ive been banking at evans since i was 14 and had a paper route. theyre nice people, and i can use any key bank atm for free if i withdraw over $100, which i usually do. their online banking is really well done imho
hmm. Maybe ESL and the ING direct one might work. UGHHH
I had been planning to switch for a while because I was fed up with the, “next quarter our debit cards will be real time” thing for the past 2 years. When HSBC gave WNY the middle finger with the whole tower thing it motivated me to make the jump. Switching your primary bank is a PITA, but it was worth it. Much happier now at M&T. As far as service at my local branches HSBC had always treated me well.
Word. The One HSBC project which was going to bring the new world standard deposit systems to the US Bank, and included realtime debit, new online interface, and all of that stuff, was another team in my department. Senior management delayed it 3 times for AML/compliance issues and then finally shitcanned it when they announced the strategic review. Our demand deposit system is from the early 70’s and built off of SABRE, American Airlines’ old reservation system.
I have no min balance at BOA. with direct deposit there is no charges totally free. ESL is the credit union I use, the banking there sucks balls. They ask me is I want to open a checking account there every time I walk in.
Guys, you are morons.
If someone robs your bank and you have all of your $1,000 in one place, you’ll be broke.
I personally use 5 banks for my $1,000. I keep $250 in two banks in GA, $300 in NY and $200 in CA. That way its pretty un-freaking-likely that some spree robber is going to get all of my $1000.
See, this guy gets it. :tup:
Except how will you buy a car in Canada since none of those banks are Canadian?
I use BoA for my checking. I have had no complaints over the last ~7 years I’ve been with them. I find most people with BoA complaints have user error problems.
I have the platinum privileges nonsense on my checking accounts although I always had good service before I had that… so…
I do wish they had electronic check deposit, that’s a great feature they won’t have until 2013 (last I heard). Their bill pay, transfer(inter and intra) and general online capabilities are great, far above lots of other places.
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I don’t speak French, I can’t drive a Canadian car, duh.
interesting topic… i’d like to move it to network if you gents are okay with that.
i used to be solely with a credit union but added TD to the mix becuase they have branches everywhere and they are open until 8pm. bankers hours are fucking retarded… 9-4:30 jobs should be banned.
i’m still with my credit union but will gradually switch everything away from them and into TD / RBC. I base this solely on dealing with them corporately and being really impressed with their corporate culture and genuine client-first perspective. My mortgage is up next year, it will be switched, and i just got life ins. wtih RBC.
interest rates are irrelevant as far as i’m concerned because you’re talking about fractions of a percent on 5 figure balances… if you’ve got more than that in the bank (not invested in a business or other) then you’re wasting your money anyways.
I keep a BOA account just for convenience in the US. No issues thus far after a few years.
Exactly why I didn’t post in network wide. I guess I don’t care if you move it now, I just didn’t want to get it cluttered with banks that weren’t really applicable.
Feel free to make a Canadian version of this though, haha
for the record, i see no issue in expecting HSBC to be able to conenct your accounts between countries… the fact that they can’t is sillier than you not wanting to walk around with however many hundreds or thousands to buy a car.
i also don’t keep everything in one bank simply because i want the leverage against each bank to switch on no notice for anything that doesnt suit my fancy. You should always have more than one relationship. My credit union didnt want to budge on thier mortgage rate so they lost my mortgage… FUU and your policies… i have my own policies, i couldnt give two shits about a banks policy.
anyways, in almost all cases, not just with banks (and exclusive of marriage pretty much) you should have a second option on the go. Having just one bank is like having just one car… which would be totally unreasonable. 
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you know that 4 of the top ten US banks are now Canadian and they’re gobbling up US banks on the regular right?
hey’re numebr 7,8,9 and 10 respectively as of 2009… probably higher now since RBC, TD and BMO each made acquisitions since then.
I love and hate you all from one post.
fuck.
Carry on…
I am in the process of switching my main account away from HSBC for several reasons:
- Slow Service. I experience this here in Binghamton at many of the branches. The people have been helpful, just spent a lot of time waiting on many occasions.
- Fees. The fees for things are outrageous. About 5 years ago I got hit with an overdraft fee that ended up bring over $250 because I check didn’t clear that was deposited 2 days before. Several small transactions on my card of less than $10 each, ended up with $39 overdraft fee on each one.
- Online account access. Pretty primitive, and while I was able to get proficient with it, I found other banks better.
- Fraud Alerts. I recently had my card shut off because they thought a $38 purchase at Amazon was suspicious. They shut it off on a friday and I didn’t have use of it for the weekend. They also said they tried me at both numbers on file, but one of them is my cell phone, and I had no messages, or any missed calls from odd numbers. Only realized it when I checked my email when I got back sunday night.
So I am currently using 2 Credit Unions. One for buying/selling stuff, and one for personal stuff. I like VisionsFCU, which is based here, but expanding into the Rochester market. They have very easy to use interface, and transfers between accounts are instant even on weekends (Unlike HSBC which could take a day or two.) They also gave me an awesome loan rate for my car (2% lower than the previous rate) and I am in the process of Refinancing my house, and am able to go from a 30yr (2 yrs in) to a 15 yr, which keeps the same payment, with half the interest rate. This is a huge win in my book, since it translates into almost $100k in interest savings along (plus <15 year are held by Visions and not sold.) Everyone we have talked to in the branches has been wonderful and they just installed a bunch of ATMs that don’t need envelops for deposits and also the picture deposits as well.
Give them a look if you are interested in them. I believe the min deposit is like $25
Just so you know, this is pretty standard, even with credit unions (I work for a company that provides the software to run a credit union). Your best bet is getting an overdraft account set up. If you don’t have enough money to overdraft into a savings get an overdraft line of credit. M&T does it with a credit card, as do a lot of other places. Some places will open an overdraft line of credit instead (basically an open end loan). Both function the same, giving the processor another funding source to tap into to clear your purchases. Either way the fees on dipping into your own overdraft account are way less than the fees that come with taking your account negative.
Anyone use western division credit union for banking?
Moving to M&T myself. I am annoyed they told me they had an android app yet it turns out they don’t YET. 8/
I don’t care a ton about the lack of an app I’d hardly use anyhow. Debating on opening with BAC as well and then ditching the one I like less.
Im happy with my free account from MT
overdraft issues become irrelevant when you decide to stop being broke. fyi.
and no disrespect, but other than a technical glitch or some other anomoly there’s no excuse for that.
You must be forgetting that a lot of people [on this site] are working minimum wage jobs with a close ratio of cash in vs cash out. It’s only been the past couple years where I had at least 1k in the bank at all times. before that I would hover constantly around $100 or less. Mind you, I still kept damn close track but some people suck at life regardless of how much or how little they have.
And not for nothing I am poor too, I got this report thing from the IRS and the most I ever made was like $37k in '05 or '06, since then I have been back in school for the most part making <$20k/yr. Someday I’ll finish this damn college tour I am on.
but all that nonsense is for another thread…
I’ve always found it shocking how people get overdraft fees and then act like a victim. I do think the fee amounts are unfair but like you said, if you live within your means you shouldn’t have any issues. And we all know the penalties are substantial…so there is BIG motivation to be sure you don’t overdraft in the first place. I also find it funny people that get mad they are paid bi-weekly instead of every week. Almost all bills come out monthly, not weekly. If you can’t take the same amount 2x per month instead of 4x you need to learn money management skills and stop living paycheck to paycheck.
PS. I think I’m doing Bank of America after all as 2nd/backup bank.