What a difference your choice of banks makes (don't choose Wells Fargo)

[Nutria]

I've been nothing but pleased with Chase, having two checking and two CC accounts with them.

1. They have branches near me, near where my daughter went for undergrad, and where she'll be living during grad school,
2. the web site is coherent, rational, and allows me to see checking and CC accounts in the same window, and
3. their customer services has been good whenever I call them to reverse something stupid I did, or to report a lost/stolen card.

[disneysteve]

I am charged $20 if I choose to transfer money to my capital one from BofA through their website. I have to generate the withdrawal on the other end or else i get charged a fee.

That’s true but it doesn’t bother me at all since it’s simple to just initiate the transfer from Ally in my case (or my daughter’s case) or Vanguard. If there was no way to avoid it I’d be upset about it.

[Nutria]

Also I am charged $20 if I choose to transfer money to my capital one from BofA through their website.

That's insane.

[Scallywag]

That’s true but it doesn’t bother me at all since it’s simple to just initiate the transfer from Ally in my case (or my daughter’s case) or Vanguard. If there was no way to avoid it I’d be upset about it.

A $20 transfer fee doesn't bother you? I'm sorry but you're going to encounter way more transfer of funds over your lifetime than you are to close a/cs because a loved one has passed away! What if Ally or Vanguard starts initiating transfer fees? Then what?

I think we should ask why anyone would do business with BOA, rather than with WF

We (DH & I) do two transfers to our respective brokerage a/c EACH every month to contribute to our ROTHs. That's a total of 26 transfers for each of us, or 52 transfers per year! If we banked with BOA, that would be a shocking $1040 in annual transfer fees alone!!! WTH......

Thanks but no thanks! I will stick with WF.

Thanks for the heads-up, LAL!

[disneysteve]

A $20 transfer fee doesn't bother you?

It bothers me as much as overdraft fees, late payment fees, and minimum balance fees which is not at all. I couldn't care less about user-generated fees banks charge because nobody ever has to pay them.

We (DH & I) do two transfers to our respective brokerage a/c EACH every month to contribute to our ROTHs. That's a total of 26 transfers for each of us, or 52 transfers per year! If we banked with BOA, that would be a shocking $1040 in annual transfer fees alone!!!

No. It would be $0. I do at least 2 transfers every month, one to Ally and one to Vanguard, and most months an additional one to Ally, so that's 36 transfers/year. It costs me nothing at all. I do the Ally transfers on their app. I do the Vanguard transfers on their website, which I need to sign into anyway when I do the transfer so that I can invest the funds. I wouldn't use BOA even if it was free because it would be an extra step in the process. I honestly didn't even know what BOA's transfer fee was until LAL mentioned it.

[scfr]

We've had lots of bank accounts over the years (I'm a bonus chaser, plus we've moved around) and have been happiest having a regional (vs a larger national or smaller local) bank as our primary personal bank, the one where we actually go in to the branch from time to time. They offer a nice balance of range of services, customer care, and sometimes better interest rates. Of course we also have on-line bank accounts and we will open accounts with local banks or credit unions if they offer a good interest rate on a CD.

Regarding fees, you have to check what the charges are and how to work around them. For example, since we're building a house I've had to do wire transfers. I learned that I pay a fee if I do a wire transfer from my MM account but get 1 free wire per month from my checking. Same bank, different accounts, different fee structure. And even though an in-bank transfer of funds looks instantaneous on-line, it's actually not. So I have to make sure the funds are moved to my checking account a couple days before I do a transfer (whilst avoiding going over the allowed number of transfers per month).

What Disneysteve is talking about is pulling funds vs pushing funds. I haven't encountered a situation where I can't avoid a fee by paying attention to where the transaction is initiated. It means I have to link the accounts via the trial deposits method (because I refuse to give one bank my log in credentials to another bank).

Is all of this a bit of a game and sometimes a real PITA. You bet. So I know the rules and play the game.

[disneysteve]

What Disneysteve is talking about is pulling funds vs pushing funds. I haven't encountered a situation where I can't avoid a fee by paying attention to where the transaction is initiated.

Also, at least with Vanguard, it's far better to do the transfer on their end. If I do it from the bank, I then have to wait a couple of days for it to get to Vanguard, then log into Vanguard once the transfer has processed to invest the funds. However, if I initiate it on Vanguard's site, the funds are immediately available to invest so I can get it done in one stop. The whole process take me less than 5 minutes.

Bottom line: I don't care about user-generated fees from financial institutions. Now if they start charging me a monthly fee for my checking account and there's no way to avoid it, I'd have a problem with that and would change banks. If a credit card started charging an annual fee and gave me nothing of value in return, I'd cancel the card. But fees that are 100% optional, I'm fine with that.

[Nutria]

We (DH & I) do two transfers to our respective brokerage a/c EACH every month to contribute to our ROTHs. That's a total of 26 transfers for each of us, or 52 transfers per year! If we banked with BOA, that would be a shocking $1040 in annual transfer fees alone!!! WTH......

If a push to your brokerage costs money, try a pull from your brokerage. (No brokerage in it's right mind charges ACH fees.)

[LivingAlmostLarge]

If a push to your brokerage costs money, try a pull from your brokerage. (No brokerage in it's right mind charges ACH fees.)

No I have to do pull with everything from Bank of America. Venmo, paypal, vanguard, TD ameritrade, chase, etc. I also got hit with $50 account closure fee with BofA Merrill Lynch. I hate them. I also hate raymond james. The amount of money my parents pay for nothing is annoying as hell. I am working on them to completely leave raymond james. I mean it's what they pay in taxes to the AUM.

[disneysteve]

No I have to do pull with everything from Bank of America. Venmo, paypal, vanguard, TD ameritrade, chase, etc. I also got hit with $50 account closure fee with BofA Merrill Lynch. I hate them. I also hate raymond james. The amount of money my parents pay for nothing is annoying as hell. I am working on them to completely leave raymond james. I mean it's what they pay in taxes to the AUM.

Yes, I "pull" with everything too. It's free and easy.

Closing fees are annoying but many companies charge them, especially the full service brokers.

[sethmachine]

I've moved away from all physical banks as I no longer deal with cash or ATMs ever. I maintain online banks/credit unions in order to have places for direct deposit and build up credit for loans/credit cards, etc. But these all have $0 fees for account maintenance, so I mostly set and forget.

The one thing I do need occasionally are physical checks (down payment, getting housing, gifting relatives money, etc.). I am adamant against paying $25 to a bank just to get a check book. It turns out Fidelity actually offers personal checks for your brokerage account! Of course you need to hold actually cash reserves when clearing a check (they won't sell shares if someone cashes your check and there's not enough cash position).

You can request a free check book from Fidelity--it's a more obscure feature and not advertised but it is well worth it. Also, it looks 100% cooler to write checks from Fidelity (makes people think you're loaded).

[Petunia 100]

About 20 years ago, my credit union ATM card would not work when I was traveling out of state. It should have worked, but it didn't. And, the only assistance that the credit union offered was to take a look at my card after I returned home. This did not help at all in my situation of being 2,000 miles from home in a minivan with 2 children and no cash. That was when I made the decision that going forward, I would bank only with large banks.

I was with BoA for maybe 5 years and did not care for them, then switched to Wells Fargo. I have experienced nothing but great customer service. And I get their $30 a month checking account (lots of perks) for free. So, that's why.

[Petunia 100]

We've had lots of bank accounts over the years (I'm a bonus chaser, plus we've moved around) and have been happiest having a regional (vs a larger national or smaller local) bank as our primary personal bank, the one where we actually go in to the branch from time to time. They offer a nice balance of range of services, customer care, and sometimes better interest rates. Of course we also have on-line bank accounts and we will open accounts with local banks or credit unions if they offer a good interest rate on a CD.

Regarding fees, you have to check what the charges are and how to work around them. For example, since we're building a house I've had to do wire transfers. I learned that I pay a fee if I do a wire transfer from my MM account but get 1 free wire per month from my checking. Same bank, different accounts, different fee structure. And even though an in-bank transfer of funds looks instantaneous on-line, it's actually not. So I have to make sure the funds are moved to my checking account a couple days before I do a transfer (whilst avoiding going over the allowed number of transfers per month).

What Disneysteve is talking about is pulling funds vs pushing funds. I haven't encountered a situation where I can't avoid a fee by paying attention to where the transaction is initiated. It means I have to link the accounts via the trial deposits method (because I refuse to give one bank my log in credentials to another bank).

Is all of this a bit of a game and sometimes a real PITA. You bet. So I know the rules and play the game.

Yes, and I prefer to push, not pull. When you pull, you must give your checking account information to the puller. I prefer to not give out that information if at all possible.

[Petunia 100]

Other than a nominal charge for a lost card, what other issues have you had with them? I've heard people complain but it's usually all about user-generated fees because they did something wrong (overdrawn, late payment, etc.).

And yes, it is very nice to have branches nationwide, not that I've ever used one away from home but I see them everywhere we go.

When I banked with them, I had enough money in a CD to waive the monthly fee. (If I am remembering correctly, I had 6k in a CD and the minimum amount required in combined accounts to avoid the monthly fee was 5k). All was well for quite awhile but eventually I was charged a monthly fee. I had to go online and chat to get it reversed. And then it happened the next month, and the next. After about 6 months of this, they refused to reverse the fee any longer. Even though it was clear that they were charging the fee in error. So I ate the fee and closed my account.

[Nutria]

Yes, and I prefer to push, not pull. When you pull, you must give your checking account information to the puller. I prefer to not give out that information if at all possible.

Someone needs to know someone else's account information...