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Looking for a new bank

M

MustISO

Lifer
Currently use a local bank that has a pretty old online system for bill pay, no 2FA and limited B&M hours.

We have pretty much every bank within a mile in our area so I'm looking for a new one. TD Bank and PNC just opened recently but we have all the other big names as well.

Things I'd like:
Good mobile app
Two factor authentication
Good online bill pay
Good reporting options (historical data)

Any personal experiences or suggestions for a new bank?
 
Simple

I like them and Ally a lot because they do forgo a lot of the BS fees and complications of a regular bank. Simple has great budgeting and tracking, and I like their app and website - it's far cleaner and easier to use than some of the embarrassingly terrible to navigate websites of the much larger, established banks. As far as I know they don't operate any physical branches, though.

Chase is probably the best with actual branches, but I can't say I really love any of the traditional banks because they are happy to nickel and dime you in fees wherever possible. But they have a decent app (including photo check deposit, which Simple offers as well), and online bill pay system. They have SMS/email-based two-factor on by default when you sign on from a new location, though I think you can enable it for every logon.

Wachovia used to be my favorite national bank before they got eaten up like many other banks post-financial crisis.
 
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Credit union. Publicly traded banks are for shareholders, not users. Stupid electonic baubles don't make up for the constant fucking you get in the name of profitable quarters.
 
lxskllr said:
Credit union. Publicly traded banks are for shareholders, not users. Stupid electonic baubles don't make up for the constant fucking you get in the name of profitable quarters.
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I used to believe that too, but the local credit union has higher fees and loan rates than any of the banks in the area. Their fees are also crazy. Plus they spend way too much money remodeling their buildings putting in waterfalls, while removing tellers. Hell, one of their buildings you cant even see a teller in person.
 
waffleironhead said:
I used to believe that too, but the local credit union has higher fees and loan rates than any of the banks in the area. Their fees are also crazy. Plus they spend way too much money remodeling their buildings putting in waterfalls, while removing tellers. Hell, one of their buildings you cant even see a teller in person.
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Sounds like yours sucks. There should be a mechanism for removing those in power, and bringing it in line with consumer interests. Might be more work than you're interested in, but it should be doable. There's zero reason to be worse than a (multi)national chain.
 
waffleironhead said:
I used to believe that too, but the local credit union has higher fees and loan rates than any of the banks in the area. Their fees are also crazy. Plus they spend way too much money remodeling their buildings putting in waterfalls, while removing tellers. Hell, one of their buildings you cant even see a teller in person.
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Then you're going to the wrong credit union. Most aren't like you described.

I need to switch my cash over to a credit union or online bank as well. And that is simply because I'm not getting enough interest for the amount of cash I have laying around. The rates at all the major banks I have (Chase, BOA), is all ~$0.01% if anything.

A lot of things have helped competition such as: Depositing checks with phone camera... Sometimes I need to write checks for my home maid services, thats the ONLY time I need checks. You think I feel it's justified to pay $25 for a couple books of checks? Fuck no. I demanded that BOA give me checks for free or I'm taking my cash over to my other bank. They immediately bent over heh.

I don't pay fees. That's not what a banks purposes WAS. It is now. They hope you are just barely sinking by with little cash... and then do something like have a stopped check, over debit your account, etc.. etc..
 
Crono said:
Simple

I like them and Ally a lot because they do forgo a lot of the BS fees and complications of a regular bank. Simple has great budgeting and tracking, and I like their app and website - it's far cleaner and easier to use than some of the embarrassingly terrible to navigate websites of the much larger, established banks. As far as I know they don't operate any physical branches, though.
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While their overall image doesn't look bad, it sure is hard as fuck to find their interest rate.

Fake edit: Finally did... 0.01% hahaha... might as well just do your local bank. Fuck that.
 
I do have an Ally savings account so I may just open checking with them as well. Going to stop at Chase, PNC and TD B&M and see what their options are.
 
Just FYI, Ally is moving to tiered savings/MM account rates this November. They included the tiers in their email, but haven't posted the rates per tier last I checked.

From their email:
"
At Ally Bank, we're committed to banking in your best interest and offering consistently competitive rates. As part of that commitment, we're introducing the following balance tiers on November 7, 2015:

Less than $5,000
$5,000-$24,999.99
$25,000 or more
"
 
I've been happy with PNC. Free checking/savings, app check deposit and an overall nice app and website. Don't keep enough in plain savings to care about the rate, they pretty much all suck these days.
 
I am a fan of Chase. Good mobile options, no fees as long as you keep balances decent, and probably the best benefit is that all my accounts are managed in one spot alongside online bill pay. On top of that, they have tons of ATM's most places I go.

Only fee I've ever paid with them was to electronic transfer a huge sum when I bought my house. Outside of that I've not been charged - or if I was they removed it (had an issue with a new card, but cleared it up).
 
Alliant Credit Union.

Been with them for 10+ years. I've never felt the urge to look elsewhere.

Great service, and always adjusts their rates to remain competitive. On the west coast you can deposit your checks via their partner bank, Bank of the West.

Schwab Bank is good for having a secondary "token account" to use when traveling overseas as they'll expense ANY ATM fee around the world.

Another token account worth consideration is a BofA free account, etc. This is good if you need a bank window to do transactions.
 
MustISO said:
They can send you a prepaid deposit envelope or you use their app to snap a pic of the check to deposit it from your mobile device.
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What kind of sorcery is this?

reference the flip phone thread.😛

Another Luddite question, can you/how would you get cash? You young people don't carry any? Paying a fee at a random kind of defeats the purpose.
 
Most credit unions belong to one of several credit union ATM organizations so that you can use certain ATM's for free. For instance, most credit union ATM's and all atm's at 7-Elevens are free for me to use.

Likewise, you can make deposits at those ATMs. Feed it the check, tell it how much it was, done.
 
Almost every credit union belongs to the SUM or MoneyPass network. A lot of atms don't have the sticker, but they're included. You just need to look them up.

Lots of good CUs out there. Two factor is probably the only thing they'll be missing.
 
highland145 said:
What kind of sorcery is this?

reference the flip phone thread.😛

Another Luddite question, can you/how would you get cash? You young people don't carry any? Paying a fee at a random kind of defeats the purpose.
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As mentioned previously, I have USAA and they have no branches anywhere near me, so all checks are deposited by phone, and they reimburse ATM fees up to like $45/month or something, so I can go wherever and get cash on the off chance I need to. Cash back at any store is always an option as well.
 
highland145 said:
How do you deposit $$ on a strictly online bank? Some guy gives you a check, what do you do with it?

<--Luddite
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Well, with my Alliant Credit Union and one of their partnerships (Bank of the West), I just go to the ATM of a Bank of the West and deposit my checks there and it gets immediately credited to my Alliant account.

Other credit unions have "deposit partnerships" like Alliant, besides the free ATM fee network setups.

Also, as others have mentioned, many banks allow for the phone picture taking/computer scanner deposit method, aside of the older free envelope deposit method which is the slowest way. I've never ran into any issue
 
MustISO said:
Other than an ATM I'm not sure how you would get cash. I still use cash myself that's why I have a local B&M bank.
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99.99% of places accept credit (OR debit cards). There is absolutely positively ZERO incentive to carry cash, unless you want a reason to be robbed.

Moreover, using a debit card is insecure, whereas using a credit card is using someone else's money (effectively), so if a fraudulent charge happens, you are not responsible for it.

To put it bluntly, you are stupid to use cash in this modern society. There are 100 benefits to not using it, 0 benefits to using it, and multiple incentives TO use credit cards.
 
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