Recommend me a good online checking account

Fristle

I'm shopping for a new online checking account, just in case the recent buyout of my old bank (NetBank bought out by EverBank) turns out badly. Also my wife hates NetBank and I'm tired of being nagged about it. Basically she has just had one long string of bad experiences since she joined them, even though they've been good to me.

What I'm looking for:

• VISA Debit card access
• Free online bill payment system
• Free online e-bill aggregation system (integrated with bill payment)
• Good customer service
• Quick availability on deposited funds
• I don't want to bank with an unethical institution
• Good geek sensibilities & usability on their website: Quicken/MS Money compatibility, webforms that don't look like ass, alerts sent to email or SMS
• No stupid fees, especially no ATM fees
• Interest checking (2-3% would be nice) is a plus

Assume for the time being that I don't care about savings & investment accounts -- I'm just shopping for a good place to operate my checking account. I also don't care about branch locations, I want to do all my banking with a plastic card, an ATM network and a website.

At this point I don't believe I am eligible for a credit union through my place of employment, nor am I eligible for USAA unfortunately.

I am in the DC / NoVA area, for what it's worth.

FYI, previous PA forum posts about banks:

• Unhappy with M&T Bank
• Screwed by NSF fee at Commerce Bank (also in this thread, Wells Fargo, Wilmington Trust, and others are disparaged)
• Banks vs Credit Unions where someone says they are satisfied with Bank of America customer service

Anyone have an opinion on Electric Orange from ING Direct?

Iceman.USAF

If you have someone in your family in the military, I'd suggest USAA. Great people. You do unfortunately need to have some military association to join though (I believe).

DoctorArch

Iceman.USAF wrote: »

If you have someone in your family in the military, I'd suggest USAA. Great people. You do unfortunately need to have some military association to join though (I believe).

Out here in the West, Washington Mutual seems to be a good all-around bank that has never screwed me over in the ten years I've banked with them.

Otherwise, I'd stick with a credit union.

Etelmik

Yeah, Wamu has a lot of those but without the interest. I'm happy with them.

tachyon

Iceman.USAF wrote: »

If you have someone in your family in the military, I'd suggest USAA. Great people. You do unfortunately need to have some military association to join though (I believe).

I second USAA (if you have a military connection)

They recently added the capability to deposit your checks via the website (just need a scanner) and the money is instantly available. This answered the only problem I had with them. (you had to mail in the checks before)

Fristle

Replying to my own thread because I found an article with some great suggestions and others may find it helpful too:

http://www.andrewswihart.net/blog/killer-checking-and-savings-deals

Kyougu

I been with Bank of America for a while now, and I never had any problems. I use their online banking for paying bills, transferring funds and just checking on things, and never had a problem with them.

Serphimera

I use USBank. They have all of the features you are looking for. Every time I've had a problem they fixed me right up with minimal difficulty.

RocketScience

Kyougu wrote: »

I been with Bank of America for a while now, and I never had any problems. I use their online banking for paying bills, transferring funds and just checking on things, and never had a problem with them.

BoA has a monthly fee if you don't have direct deposit into the account set up. They also don't pay any interest on checking accounts as far as I know.

I'd have a look at HSBC.

Rabid_Llama

RocketScience wrote: »

Kyougu wrote: »

I been with Bank of America for a while now, and I never had any problems. I use their online banking for paying bills, transferring funds and just checking on things, and never had a problem with them.

BoA has a monthly fee if you don't have direct deposit into the account set up. They also don't pay any interest on checking accounts as far as I know.

I'd have a look at HSBC.

I'd like to point out that if you have their student account there is no monthly fee. I am pretty happy with my BoA account.

Shazkar Shadowstorm

Hmm, I dunno if it meets all your demands, but you could check out ING Direct. Although I do know they use MasterCard instead of Visa.