Best Bank

[mcginnis]

I was wondering what is the most preferred bank out there? I only use mine for the debit card ie. online shopping and the like but, my friend said that my bank sucks. :lol: I'm with woodforest right now and don't really see a problem other than them charging 12 bucks a year to have a debit card.

Was thinking of going to another bank but, any suggestions or personal experiences?

[ckrazy]

Go ask Bunk he works at a bank... might be a little basis but hey at least he would know.

[The Chief]

Go ask Bunk he works at a bank... might be a little basis but hey at least he would know.

He will be. Bank employees don't study other banks.

The best he could do is give you information about his bank and then share whatever general knowledge he has on specific banks.

If you asked me I'd ask you what area of banking are you focused on. You'd have to know the purpose and goals you have for opening an account. Banks change their specialties almost daily. There's always something new that will usually attract lots of customers. Then after a month or so that feature fades and they come up with a new feature (that is usually a variant of a feature another back used to get customers).

None-the-less, banks tend to have their specialties that stand out over their competitors. One bank may offer the best interest rates and other banks may offer the best currency trade system.

It all depends on what you are looking to do when you open your account. Then you'd have to do the research and compare each banks strength in that particular area.

[RockBogart]

Wachovia is probably the best overall. There is no waiting period for getting your money back on fraudulent charges and they have the best customer service.

Bank of America is a close second. But if you don't like supporting the Saudi Royal Family, don't bother banking with them.

BB&T and SunTrust are distant thirds.

[mcginnis]

I only plan on doing small things like what I'm doing now. I only deposit and use a debit card. :sweat: That's pretty much it. I think my friends bank is Wachovia, probably would be a good choice for me. I'll wait a month or so to decide cause I have been with woodforest for close to 5 years now.

[Demon Dash]

Surely there'll be a comparison site out there somewhere, that's a good place to start...

[RockBogart]

I only plan on doing small things like what I'm doing now. I only deposit and use a debit card. :sweat: That's pretty much it. I think my friends bank is Wachovia, probably would be a good choice for me. I'll wait a month or so to decide cause I have been with woodforest for close to 5 years now.

Wachovia also deals with high yield savings and investing. Just something to think about when you start making the big money.

[Shin-Mech-Brian]

I'm really happy with Washington Mutual. I've been a customer of theirs since 2002, and that's about 6 years long than any other bank I've been with: Wells Fargo & B of A.

[EveryFlowerFlow]

2nd'd for WaMu.

[Wild Kitty]

Try to look up some small, local credit/financial unions in your area/state as well. Those typically have excellent customer service because of the small member base and will yield pretty high interest rates. I know in CT the Sikorsky Financial Credit Union is one of the better banks to be a member of. They have reasonable interest rates on loans and actually have I think one of the highest return rates on deposited money in the entire state. The biggest problem with smaller banks is the fact that you won't have many bank-associated ATM's around to withdraw money from with your ATM, so you might be facing a little fee when you go to take money out. The Sikorsky Credit Union that I'm a part of counteracts this by not charging you for taking money out of other people's ATM's and will in fact pay for the terminal charge up to 4 times each month. So you take your cash out for the week that you know you'll need and you don't have anything to worry about.

[Warrior's Dreams]

What are people's opinion's of Chase and WaMU? We've had people from Chase show up before and I was wondering if anyone has any opinion on them.

[mcginnis]

^that's a great av. :rofl:

I'm a little stuck between Wamu and Wachovia. I may look at their sites later to see the difference but right off the bat, do you know them?

[Ducky]

I like Bank of America... I've been with them since 2000. USAA is the best bank out there, but only available to military personnel and their families, IIRC.

[Night]

All banks are for the most part the same to the average person if you don't have money issues and keep a healthy balance e.g. > $10,000 at all times because maintaining that usually gets no overdrafting, no minimum balance fees, etc. If you're a responsible enough to maintain that, the difference between banks is then things like ATM location convenience, bank hours, interest rates, mortgage loan rates, and any bonus point stuff through using their credit cards.