I just had to telephone Chevy Chase bank to ask for more checks (god knows why checks are so important here cause in the UK they are only ever used by people over 60). I am being charged $34 to reorder check books. I can't believe they have the audacity to charge for something that Natwest sends out as a matter of course since they monitor the checks you use. Also, Chevy Chase cannot seem to cope with international banking. Natwest of course set it up in 4 mins flat. Does anyone know of a good US bank (Im in Virginia) that can actually operate in a manner that a UK bank does, and that has the capacity for online international banking and doesnt charge for checks? Id be grateful for the name!!

I'm pretty sure they all charge for checks. Never heard otherwise!

Intl banking shouldn't be an issue, isn't with Citibank & US Bank.

I hardly ever use checks here.... only to pay USCIS for everything else I pay online or by charge card.... as far as I know all US banks charge for checks...

Kez

Free checks are virtually unheard of. Shop around and find a bank with free web banking - that is how I send all my checks (plus I don't have to pay for postage!)

But, in comparison to how much UK banks value their customers, the US banks only find new ways to fee customers. I work for a bank and I find it shameful how much people are chaged for things. Sadly, I don't see it changing.

Edited to add: Incidentally, you can order your checks through a third party vendor, such as Current, for a much lower cost.

I recently opened a Citibank account and they didn't charge me for cheques.

They do however have an account maintenance fee (waived if your combined balance is over $6,000.)

I dont buy checks from the bank, however i did find a site thats very reasonable. The more boxes you buy the bigger the discount for a new customer.

Here's the link to their website incase your interested

http://www.checkgallery.com/home.aspx

.......... dont forget to click on the special offers on the left hand side. It gives you a one time discount code and deducts it from your total bill.

Banks in the USA are shite, no doubt. They have fees for everything.

For this reason I bank with a credit union. No fees for almost everything (OK, yes I have to pay for checks, but I hardly ever use them), and I get interest on my checking account. The only downside is the lack of ATMS, but luckily Sheetz (a gas station chain in PA) here have fee-free ATMs, so that isn't an issue for me.

I get free checks from Wells Fargo, but it has a lot to do with the company I work for.

what my husband has found the most interesting about american banks is we have drive thru's. he says its just plain lazy

Don't worry they'll ream you for everything else.

I disagree. Some banks are shite, sure, but not all.

My local Commerce branch is open 7 days a week, M-F: 7:30am-8pm, Sat: 7:30am-6pm, Sun: 11am-4pm
and most holidays.

Find me a UK bank that does that.

An exceptional case I would say. I've never found a bank that's open on Sunday! You are lucky. Perhaps its a big city thing. Banks around here close at 4pm (6pm on Thursday!), and are not open on weekends.

There are some Sunday banks, the ones that are in giant grocery stores - like Biggs, etc.

Natwest is open on Saturdays but not Sunday. Sundays are for lunching & sitting in the pub!

They also don't charge any fees -- no account maintenance fees or ATM fees; they refund
ATM fees charged by other banks' ATMs; they (used to) give you 2 free certified (cashier's)
cheques per month (sadly they don't do that anymore.) If you deposit a cheque before 6pm,
the money is always available the next day, etc etc

As far as I know, Washington Mutual offers "free checks for life."

Their checking account is also 100% free *and* they offer free international wire transfers.

In the 8 years I have been with my bank I have not ordered new checks, still have the free starter ones issued when opening the account, I do all my bill payments through my bank's online bill payment website, for free, no need to spend money on postage stamps either.

Also years ago at my old bank, I would no bother ordering any fancy checks, just the plain cheap blue ones for me, you could even order checks from a third party check printer for lower price than the ones through the bank.

http://www.checkworks.com/personal/bydesign.asp?design=CS
http://www.4checks.com/index.asp

All I can say is shop around! Also, make sure you mention the company you work for - I get free checking/free checks because of it.

UK banks do not charge for checks or ATMs - but their overdraft fees are horrendeous - 39quid?! from the Halifax - no US bank would ever get a away with charging $80.

Many banks have free ATMs

And third party checks are the way to go...much cheaper. Here's a place where I ordered mine...

http://www.bradfordexchangechecks.com

I almost paid USCIS with this one:



...but thought better of it...hahahah

thanks everyone for the advice - I think I will cancel the order for the checks and change banks. It seems there are better banks out there.

Yeah; you might want to use a larger bank that has a presence across the USA. I've never heard of Chevy Chase bank, I don't pay $34 for checks, and I don't even carry a check book with me.

My account is with Bank of America; I'm guessing you've heard of them.

They're a very large bank in the Washington/Baltimore area. If you've never heard of them then you've never been in that area I guess, they're everywhere around there.

Yes, and I can't believe you'd recommend going with those blood suckers. Talk about a bank that drains your money away. Bank of America are seriously evil. I speak from experience BTW.

Wait, is it really called "Chevy Chase" bank? I thought you were making a joke, like the actors name. I've definitely heard of Chase bank...

That's what I thought, too... but no, I just Googled and it appears it is a real bank!

Chevy Chase bank was formed when the actor was 12, so no relation! Chevy Chase bank's founder was from Chevy Chase, Maryland. They have something like 250 branches around Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and DC. If you're ever flown through Washington Dulles Airport you'll see their ATMs around.

No relation to Chevrolet or JPMorgan Chase either, I suspect

Perhaps not but a lot of accounts in the USA won't go into overdraft automatically and in this state it's a criminal offense to write a check on an account that you know has insufficient funds. The fees from bounced checks can be enormous so it is wise to read the fine print and see what your particular account's policies are on overdrafts. My cousin's bank account doesn't have an overdraft and he racked up $500 in bounced check fees recently. This is the third time he's done it and the bank's not going to forgive those fees this time.

All banks are evil. *shrug* Most of my money is sitting with UBS, not Bank of America. I have a Bank of America account with some money in it so I can pay bills because I'd rather not write checks on an investment account.

Also...never having been to the Washington/Baltimore area in my life, I'm sure there's lots of chain businesses there that I've never heard of.

In Phoenix (and here in Austin) - most of the grocery stores have a branch inside them - Wells Fargo, Chase, and Bank of America to name a few (from both cities) - they're (mostly) open every day - extended hours (as in 7, sometimes 8PM) on weekdays, and open (at least briefly) on Sundays...

I used to pay my cable bill at the HEB on Jollyville. So convenient!

All banks are not evil. My bank is very nice, I know most of the people who work and run it and they are good people. One of the benefits of banking with a smaller bank.


Yes, and that doesn't make them bad does it, just because you've never heard of them? Everyone may have heard of BoA, but thats because they're a huge evil corperation, rather than a smaller local bank. Although having a large bank has some advantages (ATM locations basically), I've found that smaller banks and especially credit unions in the USA are better in terms of not reaming you with fees whenever you do anything non-standard.

Banks exist to make money...period. People shouldn't forget that. One of the worst banks I ever dealt with was a small bank....the University Federal Credit Union at the University of Texas. Suxxxxxxxxxor. Small banks aren't always terrific and large banks aren't always terrible.

So far I haven't had any problems with Bank of America and since I don't bounce checks or do wacky things with my account I'm not counting on having any problems.

I also bank with a small, local bank (though they are growing and entering bigger markets ie state college etc). I am allowed 3 free checks a month, and $1 for each additional check written (honestly I use my debit card so much I barely ever write 3 checks a month). It used to be a direct deposit account, which was free, until they stopped counting international wire transfers as direct deposits (go figure) now they charge me a monthly fee (like $2 something). I like my bank, they are nice folks, get everything done quickly and are always polite.

All businesses exist to make money, but being a business doesn't make one inherently evil though.

Well IMHO the 2 worst banks in America are BoA and Wells Fargo, although I'm sure there are many small shitheads out there. I would rank them as the 2 worst because of the sheer number of people they have fucked over. A small bank just can't do that much damage!

We'll see. I never bounced a check either FYI. My problem was having too much money in my BoA account.

I know a bunch of people who bank with Bank of America and they haven't had any problems. Obviously if I do encounter problems I won't be so stubborn as to stay with them just to prove a point; I'll take my business elsewhere as I've done in the past when banks have tried to screw me over.

Incidentally the worst bank I ever dealt with was in the UK but I don't think that really means anything. Banks in general are just a necessary evil.

Natwest? They're c**ts.

Not even! They held our mortgage and we didn't have any problems with them other than the fact that they were CONSTANTLY slapping us with interest rate increases. If we'd planned to stay in the UK we'd have refinanced for sure. Service-wise, though, I can't really complain. They were responsive and sent whatever I asked them to send whenever I asked them to send it, on one occasion bending over backwards to provide us with a mortgage statement in a very short period of time.

Nationwide held my current account and they were RUBBISH; I asked them to close an account several times and it's STILL open...and they're still charging me fees on it. They should just exhale because I'm never going to pay them.

I had fun with LloydsTSB when I moved over here. They kept demanding that I put money in my account, and telling me that I had to "come into the branch to talk to person X" or "call us with X days of getting this message". Problem was that I lived in California (try calling a bank who closes at 3pm when you're 8 hours behind), and not only that, they sent me the letters through some bulk mailing company and I invariably got the letters a few days after the "deadlines" they kept setting me. My response was to ignore them which only made them madder. Luckily they never actually charged me any fees. Just sent angry letters every few weeks!

LOL; Nationwide doesn't have my address here so they can just write off those stupid fees that are THEIR FAULT anyway.

I had worked for a bank for the past 5 years. As with any bank account, you must read the fine print. Many want to charge hidden fees...I'm not sure what banks are in your area, but as some of the previous posters have stated, you CAN get free checks...it all depends on the bank, and the type of account you have. Wells Fargo, Citibank, US Bank, Fifth Third, National City...all of those are good banks to do buisness with for a standard checking account....Best thing to do is shop around. If you don't like what they offer, you don't have to accept that, and simply leave and go to the bank that does have what you want.

I was shocked to find our bank here open Sundays. Not only that, but our local branch is open 7:30AM to midnight, 7 days a week...

Back at Christmas I opened a checking account with Harris, who are a small-ish Chicagoland bank. To begin with, I was surprised how easy it was to open a US account as a UKC (much harder to open an account in the UK these days). They messed up my UK address as their computer wouldn't accept a UK postal code, and my first couple of statements and my debit card went missing - however they were fine about sorting it out and since then I've had no problems. So overall I've been pretty impressed with their customer service.

I was rather alarmed to receive a box of 100 cheques from them (free, incidently)! They're very pretty and they have my UK address on - but when I move in a few weeks I have to change my address - what a waste of cheques!

So when you order cheques from one of these 3rd party websites.. do you just enter your account info?

Yes. They do verify the account info with the bank, so don't even think about it

=) ya ya ya

Washington Mutual
www.wamu.com Free checks, online bill pay & more Enroll 100% online. No monthly fee!

Also Compass Bank and Chase Bank offer free ATM fees world wide. You can go to any ATM in the world wide and the bank will refund you the atm fee if you use an atm that is not theirs. So that is a great deal beause when I first started to travel to the UK I used get F over with $7-20 ATM fees every time I needed to get cash out. So these banks are good for when you travel allot and use the ATM in places that dont accept check cards to make payments.

Now a days though, many people just use their check card to pay for everthing. Checks are starting to be a thing of the past. Good luck I hope you find what you need.

I would like to say to people beware of US banks Hidden charges. When they say free checking they do not mean free checks. Most will give you free checks when you open the account then charge you for the next ones. This happened to me and when i said that it was a free checking account they said "oh but that doesn't included the checks". then when i argued that it wasn't free checking then they change there statement and said the checks don't come from them, even though i got an invoice from the bank and it appeared on my statement.
As far as overdraft charges they will manipulate your checks and debit card payments to get higher charges from you, a practise which is now illegal in europe. Banks in the UK are now refunding Bank charges for the last four years because of this.
Also online banking in the US is pretty useless to. It will take 3 business days to tranfer funds from one bank to another. The money will dissappear from one account on the first day but will not appear in the other account for another 3 days ( I wonder where that money is LOL). I think you'll find this is another practise not allowed in europe anymore.

The best rule of thumb to work by is that the banks here in the US are about 25 years behind Europe

Tony

I'd just like to add that I know BoA are cr@p - I can't speak for other US banks but my OH has had so many issues with his bank charging him for stupid reasons, showing he has money in the bank when he doesn't, not clearing things in time, saying there isn't money when there is... so much BS

When I consider I got charged twice by my bank for a bouncing cheque that was actioned twice (not by them) yet they still refunded me one of the charges (after I showed I had actually transferred money from my savings to cover the cheque the second time). Craziness!

Yes, all "Free Checking" means is that they don't charge you a monthly fee to have the account open. To most people in the UK the idea of having to pay a monthly fee to have a bank account is patently ridiculous, but here its only recently becoming less than the norm.

Yes, BOA are well known for doing this, and I believe have been successfully sued for it.


Yes, but on the other hand I can deposit a check and withdraw it 10 seconds later, in the UK you have to wait 3 days for the check to clear normally.

Apart from the online stuff (clearly banks had no websites 25 years ago!), this is a pretty far comment.

I think this is a case of rose-tinted spectacles... have you tried paying a credit card online in the UK recently? 3 business days. Or how about transferring funds to a different bank? At least 3 business days. Oh, and did you try cashing a cheque recently? 5 business days to fully clear. In fact, the only thing I can do with online banking instantly is transfer money between accounts at the same bank. Great fun, but the appeal wears off quickly.

The fact is that ALL banks will drag transactions through, as your money makes money for the bank while it is in transit. Simple. With today's computerized banking systems there is absolutely no reason for these things to take the time that they do. The banks impose the wait times so that they can make money from your money while ensuring that you can't access it.

But, then again, I still believe that the US government is developing weapons based on technology taken from the Roswell crash sites. That's what comes from being part of the X-Files generation...