What is the best bank to go with?

My experience, and I know others have experienced the same, is that nationwide banks have some disadvantages over small local banks. Local banks are likelier to try hard to give you good service, because you are one of a smaller number of customers. Local banks are likelier to keep your money circulating in the local community, helping your neighbors’ businesses, instead of sending it far away (if you care about that sort of thing). Though this is less reliable than it used to be—you can ask the bank when you go in to interview them about opening an account.

A drawback is that interest earned may be lower, and loan rates charged may be higher. But some people are willing to except this on balance.

If you are so progressive that you would like to strengthen the least capitalist part of the economy, use a credit union instead of a bank. Credit unions are non-profit organizations (which is why commercial banks hate them, and push legislation to restrict what they can do). Once again, you may find higher loan rates and lower savings account interest than at a commercial bank. You may also find that the staff, while eager to be helpful, are a little less skilled than employees of a commercial bank. But to a progressive, it’s worth it.

You might also want to consider using a local bank for deposits and checking and using an online bank for savings. Online banks typically have higher interest rates than local brick and mortar banks. Check out www.ingdirect.com

One other thing to keep in mind…in the current economy, many local banks have or will be purchased by larger banks. Keep this in mind if you consider a local bank. i.e. it may be X Bank today but it could well be Y Bank tomorrow.

ive had good experiences with PNC bank, and there virual wallet offers competitive interest rates with some of these online banks but being more convient since their are branch locations. Their savings account offers 3.0% interest and your reserve account has 1.0% and checking has none You should look into pncvirtualwallet.com its a great tool.

Not Bank of America.

I would go with a regional or community bank, and not one of the biggies, unless you travel a lot. The community banks have better regulation, and have money to lend. My husband is a bank attorney, and we moved all of our accounts from a large national bank to a regional.

The thing to do Afghan, is to shop for a bank like you would anything else. Take financial statements for your business, business plan, etc. and go talk to the different banks, and compare them, what services they offer small businesses, etc. If you have any regular transactions that you do, ask them to explain their processes and fees.

Bigger is not always better.

I am like the black widow of bank patrons. Every bank I bank at gets purchased by another…..it is really weird.

Credit unions dude. FTW.

the virtual wallet?is there any hidden fees or some scary stuff in there that might suprise me later on like most banks have?

nope, you get three checks to for bill pay a month that they send out to the bill person for you the rest you would be charged a small fee for, you can put money in the ATM until 10PM EST and it sill counts for the same day transaction. It is an updated view of your money so if you go to target and spend 20.00 and use your debit card as credit then go on virtual wallet when you get home you will see the purchase and your remaining balance will reflect the pending transaction so its much easier to manage your money. You can put multiple pay dates in there and they let you know when you have danger days meaning you are going to be negative. Free overdraft protection, uhm, you can transfer money easily between accounts. Its all very user friendly too, its one of the nicest online banking systems ive ever seen. Please stay away from bank of america, never had a good experience with them, and have never heard anyone who has lol. Good luck!

oh with the virtual wallet be careful with the bill pay option, it starts to process 3–4 days before the scheduled date so they can make sure your money is sent to the person or business on time, that is the only thing that can catch you off guard, i actually had to stop a payment and it was 2 days before the scheduled pay date and it was to late cause it started processing already. Other then that though, its great!

That sounds complicated, Johnny. I bank with Fifth Third Bank, and I go online, set up a payor, and go in and authorize payments and payment dates for the money to come out. I can do it as an automatic schedule, or manually. I can also pay my credit card with them as an account transfer rather than a payment. There’s no charge. The data from my checking accounts can export to a number of money management applications. (That’s a good question to ask, Afghan, about the export of account data to your business accounting application.)

I have my mortgage through Chase, and make extra principal payments each month at no charge; I just include the money in the payment. Some banks charge you a “set-up fee” to “let” you do this.

hm, well its pretty easy, maybe im making it sounds harder then it actually is….all i no is im happy with my bank right now, and i think this is the first time ive ever been able to say that..they have been great for the past two years or so!

Bank of Your Mattress—no load, no fees, easy access, safe

What ever you do…DO NOT GO WITH BANK OF AMERICA!

y not babygall?

As long as you have 500–1000 on hand at all times it shouldn’t matter as far as penalties and fees go. I would try to go to local bank if possible. If you are looking to invest I would save your money and start a business, seeing its the only way to get 20% yield or higher. don’t invest in gold because gold never changes, currency does. Invest in good diligent workers they can increase your assets 10 fold or greater. It depends on your factors, not the banks.

I went with chase