Sorry for the anticlimax of it all, but how do you choose your banks? I went to a credit union because I thought that would be better interest and it is but who cares I guess?
It is shit at being connected to technology like YNAB or Zelle or Paypal etc and that ruins my life.
I was at Bank of America which has no real appeal except the above.
Do you guys have thoughts?
I switched over to Citibank because they had the highest interest rate/lowest account minimums when I looked.
For general checking (non-mortgage/savings part of paycheck goes in, credit cards get paid out, not used for long-term savings or anything) I’m actually still using the same account I got when I was a kid. After a couple sales/mergers the local bank my parents originally took me to became part of USBank, and it hasn’t been annoying enough to leave. Every now and again they threaten monthly fees, I go in and tell them I’ll change banks, and they mysteriously find a new no-fee type of checking account. There’s no interest paid out on that account, but since I don’t keep much in there I don’t really care.
I got a mortgage through a credit union for the low rates and have my emergency fund there also for what used to be a comparatively high rate, but it hasn’t been keeping up with rate changes very well lately so I’m debating whether to move that to an online brokerage.
I used to do some bank account churning, but I generally found it to be more hassle than it was worth, and it was long enough ago that I don’t think my opinion on those banks are relevant anymore either.
Most my my ccs are with Chase. Should i just use them? Idk
Interest and account mins that are not at credit unions makes sense.
I picked Chase because they have a zillion atms and physical locations near me. And sometimes I just want to be able to go into a physical bank and make them solve a problem for me (usually false fraud notices lol).
And now I also have Discover which I picked arbitrarily because they had a high interest rate.
Basically I always want some amount of $$ that I can get to “easily”: cash withdrawals at a physical location, zelle or paypal or whatever, etc.
I still have USBank because it was the one on my college campus in Omaha. They have a small presence in Chicago, almost no ATMs, and I went in to close accounts and they set me up with an account that refunds partial ATM fees. Now I don’t even use cash lol. At some point I wanna transition fully to Ally.
Siiiigh maybe i should have just stayed with bank of America! Why am I dumb!
I switched to Chase when I lived in NY and they had atm’s everywhere. When I stopped working, though, account fees without direct deposit made me switch to Ally. They had, at once point, decent interest in savings, although it’s low everywhere, they refund atm fees (and I hardly ever need cash), and there are no monthly account fees.
My answer is who will you hate dealing with the least. For me it’s a local credit union because they’re good about using a non legal name for me and accept checks made out to my non legal name.
We’ve had an account with Chase for many years, and it’s been super convenient. ATMs everywhere here, branches everywhere, easy access to Zelle, and they’ve given us good mortgage rates.
But now that interest continues to be practically 0, I just opened a Cash Management Account at Fidelity. I’m planning to keep cash in one of their money markets (SPRXX) paying 4.x%. Apparently, when you withdraw cash or pay bills, the money will automatically liquidate from the MM. Note that the MM is not FDIC insured. Their FDIC option is paying something like 2.x%. You can also use ATMs anywhere & Fidelity will refund you ATM fees.
Will report back on my experience with the Fidelity CMA. So far, I transferred over money a week ago, and it still isn’t settled, grr.
I have accounts at Wells Fargo and BofA for convenience and Capital One (from ING days) for high yield savings.
Over winter break, a friend had good things to say about Amalgamated Bank’s social justice policies and fossil-free certifications. They’re union owned and have an A+ certification from the BBB. I’m a little too overwhelmed to actually move things right now but am gradually exploring switching my WF/BofA stuff to it. It seems like a good balance of a national-scale bank but less terrible policies.
I have about 8 different bank accounts at 5 different banks 
it’s a bit out of hand, and I honestly have no reason for it except I like to have separate accounts for every use/sinking fund. I have two accounts with my local credit union because they had the lowest mortgage rate when I bought my house, and part of the terms of the super low rate were having my paychecks deposited there. I keep no money in the accounts, but transfer and pay everything out of them. I have another local credit union checking account, because it’s 5 min from my house, and I wanted something convenient if I need an ATM. I have 3 Capital One accounts, one checking that I keep empty and use for PayPal/Zelle for all my eBay and dog-sitting money, and then two high interest savings accounts for various sinking funds. Then I have a Citi high interest account that I just opened because they had a really high rate, and that has my car sinking fund. Last is an Amex high interest account I’ve had forever, which is my e-fund.
Honestly I could move all of my high interest savings to just Capital One or Citi accounts and simplify everything because the interest rates are super close on all of the accounts. But…I’m too lazy and used to the chaos. Haha. If I had to pick one I’d say I enjoy using Capital One the most of any of the big banks, and they have great high interest savings rates right now. I like their website, it’s easy to use and connects really easily to all of the external thingies. The app is great too and the fastest I’ve ever experienced at mobile check deposits
We just switched banks after a lot of angst and debate. I wanted to move my money somewhere that contributed less to global warming and other sketchy organizations. I found a credit union that met all my criteria and moved a token amount of money to them but they are awful at all the things you mentioned.
So, we just moved everything to zelle. It’s hard fore to tell how green washed their environmental impact reports arez but they are at least saying the right things? And an online bank that’s existed for over a decade has definitely figured out zelle/atms/etc.
Plus, they have some of the highest interest rates! I’ve had online only banks for a long time and no physical branch and it’s never been a problem. Very worst case scenario I would ask my parents to deposit a large amount of cash and then transfer it to my account.
Thank you all for chiming in! It really helped. I like Amalgamated Bank best so far and appreciate the heads up on that!
If you make the switch I’d love to hear if it works. I still have a token amount of money in beneficial state bank that isn’t working for me. I also considered amalgamated. I pretty much just need to be able to direct deposit into the account and link it to an ally account (both of which have been issues with BSB lol)
Kudos to those picking banks on ethical grounds!
My list is basically:
No. )I’ve been happy, functionally, with Ally. I’ve been meaning to open an account with the credit union at work for cash transactions, cashiers checks, etc. Also they have a CC with great cash back on dining/travel (we have the Amex with 6% grocery/3% gas so set on those). But spouse has Chase so it hasn’t been a priority Task 
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Edit: FDIC insured and some kind of free ATM service available are givens.