Unless you’re a caveman, you probably put your money in some type of bank. You may stash your money with a mega-corporate bank (aka The Man). In that case you likely pay fees for your bank to hold onto and useyour money or you jump through hoops to make sure you avoid stupid fees from said institution.
I consider myself a bit of a bank connoisseur. Currently, we have five financial institutions at our disposal, and yes, that is too many. If it wasn’t for my rational wife, we’d have even more because I’m a bank addict (further confirming I’m an absolute nerd).
From purely anecdotal evidence, lots of people have banks they are moderately happy or even unhappy with, but they don’t know what their other options are or don’t have time to research new options. Friends, your banking problem is about to get solved.
Things I commonly hear from people with subpar banking experiences or from those rationalizing paying fees to bank:
- “My faceless, gimmicky, corporate, bloodsucking bank is everywhere, so I can always find an ATM.”
- “I’ve always had an account there, so it’s easier to stick with them.”
- “They have good technology.”
- “I have a credit card with them, so I might as well have my bank with them.”
I understand those statements, I just don’t agree with them. Now let’s debunk some myths.
“My faceless, gimmicky, corporate, bloodsucking bank is everywhere, so I can always find an ATM.”
If you use certain banks (like the-soon-to-be-mentioned Charles Schwab or Ally), every ATM is your ATM with no fees. That means Chase ATMs, Bank of America ATMs, and nameless ATMs in hole-in-the-wall restaurants are all free for you to use. Can your bank do that?
“I’ve always had an account there, so it’s easier to stick with them.”
It takes a half hour to set up a new account with Schwab online. Another 30-60 minutes to close an account with your old bank. Thirty more minutes and you’ve changed any automatic payments to your new account. Are you telling me 1½ to 2 hours to change to a good bank isn’t worth it, especially if you stick with that bank for the rest of your life?
“They have good technology.”
It’s 2012. Every bank except your local 3-branch, 1-teller piggybank has practically the same technology, you just don’t realize it. [If you still have an account with a small local bank, that’s great! We do too. It makes depositing cash easier when you need to do that if you use mostly online banks as we do. However, it’s really hard to use only a local bank, especially when living abroad, in which case said bank is no longer local].
“I have a credit card with them, so I might as well have my bank with them.”
It’s just as easy to pay a credit card from a different bank. It takes all of two minutes to set up a new payment account.
Are we on the same page now? Let’s break it down a bit further.
If you 1. pay a fee for a checking or savings account 2. pay a fee to have a credit card or debit card or 3. have to make 5-100 transactions per month or deposit $500+ via direct deposit each month into your account just to avoid a fee, your bank is lame.
Let me open your eyes to the beautiful world of my two favorite banks: Charles Schwab Bank and Ally Bank. We use Schwab for our day-to-day banking and debit card purchases, and we use an Ally Money Market Account (basically a savings account with checks and quick access to funds but a federally-regulated limited number of transactions) for our savings.
Here’s what rocks about Schwab:
- No ATM fees for any ATM in the whole-wide world
- If there is an ATM fee charged by the other bank, Schwab will reimburse your account at the end of the month
- Mobile deposit for checks
- 24/7 Customer Support all from the U.S. of A.
- Free checks for life
- Easy linking to a brokerage account or IRA
- The friendliest support you’ll ever get
- Free debit cards
- A trustworthy and reputable company that doesn’t try to scam you like most major corporate banks
- Amazing, in-depth online tools for researching investments
- Free bill pay to dispatch checks from online
- No hoops, no fees, no scummy or shady business practices
- App for iPhone and iPad
- $0 minimum and $0 monthly service fee
Honestly, what Schwab offers is seriously mind-blowing. If you are going to live abroad, there isn’t a better option than Schwab. Just last week I opened an IRA online with Schwab in a matter of 60 seconds. It’s too easy to do everything. I’m sure there are a few other things I’m missing from the list, but good grief, Charlie Brown, this bank rocks our socks off.
Here’s a link to read more about an open a High Yield Investor Checking account with Schwab.*
Here’s what Ally has to offer:
- Free checks for life
- Mobile deposit for checks
- 24/7 Customer Support all from the United States
- Free debit cards
- App for iPhone
- Online transfers to other Ally accounts you have and outside banks you use
- One of the best rates for a money market account at 0.85% (which is lame, but it’s the best of the lame)
- No minimum deposit to open
Ally has been great with customer service as well. One frustration was not being able to transfer funds online while being in Europe, so I’d have to call in to initiate a transfer (which we do two times per month, at each paycheck). This has since been fixed by being able to use their iPhone app to make transfers.
Here’s a link to find out more about an Ally Money Market account.
You’ll notice a trend between the two banks. Everything is free, they have constant, American support, and they offer the best services in the business.
So please, for the love of all that is good in banking, consider taking an hour or two out of your life to start making your banks for you, instead of you paying them to use your money.