Comments on: Your Take: What Do You Look For in a Bank or Credit Union?

By: hoht

hoht — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:43:39 +0000

Credit Union all the way… until I get older.

By: CK

CK — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:50:57 +0000

This is true but I use ATMs for deposits and it’s my understanding you can’t do that at most “generic” ATMs.

By: CK

CK — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:45:31 +0000

They actually pay for your rewards by charging merchants a higher percentage on each transaction. So it’s no problem for the bank.

By: JimmyDaGeek

JimmyDaGeek — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:29:41 +0000

I’ve started playing the interest rate game, as a new bank comes online. But my banking is done with a B&M bank where I’ve had a free checking account forever, for the convenience of depositing checks and ATM access. I use ING for all my bill paying and my main savings account. ING’s bill pay has gotten a bit more expensive in that they take a week to send a check, but since I don’t pay postage, I won’t complain too hard. Although ING has free ATM access, you have to look it up on the computer to find them, while my B&M ATM is just up the street and easily found.

By: paystolivegreen

paystolivegreen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:59:52 +0000

I look for the same criteria with both a checking and savings account. With a checking account, one thing that I do like is availability of the bank. I hate having to drive out of the way just to get some cash or deposit money into my account.

By: AndyG

AndyG — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:34:04 +0000

Why do you people consistently ignore Discover Bank ? Their current online savings rate is 1.6, which beats yor Ally by .11

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:09:46 +0000

Trust me, they are still making money off of your card transactions. They will not pay you unless the cards are in their favor.

By: Revanche

Revanche — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:42:45 +0000

I’m really picky about my banking needs, which is probably why I’m still using three different banks to cover them:

ATM access
Reasonable B&M hours (9-4 is not reasonable. *cough* Citibank!)
Full online access
Savings subaccounts, easily linkable
Reasonable hold on deposit/withdrawal policies.
Competitive interest rates

I’m looking forward to finding a bank that provides all of the above services so I can consolidate my accounts again.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:04:31 +0000

ATMs a very important when choosing a bank for your checking account. I made the mistake of using an online bank that had a lot of ATMs but none of them are convienient to my normal routine. It has ended up costing me more in ATM fees then I could ever hope to earn in interest from having the account online.

Another thing to consider is hold periods on deposits. My online bank holds even my direct deposits for three days do it makes getting at my money hard sometimes.

By: Ken

Ken — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:22:43 +0000

I like friendly faces when choosing a brick and mortar bank. I also insist on online access to my accounts. Anything less is caveman-like. I also like a bank thay makes efficiency a priority. I don’t like hoops to jump through.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:36:00 +0000

My checking account is with the local credit union because their customer service is excellent. I use their free online bill pay service and write possibly 12 to 18 checks a year.

By: Shirley

Shirley — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:23:47 +0000

Ah, but you do… word of mouth adverting is hard to come by these days.

By: pmulroy

pmulroy — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:40:37 +0000

#1: Don’t nickel and dime me with fees
#2: Offer a competitive rate for savings accounts

Btw Jim, I’m not sure I buy the whole support local credit unions because they reinvest in your community line. Big national banks don’t just keep your money sitting on their balance sheets,they loan it out (“reinvest”) it the same way your local credit union does. Granted its a much larger “community” so your deposited dollars may be loaned out to someone across the country, but at the same time, dollars that were deposited across the country may end up being loaned out to your neighbor. In the end it is a wash and you can’t really claim big national banks don’t support your community.

By: TheArabicStudent

TheArabicStudent — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:09:21 +0000

For a brick and mortar bank/credit union I want a place that doesn’t charge stupid fees and is close to my house or workplace. I go with Navy Federal. I don’t care so much about interest rates because the bulk of my money is in the stock market or online savings account.

By: eric

eric — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:34:57 +0000

Convenience/customer service/interest rate. I guess the normal things people look at.