question about ATM fees at area banks for non-account holders

[dabroots]

I'll probably open an account at Citizens Bank, because comments on other posts regarding local banks seem to to lean toward it as being the most customer-friendly

Comments

[bhudson]

National City has been OK for me, except for their tendency (that I've heard from more than one friend and have experienced first-hand) to screw up cheque orders -- as in, I once got cheques in my name joint with some random woman's name I've never heard of, at my address, with presumably her account number. Which is terrifying.

Citizens never hurt me, but I haven't dealt with them in a decade (they were my bank when I lived in Providence).

BofA collected on me when I closed an account with them over their trying to charge fees because my balance wasn't zero because at the last minute they deposited $0.20 of interest. Until I got federal and state authorities involved, they couldn't fix the problem. They also deposited a $100 cheque as a $1000 cheque, and refused to admit anything was wrong (the recipient of the cheque -- Discover -- fixed the problem pronto and apologized heartily for what was clearly a clerical error). I will never do business with BofA again.

There are tons of internet banks too, that you might want to look at; generally they have better interest rates and lower fees.

[amand_r]

I highly recommend ING Direct's savings accounts. The interest is like mad high.

[dabroots]

ING is a new one for me. What is it? Do they have many branches? But what about checking accounts with them?

[bhudson]

They're an internet bank -- they have zero branches. Everything is done electronically, except for cheque deposits which are done by mail (which always kind of scared me; one could get a local el-cheapo checking account for that purpose, and do electronic transfers to the internet-bank account).

[dabroots]

I think I've heard of them. For the foreseeable future, though, I kind of need to have a physical bank where I can deposit checks. How do you withdraw cash? I'm assuming they have agreements with numerous ATM companies, but what kind of fee is charged?

[bhudson]

Typically the arrangement is that you get reimbursed your ATM fees, up to some reasonable amount, so you can just use whatever ATM you happen to trip on while walking around town. Dunno about ING Direct in particular, but even National City has started offering this. For deposits, as I was saying, one option is to have a small checking account at a physical bank (many banks have a free option), and use that to deposit physical cheques into. Then you transfer money out of that account to your internet bank with $$$ interest rates.

I'm lazy, so I just use the brick-and-mortar Nat City. Some friends of mine trust the USPS enough and use only their internet bank.

[dabroots]

Hmm. Okay. Well, this is good to know. I have a couple of checks sitting here that I'd like to deposit, but I don't want to mail them to Texas, especially considering that my otherwise nifty-keen bank there doesn't believe in deposit slips, so I'd just be mailing them down there with my endorsement and account number on the back of them--not secure enough.

[amand_r]

ING is huge online. They don't have branches per se, and all your transactions are done online. The interest rate is like 5.5 on savings accounts because they have no branch overhead.