What's the best bank?

[Veronik 19]

General question to ya'll (yep, the southern accent is creeping in...)

What bank do you think offers the best service, and is just generally better? I want to go open a checking account, and it seems like there's a different bank every corner here, I just don't know which one to go to...

- Village Bank

- Wachovia

- Bank of America

- First Market

- BB&T

- Union First Market

It's just so confusing! Any thoughts?

[Kimbear 53]

based on my and hubby's experience, he was with chase and charter one. he always had issues getting things fixed, getting a ton of service charges for nothing, getting any money back. the best was when the machine up in canada ate his card, and he was scrwed for a month cuz they wont issue a new pin number. it was not like in canada where we just go in and change it.

now we are with bank of america. it's one of the big banks so it wont go kaput like the smaller ones. i find they are very friendly on phone and in bank, i can always get an answer to my question, and i absolutely love the online system for bill payments etc, i also love the keep the change program. it's where you make purchases, and they round the amount up to the next dollar, and put the difference in your savings account. great for me as i have a hard time saving. they will also contribute a max of 250$ each year to your account, they match whatever you put in and already we have saved up 200$ since may just by using out debit card.

we have checking savings with them, and no fees or anything, was super easy to get the join account too. OH and they have no issue taking your Canadian checks

Edited October 1, 2010 by Kimbear

[Flames9_RN 359]

Love USAA---but someone along the line I believe has had to be in the military or govt service of certain types!! We piggybacked off my wifes parents, who piggybacked off her grandparents,lol We pay no fees for any of our accts, free cheques, and I love that i can scan my cheques from HOME and it gets deposited into my acct (dont even have to mail the cheques in!!) Of course their is noactual store, so all is done online! If I have plain old cash to deposit, I can mail it in--in postage paid envelopes they provide, but normally I just deposit it into my Suntrust acct and tx the money to USAA or the rainy day fund in ING. Not a big Suntrsut fan---only have an acct with them, as we have our mortgage thru them!

[ghanagal 2]

Bank of America is good. Very little fees, especially if you go with direct deposit or open the account online. I have had them for a long time and love them!

[tru_loves_journey 117]

Hi, Bank Of America is very good. Overdraft fee's ? ( $10.00 or less they dont charge you like most banks) Most banks charge $30 -$35 even when u overdraft by $1, makes me mad! Bank Of America also offers a "Keep The Change Program" where they actually give you money! My experience with this bank has been very good. Make sure you go see all they offer on their website..Us Southern folks are all about saving some money lol..

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Wells Fargo is the best "standard" bank that I've found. Wells Fargo will charge you no bank fees as long as you open a savings account as well and set up an automatic transfer (minimum was $25 a month when I signed up). Once a month (on a date you designated when you signed up) they will transfer the set amount (I picked $25 'cause I don't have a job) from your checking account to your savings account. You can transfer the money right back to checking if you need it. If there isn't enough money for the transfer it won't go through, still no bank fees. If you overdraw your account they will charge you $10 and transfer funds to cover it from your savings account. I have no complaints and my banker was lovely (I say was 'cause I was in TX when I signed up and am now in IA and have no set banker).

USAA is the best bank of them all from everything I've heard, but the lack of physical bank hurts it's rating in my opinion.

Mostly I would find out if the bank you're choosing charges for withdrawals (at stores, online, cheques, etc), and whether there are lots of ATM's/banks in your area. Wells Fargo just joined Wachovia and now are using all their ATM's so that's a plus. There are a lot of small banks but you need to make sure you pick a bank that isn't just state/town specific.

[charlesandanna 2]

Bank of America is not that great. The overdraft fees are $35 per transaction. If you have more than one outstanding transaction, they will apply them so as to maximize the overdraft fees. If you track your account line, transactions disappear for a while between pending and being committed. This means your balance can be radically different than what shows. Some transactions will take days to move from a placeholder amount ($1) until the real amount shows up. Restaurant tips can take up to 2 weeks to show up. They put unreasonable holds on cheques that are clearly valid (student loans, etc.). I will be looking for an alternative upon my arrival--maybe a credit union.

[FireKari 4]

We have bank of america military and we love it.

I was told to never use wachovia, apparently they suck in PA or something?

[nickbits 43]

I have BoA for my checking and Chase credit cards, I have no issue with either. If I was starting now I probably would give Chase checking a try since they have the iPhone check deposit feature. BoA has a mint.com like feature where you can keep track of all your accounts, which is pretty good.

[Kimbear 53]

Bank of America is not that great. The overdraft fees are $35 per transaction. If you have more than one outstanding transaction, they will apply them so as to maximize the overdraft fees. If you track your account line, transactions disappear for a while between pending and being committed. This means your balance can be radically different than what shows. Some transactions will take days to move from a placeholder amount ($1) until the real amount shows up. Restaurant tips can take up to 2 weeks to show up. They put unreasonable holds on cheques that are clearly valid (student loans, etc.). I will be looking for an alternative upon my arrival--maybe a credit union.

that can be an issue with ANY bank, its not the banks fault, that is the store or gas station who only proccesses transactions once a day or more. we had that issue with a range rover gas station, it was because they only post the transactions ONCE A WEEK..needless to say we stopped going to that gas station.

and anyways, you should be monitoring this with your check book and balance it if you want to stay current. Every bank has overdraft fees, however you can set it up so that they will never authorize an overdraft, and well if you bounce a check that is yer own fault lol.

you can go here to check / compare bank rates etc with most banks:

http://www.bankrate.com/

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Wachovia (which will soon be Wells fargo anyway) seems fine here in VA.

I would go with whoever can offer you a no fee chequing account which doesn't require a minimum balance to be maintained since that's what you'll use most anyway. Savings account don't garner you much interest these days no matter where you go - it's basically a spot to put money...as long as they have no fees.

Check out who has the most branches in your area if you like to withdraw cash at the bank machine - might as well be doing it at your bank's own machines to avoid fees. I so seldom do it.

Wachovia posts debit or VISA/debit transactions right away even if they are pending so your total balance is always correct...I areally like that about them.

PS: get overdraft protection if you think you'll need it - avoid the headaches. They can do overdraft that pulls from Savings too

[warlord 73]

Wells Fargo is the best "standard" bank that I've found. Wells Fargo will charge you no bank fees as long as you open a savings account as well and set up an automatic transfer (minimum was $25 a month when I signed up). Once a month (on a date you designated when you signed up) they will transfer the set amount (I picked $25 'cause I don't have a job) from your checking account to your savings account. You can transfer the money right back to checking if you need it. If there isn't enough money for the transfer it won't go through, still no bank fees. If you overdraw your account they will charge you $10 and transfer funds to cover it from your savings account.

I never had a savings from Wells Fargo and never got charged ever for any bank fees. I just recently opened up a savings account a few months ago after having a Wells Fargo account for the past 12-13 or so years. So maybe I'm under some old rules or something. Either way, never had an issue with Wells Fargo, and ATM machines are pretty common around the nation too...

[Canadiandggal 49]

we have had wachocia, M&t and Usaa, I happen to love m&t so far, wachovia we have had problems with but they have always been easy to solve and wachocia will be the first person to say they screwed up. They have great customer service and willl do anything to keep you will them.

[Flames9_RN 359]

Its truly a hard question to answer! We had Wachovia in the Arlington and falls Church area, and they were not that great! Was a pain in the butt when it came to closing the account too! Like anything else, all comes down to the how the branches are staffed

I'm sure if you do a google search like--best bank account, best bank etc, you will come up with a website that breaks down the fees, etc like this one http://www.findabetterbank.com/

USAA i believe has softened its stance on how to join! Yes, some like to be able to go into a bank, But they are great on the phone. We have our insurance with them as well.

Suntrust has been ok to deal with. Since we have our mortgage with them, we pay no fees for chequing acct, think our safety deposit box is free or heavily discounted and they are fairly friendly! But no clue what their fees are if you don't have a mortgage thru them

[Veronik 19]

Wow, thank you so much everyone!

My husband has a Wachovia account, and it seems like his check book and the actual balance are never the same, he always has to figure out what't not on there yet, and it's a real pain in the butt. I thought that the banking system here would be more 'advanced' that in Quebec, but from the Wachovia point of view, doesn't seem like it is... AND, his cousin works in a branch, and she told her grandma that she can see every account of everyone in the family!!! What a b... So, I don't want to go with them for that reason mainly...

I think I'll try Bank of America, since you can apply online for an account, right?

Thanks again for all the tips and suggestions!