Changing banks.

Helpless Rock

I've been at a local credit union that my mother worked at since my first bank account. Except, recently, my mom was fired pretty shittily, so she doesn't want me to be banking there anymore. I'm ok with switching banks because it is a bit awkward going in there after they fired my mom anyway.

My problem is in that I don't know were to change banks. My mom wants me change to another local bank, the bank they use, since there isn't any fees or anything and it's a strong local bank. I'm alright with that, except, I'm planning on moving out of state at the end of this year or early next year so I'd just end up having to change banks again when I move. So, right now I'm undecided on if I should just stick with the local until I move and change again into another local bank in the new city. Or if I should just go to Chase now and be done with it. I'm unsure on surcharges and stuff with Chase but I haven't really heard anything bad about them either, though I haven't really been listening. I like the idea of just going to Chase slightly better if just because I would have to change banks just once instead of twice when I move.

So, basically, my question is;

I need to change banks and am moving in a year; should I stay local or go to Chase? Or does it even matter?

travathian

I bank via a credit union that is home based a thousand miles away and the nearest branch 800 miles away. I rarely use ATMs as I pay most everything with a CC, but if I need cash I normally get cash back when I pay via debit for my groceries, so I have some in my wallet most of the time. If I need to deposit a check there are credit unions locally that do shared banking which I can make use of. Funds below a certain dollar value are available immediately, others have to go the normal day or two wait. Everything else I do via their online portal. Fuck Chase, Fuck BofA too.

Aioua

(I work for a small credit union)
My advise with banks, is to have one account with a large national place, for such situations as moving or traveling, but then also have an account with a small local place for day-to-day.
Generally, you never really need to go to the bank, until some crazy shit happens and they want you to come in person or sign for something or whatever, and if you can't get there it just creates headaches.

So if you had an account with say Chase, you can set that up where you currently are, move, and keep using the chases there while finding a new local place and getting everything transferred over at your leisure. Then, if you have to move again, or go travel someplace, you can put funds back into the chase account.
Just be sure to check and see if they'd charge you any inactivity fees or whatever. You should be able to find some type of account that can just sit there with a minimum balance.

VisionOfClarity

I found Chase's customer service to be a bit lacking. Chase is the company that told me they didn't care if my father died, and that while they could give us the information we needed they didn't want to. So yea, fuck them silly geese.

Somethingsaurus

Chase charges you if you don't use your card at least, I think, 3 times a month. Whenever I've been there I've waited at least 10 minutes inside or in the drive-in line.

Wiley

Bank of America may be a good option. They recently announced they were eliminating overdraft fees on debit purchases which, depending on your level of forgetfullness, could be a plus.

Aioua

Wiley wrote: »

Bank of America may be a good option. They recently announced they were eliminating overdraft fees on debit purchases which, depending on your level of forgetfullness, could be a plus.

Yeah, they only said that because there a new law coming into offect in the few months making it illegal for financial institutions to let a debit overdraw without the person opting in to that setup, in writing. For example, right now at the CU I work for the default is your account will go negative, and you can opt out of that. Before the law comes into effect, we'll have to send letters to every member asking them if they want to keep the overdrafts, and if we don't hear back it's turned off.

Wiley

Aioua wrote: »

Wiley wrote: »

Bank of America may be a good option. They recently announced they were eliminating overdraft fees on debit purchases which, depending on your level of forgetfullness, could be a plus.

Yeah, they only said that because there a new law coming into offect in the few months making it illegal for financial institutions to let a debit overdraw without the person opting in to that setup, in writing. For example, right now at the CU I work for the default is your account will go negative, and you can opt out of that. Before the law comes into effect, we'll have to send letters to every member asking them if they want to keep the overdrafts, and if we don't hear back it's turned off.

I should've known that it was something like that. I have a friend who is a bank manager and she said a major portion of their profits come from overdraft charges. They have people who make 60k a year that rack up six grand in overdraft fees annually.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

I know BoA gets bad press, but I've had them for about 10 years now and they've been great to me. Plus they're everywhere.

Joe Camacho MKII

My father and an uncle have a Chase Bank account, and indeed, they needs to make at least 3 operations a month to get get charged (The sad thing is, my uncle got the Chase Bank Account because he got tired of getting 10 dollars off the checks my father game him).

Depending where you are (And where you are going to move) I would recommend Wellsfargo, it's the Bank a cousin, an aunt and I use (I live in México, and it is the closest USA Bank from the Border from my nearest CBP Post), last time I opened my account, I only needed two IDs (Laser Visa and Mexican ID) and answered a couple of questions, gave 200 USD and they set me up 2 accounts, a savings account and a debit account.

They don't charge any fees, they only ask me to have at least 25USD dollars in my Debit Account to have transfered to my Savings Account (The transfer is automatic, so you don't have to do it yourself), the catch here is that once it's transfered to the savings account, you can just transfer it back to your debit account, in case you lack funds, all this operations can be done online.

Also, I went to the bank on a saturday to set up my account, and I got my debit card around 5 days later, in México!

The only thing I could say negatively about them, is that I have been told that, while Wellsfargo is common in Arizona, it doesn't have a lot of branches in other States, so YMMV.

Inquisitor77

There's always a trade-off between liquidity (i.e. access) and return. I use two banks. One is rather inaccessible, but gives me a good interest rate (comparatively) on my money. The other is Bank of America, which I use to auto-deposit my paycheck, withdraw from the ATM, pay bills, etc. Most of my short-term savings is in the former account, and I regularly siphon money from the BoA account into it. However, I do keep a minimum of several thousand dollars in the BoA account just in case.

I think it's a very nice balance of taking advantage of good interest rates when I can, and having ready access to cash when necessary. To use an extreme example, I've been working in Australia for the past 6 months, and because Bank of America has a relationship with Westpac, I've never had any problems with getting to my money.

xThanatoSx

I'll throw another vote on for Chase as your "large, easy to deal with money anywhere" bank... I had Wamu prior to them being bought - have had zero issues with Chase since they took over.

YMMV.