell. My list of reasons is too long to put here.
I switched my primary bank from a credit union to a major national bank about one year ago. Main reasons were:
1) Credit union did not let me check balances through Mint. The credit union was not listed with Mint.com, and they had no plans to do so in the future.
2) With my credit union, earlier I could wire funds to any of my accounts at a different bank for free. They stopped this facility, so it became less important to have them as my primary bank.
3) There was a period in the first half of the 2000s where the credit union’s website developed considerably, they added new features, redesigned things. After 2005-06, the development stagnated. They gave themselves a makeover in 2008, so the outside looked fresh, but the inside needed new features to keep up with the way people bank online. Specifically, they did not have any visualization tools for tracking spending, and their data download interface was clunky. Still is.
4) And finally, access to branches. I did not have any checking account with a large national bank, and it just felt like a good idea to gain that access. I travel internationally, and it helps to bank with a larger entity with a good world-wide infrastructure, in case I need something done quickly. I still maintain my credit union account, but my primary is with the larger bank.
Of course, fee-free accounts and good customer service are important, but I have them with both banks so it’s not a big concern.
I should mention that my first reason for switching – not having access to Mint.com – is not a factor anymore. After some security concerns with Mint’s data model, I now use Wesabe for tracking my activity. I download data from my various credit cards & checking accounts once a month and upload it back up to Wesabe – my name and passwords are not linked with the data in any way and the Wesabe interface is fun and informative.
This comment thread has been very helpful. We are a former WaMu now Chase customer. I have been at WaMu for over 25 years and was fairly happy with their service. We have had one or two incidents over the years but generally good service and decent rates. We have appreciated the free checking, great on-line banking and no fees for using ATMs. They also seemed to care.
It hasn’t been great since the switch over to Chase. My local branch is like a graveyard. Very few employees still at my branch. I keep getting new agreements in the mail and the fees keep rising. As my CDs have matured, I’ve rolled them out and opened new accounts in a local bank which has high financial ratings and good rates. I haven’t heard anything from Chase- not even a phone call to ask how we are doing. We did talk to them last time and they wanted to push their investment options. It seemed to them that we had to take what they offered which we felt was not good enough. I also have not been happy with the huge bonuses and risky investments. So we have started our move away from Chase.
Three items are important to us; great on-line services for paying bills, access to ATMs without a lot of extra charges especially international ATMs since we travel internationally each year, and reasonable fees for services. The local bank does not have good on-line services so we have opened an account at our local large credit union.
We just did it last week so it is too early to tell. I do know that many of my friends have accounts at the credit union. A review of their services fees was reasonable. And it felt good dealing with a non-profit and personable organization. We are gradually moving our banking over. I’ll take care of the direct deposits this month and start to use the new account. I plan to give it a couple of months. I’ll see how little I can keep at Chase without getting charged. But eventually I plan to close the account.
I do appreciate all the information shared in the comments. I did not know that USAA was open to individuals. I have also heard great things about the Charles Swabb checking. These will give me another option if it does not work out with my credit union.
Thanks again for a great post and discussion.
I think Baker should switch to USAA ASAP. It will be a pain in the bum, but you will never have to think about switching again.
Free checking, no ATM fees for anything, no branches so you can use them anywhere in the world, great credit card terms, no hassles….they should be paying me for this plug eh?
I still have the first savings and checking accounts I opened with my parents’ credit union when I was 10 or 12 years old. That credit union is great; it’s also my best credit card. 6% interest rate right now and completely fee-free balance transfers. Plus actual people on the other end of the line.
Because they’re across the country from where I now live, I opened a checking account during grad school with a bank that was advertising free checking for life. Still with them as well — that was 16 years ago. They’re decent with customer service — Bank of the West. The branch where I opened my account (Berkeley) has much better service than any of the branches in SF, but I mostly deal with online banking and ATMs so it doesn’t matter. I believe they’re owned by one of the mega-world banks, BNP Paribas. (Spanish, maybe?) They have held to their free checking for life promise, and for me that’s a very good reason for me to stay with them. My direct deposit from work goes in that account.
I then have online savings accounts with ING and Emigrant Direct. I’ve had fantastic experiences with both. The interest rates are usually comparable — quite low at the moment, but ING has offered me various rate sweeteners to roll over my one-year term CD with them, and I’ve rolled over three or four times.
One thing I don’t do is download transactions to Quicken. It costs $3-5 per month and I’m cheap enough to say I’ll just enter the transactions myself for that price! They take only a second or two since nearly everything is something I’ve entered before, so it’s recognized after typing a letter or two.
Watch out very carefully for sharp practices from Bank of America credit cards. A friend of mine was completely harmed by them — they mailed her a “pre-approved” balance transfer offer for 5% future rate and when she called to take advantage of it, the woman on the phone said she was not eligible and they cut her credit limit from $16K to $2K right there over the phone — maxing her out. GAH. And she has no recourse, even under the new credit card law. It’s a shame.
We started out with a bank account at a big bank. Once they messed up our statements three times (yes, three times!!!) in four months, we pulled out our money and went to a local credit union. We’ve been there for more than 17 years now. They’ve been great.
I will say if you need an unusual service, like international transfers, a credit union is not the place to go. When my husband’s parents lived overseas, it was always a pain to get money to them and vice versa when we needed to. But for basic banking, the credit union has been great and offers very competitive rates and low fees.
After joining the Army and getting out I switched all my banking from CHase to USAA the switch has been amazing. USAA is the best customer service i have ever receive from anyone over the phone, much less a bank. Their insurance products cant be beat in my experience. From a military expereince they also understand the complexities that can be involved with PCS (Changing Stations) or a Deployment. I recommend USAA if you can meet their requirments!
A lot more than it would have before. Why do you think most banks offer online Billpay for free? Cuz they know that if you want to switch, you’d have to set all that stuff up again with your new bank.
No fees and high interest.
I’m easy. 😀
We moved our accounts out of Bank of America (who screwed us a couple of times on various fees) to our local teachers credit union, who takes anyone who ever had a teacher for class!
I, too, was very concerned about changing all of our autobills and direct deposits. But after viewing Michael Moore’s documentary “Capitalism” about bank’s high fees, low interest, and huge bonuses for themselves, as well as mortgage forecloseures that were inhumane – we knew we had to leave one of those banks – BofA!
The transfer took me a couple of months to contact all of our utilities and other ebills, but it’s what we had to do to be true to our consciences. It was the right thing for us to do!
I’m surprised no one has mentioned ETRADE.
So in the case of my high yield savings account, it takes ETRADE dumping its banking business to get me to indirectly switch banks. They are sending all online high yield savings accounts to Discover Bank.
So yeah, sometimes your bank switches you.
I switched to USAA today thanks to all the great comments!!!!!!!! My dad was in the military — I got him setup — then because he was a member I was then allowed to become a member (for all of the great insurance products etc.).
I can honestly say I just saved hundreds of dollars by reading the comments associated with this post today.
THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Been with several handfuls of banks- here and overseas. I always kept one where I lived and my USAA.
I stay away from foreign held banks while in the US (even those with FDIC). I was overseas enough to see even the largest go down with no return! When I banked overseas- I just kept enough in to float local bills for another month (always stayed a month ahead).
Moved my “retirement cash” to a local credit union for an introductory CD of 4.5% for the first year. When USAA premium was at less than 1/2 % it was a no brainer. Sure wish the fed would begin the rise in interest rates—SOON!
There’s only one reason really: It’s horribly inconvenient to switch banks. There’s the lag waiting for the new card/checks, getting familiar with the new online banking, switching automated account functions/auto-payments/direct deposit/auto-transfers, closing the previous account and juggling money between the two in the meantime…
For most people, getting a .15% interest hike in their market account or not having fees or whatever just isn’t enough incentive to switch. The bank has to do something truly awful to your account to make it worth changing.
USAA has a level of customer service that is unparalleled, particularly in this day and age. I have been with them for 15 + years. Major benefits of USAA include:
– great online banking and account access
– easy to do an online certified (bank) check
– free mail in deposit envelopes provided (10 at a time)
– Use any ATM and always get reimbursed for the fee
– free (basic) checks from Clarke-American
– cash rewards debit card/ATM card. Use as credit at point of sale for 0.5% cash back
– Never have an overdraft if you also have a USAA credit card which can be used as overdraft protection for your account. If you overdraft, $100 increments are automatically charged to your card to pay the bank draft. You then pay off the credit charges at the end of the month without paying interest.
Did I mention excellent customer service?
my wife and i switched from National City after nearly a year of several egregious errors that would have cost me nearly $2k. We researched and found a great community bank called Paramount Bank. There are few branches, but the branch by our house has a different art exhibit every month and is highly active with progressive causes that my wife and i support.
truthfully, i deposited just a few thousand upon opening in November. i was small time even to a small bank, and was treated amazingly well. they remember my name, speed me through the drive through by mailing me receipts and CD paperwork rather than making me come in. the only problem is that their rates are low with 1-2 year CD’s, but that’s the market these days.
anyways, i chose a smaller bank because i figured it was impossible for me to be treated worse than i was with national city. the smaller the institution, the better the service.
http://www.paramountbank.com
i love this bank!
Yeah, I’m looking at having to change soon. The bank I’m with starts charging fees as soon as I’m finished my degree. I have to be honest, I’m reallly not interested in changing banks. I like this one, know the e-system inside and out, and have everything set up just the way I like.
*sigh*
I’ll be changing anyway. I really don’t want a $1,500 frisbee…and actually forgone interest over 40 years at historical rates is $46k. Yeah, I’ll be switching banks.
We have USAA through my moms military service and we are leaving for two reasons. One, they do not offer people overdraft unless you have an account to hook it to so they can transfer money over from. We currently do not have a savings and my old bank, which we kept open,which is part of part two why we are leaving, would pay an oops if I made it. yes they charge us, but they paid it.
I made a big opps the other day and they returned the item and charged me the fee. I had to call and resubmit payment and with our old account we would have been charged too, but they would have paid it, up to 700 bucks. It is rare that happens, but when it does, that is an important feature to me. USAA said they do not offer a credit type overdraft so we will be switching back. We only went to them because my husbands paycheck went in a day earlier than it did at our old bank. My husband and son in law work at the same place and he is National Guard and had USAA and they got thier check thursday am instead of friday so we switched.
I need to know any check I write or transaction I make will go through even if I very occasionally mess up. I was pretty upset over it and very disapointed in them. I love thier auto insurance as it is amazing, but the banking leaves somethign to be desired.
THe second reason we are leaving is you HAVE to have a local bank to deposit checks and cash into and then transfer them into your USAA account. They used to allow you to scan checks in and our kids joined when you could and they still can, but new members cannot scan so you have to have that other account or you have no other way, unless you live where thier one branch is, I think Austin, to deposit cash or checks and it can be a huge pain .You get your atm charges back, but once a month, our old bank imediatelyl puts them right back in, I do not have to wait until a set date and get them all. YOu have to use other ATMs so it is something to consider as well. They do not have branches to take your money out at.
So, we will be switching and are not happy about a day later check, but if once in a blue moon I mess up, I have to know it is going to be covered.
Check out other banks, there are some good ones out there and USAA may be the right one, but it is a bit inconvient sometimes and you just have to be aware of that before you join.
I noticed a member said you could use your credit card for overdraft but I got a letter saying they no longer will allow you to do that, even with the USAA card, you HAVE to have an acount set up as your overdraft now.
I have accounts at 3 banks right now. I keep one that we use for everyday checking and direct deposit, we’ve had that one for 12 years and it is sufficient to our needs. But I move my savings around regulary. I have an ING account that gives me the freedom to move money in and out online and I just opened a Rewards Checking at a local credit union after the bank I had been using lowered the rate to below 2%. My priorities: convenience for everyday, rates for savings.
USAA is the BOMB!!! I can’t much more about them than what’s already been said. I do have a local CU account for cashing small $5-$10 local checks. USAA’s customer service is the best in not only the industry but in ANY industry. I have never had any issues with them… EVER!
USAA Eligibilty:
https://www.usaa.com/inet/ent_utils/McStaticPages?key=why_choose_usaa_eligibility_main&wa_ref=wcu_main_is_usaa_for_you
Just click the appropriate icon for your status and the site will tell you what you can and cannot do at USAA.
We just opened a new account a a local community bank on Wednesday – wow, this post is timely! By the end of this month, we will be free from Chase. 🙂 Already I am happy we’re switching – it is a move made out of principal, mostly, but the community bank also has better interest rates AND is nearer to our apartment. Their online banking site is not as sleek as Chase’s site, but it’s better than I expected and does what we need.
I left Chase because I was constantly directed toward the options and services that would be most profitable to Chase. I’m not even talking about win-win situations here. For instance, I got the letter in this post: http://baselinescenario.com/2010/02/21/please-keep-this-valuable-service/
Recently I was charged a $3.00 fee (I know, not much) for making an online transfer from checking to another bank (ING, where we have our emergency fund). It was a new fee, and even though it was only three dollars, it irked me.
I am looking forward to being able to call my bank and talk to a person I actually know, right away. That is invaluable to me.
Plus, I am not giving yet more money to a bank that is too big to fail. Our system has become warped by the size and power of these mammoth financial institutions. Chase won’t even feel the loss of my $3 grand, but my money is all I have control over. I am glad to give it to a bank that will reinvest it in my local community and treat me with respect as well.
Personally, my wife and I just opened an Everbank account and then another account with Cross Keys Bank (which is a high interest bank account) we have had an easy time meeting the requirements and it is amazing how much more money we are getting out of our savings in interest. You are right though most people have quite a bit of bank loyalty and even when they could be making a lot more in interest are often afraid to transfer there money. I love online banking, and have had great results. As far as I am concerned it is free money, when your money can work for you. Also to avoid being confused we love and use MINT.COM, so that we have all our financial info in one easy to follow area. Another secret… We use DropBox (a wonderful and free program) that has all our info in it including our budget, which my wife and I can update on any computer and keep synced. This is a great way to keep everyone on the same page…
We have a regular bank, a credit union, and use ING and now ALLY. We go for rates and customer service. Each serves it’s purpose for us. It’s also nice to have a variety, because if one does not serve a particular purpose we just move our money elsewhere until that changes.
My credit union’s offer for 4% interest checking was my motivator. I’ve also learned that the tellers at the credit union are a lot cuter! 😉
What does it take? Enough anger and frustration. Recently I made the decision to change from Wells Fargo to my university Credit Union. I opened an account last Friday and I plan on closing my WF account today as soon as some money that’s been wired over goes through (and I withdraw it). I am really tired of Wells Fargo service and I think that in the past 3 weeks they have been exceedingly annoying. I’ve been using WF for more than 3 years, mostly because I manage my mother’s account while she is abroad and her account has existed for about 10 years. I’ve recently convinced her to close her account because she is being charged with all sorts of fees on a monthly basis and it’s difficult to change things when you’re not in the country.
For me, I think the hardest part was just getting everyone on board. My mom was the reason I started with WF and my husband is reluctant to rid of his joint account card. I’m the only one who religiously goes on to check our account status and to pay bills so I’ve found the system very convenient. However, because of my habit of going online I’ve noticed that WF frequently changes the DEBIT DATES of my transactions and in recent weeks they have used this as an excuse to charge me overdraft fees, etc. They have also done unscheduled billpay without my permission (which I’ve revoked) and their customer service has worsened in the last few months.
Not to mention how slow debit transactions are on Wells Fargo, I mean…It can take up to a week for a check deposit to show up and 3 days for any other transaction. I grew up in Europe where we use Visa Electron which is immediate “debit” and does not have any “pending time” so I have no patience for slowness.
The reason I’ve been able to transition is because I’ve been looking to do a balance transfer for my American Express and discovered that I could try with the credit union. As WF pissed me off I just stomped right in there and opened an account, loved the customer service, and knew that I wouldn’t regret it.
I’ve had 2 banks for over 35 years; one is commercial and has banks all over this State, the other is a credit union – located in other town/district that is difficult to physically get to. The commercial bank provided checking and savings account services, etc. The credit union provided for loan products (a home equity loan, car loans, etc. with lower interest rates) and credit cards (lower interest rates that has never changed in over 20 years and no annual fees, etc). But, 5 years ago I let go of the commercial bank, kept the old credit union (and still have credit cards and paid off the equity loan), and joined another govt employee credit union that is located 2 miles from our home. I’ve never regretted the move, as the commercial bank charged fees for everything (ATM, bank accounts, notary, travelers cheques, checks, debit cards, etc.) My local credit union provides all of those services including on-line banking for free. The primary checking account is linked to the primary savings accounts (used for short-term contingency savings) and so there are no overdraft fees (unless there is no money in the savings account to cover the overdraft in the checking account – so far, that has not happened). We also have a 2nd savings account that is for long-term savings and is not linked to the primary accounts. Interest rates earned on CD’s and Savings are higher than commercial banks. Needless to say, our bank balances have increased substantially over the last five years. A credit union is also a “nonprofit” and thus can give their “owner” clients the benefits of its lower overhead costs and not charge exorbitant fees just to make a profit. They are also more conservative than commercial banks and therefore do not put their investors at undue high risks. Nonprofits are also insured by NCUA – just as commercial banks are insured by FDIC. We were paying over $300-$500 annually for a commercial bank service; not any more, thank goodness. Changing banks didn’t lower our credit score, and instead of paying the bank, the bank now pays us interest on all our accounts, investment products, etc. So, we still have two banks, but they are both local credit unions.
What did it take to make me switch banks (From Chase actually).
The moment I saw they were holding and reordering my debits and credits (including my direct deposits and other EFT, which I know now is illegal). The moment I saw them trying to force me not only to overdraft, but to overdraft multiple times I changed banks.
Hi! For heaven’s sake, Adam, don’t delay. Chase is a crummy bank. USAA is a superb bank. I have all my insurance and credit cards with them, too. Excellent customer service. It’s true there are no branches but you can scan your checks into your account, so there are no problems.
Wells Fargo to Rivermark. They severely messed up my checking account and didn’t care too much about it. It took 2 weeks to fix it. Then I switched.
Funny side story. Manager asked me as I was closing my account to walk into Rivermark and ask if anyone would say hello to me and remember my name. I said in front of all of the tellers, “I’ve been coming here since this was First Interstate Bank and that hasn’t happened once here!”. That has been almost 20 years.
All the teller immediately turned away.
I am delurking to post my love for USAA… I have never had better customer service than with them! I even lived overseas for a year and when I called to ask questions, they transferred me to an “international specialist”. When I called our credit union to let them know they would see international charges on our account, I was told they can’t handle international charges…
I belong to two credit unions. The first one was in conjunction with my late husband’s employer. It’s located close to where we live. The second was in conjunction with my employer. It’s close to where I worked. Both CU’s have checking accounts and two savings accounts. Primary savings have $500 each as e-funds and secondary savings as play money,
My two pension checks get deposited to first account to cover all monthly bills which are setup for automatic bill pay. only check that has to be written is rent check. An automatic transfer is made to my ING account to handle all those other bills such as insurance and doctor and medical bills.
Second CU gets my Social Security check. My daughter also has an account with this CU which was set up when she went to college to make it easier to get money to her. She’s now married with 4 kids and I have money deposited to her account for the kids education. Plus automatic transfer to Ally Bank that has my money market account.
Because of doing business with credit unions for so long I haven’t paid a bank fee in over 30 years. I even get free checks because I’m a senior citizen. I’ll probably never leave either cu because the great service received.
I loved WAMU, and was unhappy to see them go under and then Chase take the helm. I do not like Chase at all, but I’ve got so many auto deposits and deductions set up, that changing will be a royal pain. However, Chase sealed the deal by adding a $3.00 fee for any transfers or transactions to an external account. Basta!
In spite of the headache, I am going to open an account at a local credit union. I’ll of course keep the Chase account open for several months to be sure everything clears and gets well established, but then Chase is history.
I use ING for my Efunds and other savings, and I am very happy with that bank. They are super! Chase can rot, IMHO.
Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are by far the WORST banks on the face of the planet. They have lots of branches, but they have to pay for the branch saturation somehow. This is done by nickel and diming their customers. Collectively they all play tricks like changing payment dates to charge people with late fees who pay automatically; accidentally charging fees on free accounts hoping people won’t catch the charges; and doubling people’s interest rates on credit cards because they didn’t like the new credit card rules that made them stop some of their most corrupt practices.
Those three banks are probably the most responsible for the mortgage crisis; received the most TARP money that they used not to hand out loans, but to purchase other banks to make themselves larger; and have refused to modify loans that they should have not have given in the first place. Further, the second a person has a financial problem [e.g. job loss] forget about asking them for help. Not going to happen.
Community Banks and credit unions are the way to go. The money you borrow and the relationships are local. If you have a problem, they will likely try to help. When you have a problem at the other banks, people in distant lands will be responsible for making decisions, not people you see every day. I have opened accounts with all three of these horrible banks in the past and still do occasionally. This, however, is mostly to take advantage of free money they are giving out. I gleefully try to cost them money at every opportunity I get because of the horrible ways they have treated myself and others I know both personally and professionally.
I have been with Chase since it was Bank One and First Chicago Bank before that. I like them just fine, never had problems they weren’t able to resolve over the phone. I have a credit card, mortgage and checking account with them. They would have to start charging me weird fees to get me to switch since I like the convenience of all their atms around town. Plus I like being able to pay my major bills (cc and mortgage) same day from my checking.
I have been with ING since 2003 when I realized they have the best saving interest rate and am sticking to them out of loyalty even though their rate is no longer the best because I love the customer service/convenience.
I hit the trifecta with USAA, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, and Navy Federal Credit Union. I play them off against each other for loan rates, but the past 7 years Penfed had them beat. Anyone can join PFCU if they join The NMFA first for a year membership. Saves you thousands of $ on loan fees.
I’m surprised at what I’m reading.
My family had been with USAA since the 1960’s when my Dad was in the Army. My father had even convinced military relatives to switch. I can remember hearing my cousins (who are 20 yrs older then me) telling my parents about their good experiences when I was I kid & thanking my parents for advising them well.
I’d had a USAA checking & savings account since I was 17. As I became an adult that account was the pin to my financial life. I knew how the bank worked and all their rules – I was always a good customer. Their service has gone down hill so much in the last few years I left them last year after over 15 years of banking. On 4 separate occasions I was given very inaccurate info by their reps on new bank procedures that caused my accts to get screwed up. The final straw was when they started to freeze incoming money transfers for a week regardless of good account history – I could understand if I’d been kiting deposits(one rep accused me of doing that) but I only transferred money from my local credit union if the money was in the account. Any checks or cash people wrote me I’d put in the local bank & then transfer to USAA. Been doing it that way for over a decade – I’d tried their scanning deposit thing but had issues with private checks and obviously couldn’t scan in cash. So suddenly if a client (I run a small business out of my house in the evenings) paid me on Friday, I deposited the money and then went to USAA’s website before 3pm to transfer the funds I wouldn’t have access to the money till the following Friday. USAA would electronically remove the money from the local bank acct within hours but I couldn’t touch the funds for a week. Phone calls to USAA didn’t help. It used to be I’d have access to the money the following day – so I could use the money the during the weekend to get groceries. I was having problems with their new bill pay system too but it’s been too long and I don’t remember what the deal was there. I opened a new acct at a local Credit Union that functions the way USAA used to – so far so good (fingers crossed).
I left USAA’s auto insurance division 2 years ago because of how they handled an accident where I was not at fault. Almost 4 years ago, I was hit by a speeding truck on the interstate and spun out of control. Even though there was no ticket issued, the cops ruled it a hit ‘n run USAA found me to be at fault and hiked up my rates (there was nothing else on my driving record).
My brother had a similar experience with their auto insurance division about 8-9 years ago and he left them completely then.
In June or July of 2007 a tornado came through my town followed a few days later by a wind storm. The adjuster came by when I wasn’t home. They refused to cover most of the storm damage – I had holes in my siding larger then my foot also, I was missing shingles on my roof – the adjuster completely missed this blaring damage. The adjuster had no local or toll free phone number to be reached at. I work for the govt and can’t call long distance from work(at least not for not-work related stuff) – I used multiple lunch breaks and got off working early a few times trying to reach him with no response. After getting an atty involved I got the roof covered last spring – however now the roof has been replaced they are refusing to pay the rest of the claim. They don’t want to pay for the siding to get repaired properly. USAA wants pieces of siding removed from one part of my house and then put where the holes are. And then they will replace the pieces removed. The vynl siding is 20 years old and I’ve had over 6 contractors tell me that the chances of the siding breaking while being removed & relocated during the repair is very good. Now the last message stated that USAA doesn’t think it was storm damage. Tree branches flew into the side of my house and that’s not storm related? I took pictures after the storm that I’ve even emailed to USAA. To keep it short I’m leaving out details.
I switched my home owners from them to a local person last last year and I’m relieved I did. I’m at the point I’m just walking away from USAA- my new agent is going to help me get some contractors who can get the siding fixed properly with out all this grief. I’ll have to pay for it out of pocket but at least it will be fixed.
My mother had something similar with her home coverage 5 years ago and after being with USAA since the 1960’s she left. My Dad has left USAA too but won’t say why.
The only thing I have left with them is my life insurance – I got it young enough that no one can touch the rate. Although I worry about my estate getting settled alright if I die – what if USAA gives crap about that?
I’d be very hesitant doing any business with them. My family (Mom, Dad, brother, Aunt, Uncle, 4 cousins) had great experiences with USAA but during the late 90’s things started to slip and they don’t seem to be that good anymore – I’d say local is better. Be very careful if you deal with USAA – I think they’ve gotten too big.
I don’t think it’s hard to change banks but, I don’t do any automatic pymts. I have my paycheck auto deposited but everything out going I setup re-occuring pymts in the banks bill pay system. Got burned several years ago when my water company took money out before payday. So now I just go to my bank’s bill pay 2 weeks before payday and adjust outgoing reoccurring pymts I have setup as needed. If I get ill or something I just let the reoccurring pymt I have setup handle it – figure the utilities getting paid something should make them happy even if it’s not the full amt due. If I need to switch banks I can print out the bill pay screen & put everything into the new banks bill pay system(I do it at home so I have all acct #’s handy). So far the new bank is doing good – local credit union. I can’t get used to banking with a human after so many years of doing it over the phone & on the web.
Best advice that’s short and sweet: switch now!
I have been debating switching banks for months now. After reading all of this I am going to. I do not think my bank has the “right touch” for my money anymore and after a major bad experience, I just need to do it.
Like many others here I have banked with USAA since I was young (Navy dad) and I kept my banking with them when I commissioned into the Air Force. I was stationed in England for four years with no problems (they even had a London based office for British vehicle insurance). I did open a local bank account to deal with American Dollar to British Pound conversions.
When I moved back to the states I looked to USAA for a home mortgage, but they required 45 days to close because of their mortgage workload (this was in 2008 – so much for nobody buying homes). I went with a local bank, which I think turned out really well, especially since it was a first home purchase for me. It was nice to be able to sit down at the bank and ask the lender questions.
I keep my checking, savings, retirement, investment, and insurance accounts with USAA and have always been impressed with their customer service. They really understand the needs of active duty military members an go out of their way to be respectful and helpful. I’ve never had a bad experience over the phone with a USAA rep. With the ability to scan a check for deposit, and with ATM fee reimbursement, I have never run into a time where I really needed a brick-and-mortar bank.
USAA interest rates aren’t that great right now, but then again who in the world has good rates right now?
I am loyal to USAA because they have been good to me for over 15 years. I have taken my banking elsewhere at times out of pure situational necessity, but always look to USAA first.
I recently dumped Chase in favor of a local credit union. Besides all the other benefits you mentioned, I have to say that I love their ATM’s. To get $40 out of a Chase ATM, it takes a minimum of 2 minutes because between every step, you get a picture of a supposed smiling customer with a caption about how Chase is the greatest bank ever. Now I can get money in under a minute.
I’ve used USAA for my insurance, checking and auto loan for about five years (I’m a youngster so it’s really served as my first bank). It is an amazing bank. I hear all the horror stories but USAA has never failed to impress me so far. Lost a card once at a bar which someone promptly ran up a 300 dollar tab on and they reimbursed me within the week–no further questions asked. Low rates and the ATM refund are great too. The one time I was late making a payment because I misread the due date, I received a friendly–yes, friendly call–asking if I knew this payment was due. I didn’t. I paid it the next day and I paid no fees and I received no record of deliquincy. Of course, I think there might be a learning curve for the online banking for some less technically savvy folks (Deposit@Home, iPhone Deposit are sweet). Its only downside is the savings accounts aren’t very competitive (so I use ING).
Just thought I’d comment here. Seriously, I’m okay with paying a little extra interest (at very competitive rates, mind you) to a bank that GETS IT.
I recently made a blog entry about my experience.
http://www.yourfinancialwatchdogblog.com/yfw/2010/03/my-journey-back-to-local-banking.html
After 20 years with a credit union that became a savings banks, then was swallowed up by the largest regional bank, I had enough. Instead of great CU service, I was being fee’d to death. Nor could I reach competent people on the phone. The last straw came when the bank refused to pay my electronic mortgage payment to Wells Fargo, something I had set up for nearly a decade (Wells was very nice and did not charge me anything for the late mortgage payment- they couldn’t talk to the bank either to get things resolved).
So I looked for a local CU or savings bank. Found a smallish regional bank where the manager knows me now, waives fees when I ask him to, and my printed checks are free. I also have an ING Direct account.
If anyone wants to know the name of the Big Bad Bank, e-mail me. It’s in the NYC area.
All of these comments are great! I just switched this evening from BofA to one of the local credit unions here in Portland, Northwest Resource. My company is a member and I’ve been meaning to do it for awhile; what finally sealed the deal was the same thing a few other folks have mentioned — the IRRITATING moving around of EFTs in my checking account. On Monday I had ~$800 in my checking account, no pending transactions despite writing a $495 check and a $200 check. I had just written a $74 check so I transferred an additional $80 to make the difference. Well, today I discovered that BofA had pulled $100 from my savings (my automatic overdraft protection — comes with a $10 fee) because of “insufficient funds.” When I looked at my account activity, checks had cleared on 3/6-8 which were not even listed when I looked on 3/8. SO INFURIATING. I had to pay $10 for that. BofA charges me NINE dollars a month for my secondary checking, which is the account I use to write checks from (my primary checking is my direct deposit/debit account; I transfer money from it for the checks I write so that I can very clearly monitor my bill money). They charge me that fee because I don’t keep a $500 AVERAGE minimum in the account. I’m not interested in paying $108 a year anymore. Done. It’ll take me awhile to move everything over to the CU but I feel really good about going local. The rep who helped me today was very, very nice and they have a lot of great things to offer, like bike loans (in such a bike-centric town this is awesome), a great, low-interest, friendly credit card, and other member-oriented services. Their bill pay is clunkier than BofA but that’s OK. Glad to see that the move to local banks/credit unions has been almost universally positive for everyone here!