New Bank
July 31st, 2010, 6:31pm by MikeIn case anybody’s looking for a new bank, we’re in the process of switching from our friendly neighborhood bank to Schwab’s High Yield Investor Checking for our main checking account, and so far, so good. Read on if you’re curious.
Our old bank has served us fairly well since I moved to Boston in 2001 — it’s a small local bank that has about 12 branches around Boston, and it happened when we joined that they were focused mainly on the Red Line, which meant that we passed several every day in our travels through Somerville and Cambridge. Since we now live on the Green Line, there’s one branch near us, which is about a 15 minute walk, and we don’t pass it in the normal course of life. Also, they’re at about the 1950 level when it comes to service — they are totally confused by the fact that you might need money when outside the USA, and several of our landlord-related transactions have had them completely befuddled.
So I read up last weekend on online banks, and looked into a few. Ally Bank seemed like it was fairly well-regarded, and I’d heard them “underwriting” (aka advertising) on NPR. I was a little leery when I found that they’re the new GMAC (i.e., Ally was formed from the ashes of GM’s empire). Then I started looking for reviews, and there are some really bad ones about difficulties trying to get money out of there.
I also checked out INGDirect and HSBC, which looked OK. ING’s problem was that their ATMs are all located in 7-Elevens and gas stations, which is kinda gross, and HSBC only refunds the first 3 ATM transactions per month.
I checked out a few more, and finally landed on Charles Schwab’s High-Yield Investor Checking. It’s not that high yield (0.5%), but there are no fees, no minimum balances, full refunds of all ATM fees everywhere (even internationally!), and it’s an institution I’d heard of before. When you set up an account there, they require you to open (but not use, or fund) a Charles Schwab brokerage account, and this can be used as overdraft protection (i.e., you can borrow on margin if necessary for overdraft protection). And it’s a normal checking account — not a money market that has limits (typically $250) on checkwriting, or a limit on the number of checks per month.
The drawbacks — it’s all online, which means that deposits are made by mail (or via ETF or direct deposit), and there’s no real branch for any services. However, there’s a Charles Schwab brokerage office about 2 miles down the street from me, and even though the bank and brokerage arms are separate, they’ve been very helpful in helping me set up the bank stuff.
Also, unlike Wainwright, they’re fully integrated with Quicken, even the Mac version (2006) that I use.
August 9th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Had no idea that some banks are now allowing check deposits by sending them a scan (or mobile phone photo!) of the check! Makes sense, I guess, just seems so terribly insecure somehow (though probably isn’t as bad as it seems). Here’s a list of some banks that offer it (Schwab doesn’t, nor do most other banks you’ve heard of, apparently).
August 10th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Yeah, that’s really cool. Although it does seem weird that you are still in possession of the check after it’s been deposited. Seems like there should be a way to eliminate the physical check altogether, if only the banks would interoperate. I can send a sum of money directly from my account to any other Wells Fargo customer’s account (no bill pay, no check changes hands). But only within the same back and with a limit ($1000). I don’t get the apparent paranoia. What are they afraid of?