I'm moving to Houston from Austin in a few weeks to start law school at U of H. Since I'm a loyal UFCU customer, I am forced to find a new bank. Any suggestions? I'm a big fan of online banking and free bill pay. Actually, anything free is good. I'll be living off of Shepherd and Allen Parkway, so convenient ATMs near campus and home would be nice. Nothing like leaving a great credit union to make you realize how much big banks kinda suck.
I've been with Chase for awhile, but may look elsewhere so I'll be interested in seeing some of the responses.
I like Bank of America. Free online everything. I don't even live near one anymore and I still use it as my primary account.
We use Wells Fargo, since they have ATMs at Randalls. They do the online thing as well, though I have not explored online bill paying which is free.
i just opened a Chase account. would you mind disclosing why you are looking elsewhere? i'm just curious.
I don't like their online services for one. It's not detailed enough, imo. The transactions information doesn't tell much. I'm not sure anyone else is any better though.
I would recommend either Chase Bank or Guaranty Bank. Both have free checking accounts with all the standard features (free online billpay, e-statements, etc). I think Chase still offers a free Ipod for signup, and they both have branches in Austin for if you ever decide to move back there.
Compared to CHASE's online banking, BoA's Online application (coming from a Web Developer guy) SUCKS . I am looking to remove all the charges CHASE does for mine, so I am looking for something TRULY free. Freakin' ATM charges, the under-some-amount balance charge, etc., are killing me.
I have accounts at four banks and credit unions. Their online transactions pretty much all look the same (I have Chase too).
What don't you like about the BOA interface. I'll admit that the it is a little difficult to figure out where to do some stuff, The links could be a little more clear and I think that there are some links that I would consider missing. The only other things that I don't like about it is that I think the default view should be the last 30 days, not you current statement. Also I wish that you could put a conditional halt on your ebill payments if you don't have sufficiant funds. Other than that the functionality is great. Everything shows up as it is charged to the account and I have yet to find a bill I couldn't pay online. Plus it is all free as long as I keep a direct deposit into the account. No minimum balance fee's. No Annual fee's. The overdraft fee's are a little high, they start at $20 and go up from there as you have more. and the non-BOA ATM fee's are $2.00. But other than that I love it.
*it is a little difficult to figure out where to do some stuff *The links could be a little more clear *there are some links that I would consider missing. *the default view should be the last 30 days, not you current statement. I'll add one more: when you enter your "account" number, it is visible until you click "log in". If you as a customer can remember what the account is, and it is a very popular number easily stolen, it is in view and that is a NO-NO in ANY web application. My wife uses it; I don't. Chase says it will give a new interface, and I am waiting for that. Still, the charges are outrageous if you're not over your limit.
BoA has the easiest and fastest online bill pay I have ever seen. But I hate them and will never bank with them the rest of my life. They are extremely disorganized, their customer service sucks, and they have all sorts of stupid ways they do things that are annoying as a customer. And they seriously screwed us with our mortgage. The one decent customer service rep we had even told us to leave the bank (for the mortgage). We use Chase. Right now their online stuff is a little crappy, but they are improving it, their new(ish) ATM's are excellent (a lot of features), and their customer service is good enough (nobody has good or great anymore).
Why don't you guys use local banks or credit unions and keep a Chase or BOA account on the side? I find I like the smaller banks better because they have higher rates, and charges less.
Last year I refinanced my mortgage with Wells Fargo and in the process moved all of my banking over there. My rep is very customer service oriented and treats me well.
