What's a good bank to use?

Find a credit union, they're much better than banks.

When I first saw the question, my immediate thought was a sperm bank.  Then I read the rest of it.  Sorry.

It depends on where you live.  You need to do some research of the local banks and see who provides free checking, interest bearing checking, the highest rates on savings accounts, ...   I use a bank that is local to my area because they have the best rates, I don't get charged to use my own money (write a check), and I have an interest bearing checking account.

Livvie mentions credit unions and they usually do offer better rates and products.  You just have to shop around all the institutions.


This post was edited by Harry at September 11, 2017 1:08 AM MDT

Heres a good one......


But if thats not your cup of tea, this ones the one I use and I love it.....

I agree with the credit union suggestion, if that's an option for you through your university or maybe one of your parents' employers. If not, my main advice would be to stay away from Chase. I've known multiple people who have had issues with their accounts/debit cards falling victim to fraudulent hackers or whatever those a$$holes are called. Chase has made good on the fraudulent charges, but every time they have to cancel their debit card and send a new card, and to me that sounds like a nightmare.

Good luck! :)
 

Where ARE you?

There are different banks in different areas that are good or bad. 
I will tell you only one thing.  I have used Wells Fargo, (lots of advertisements in the mail) I have used Citibank and Bank of America.

The only one that I HATE and would never use ever, is Chase.  Over and over they have the worst customer service and cannot do a THING for you in the way of helping you with anything transaction or otherwise.

THEY suck and they cost more money to me than the other banking institutions. 

Great question! I have been dying lately with my options.

I have had some serious issues with Wells, mostly related to their "fraud detection." They like to lock my card out of an abundance of caution every time I try to spend money because that's "abnormal" for me. One time someone supposedly did make charges on my card, so they shut down my whole account while I was in a flight across the country. Left me stranded at an airport with my kids and no access to money at all. I hate them. 

I recently tried to switch to BBVA Compass. I linked it to my PayPal so I could move funds into it as needed, but I mostly left it alone. It had something like $100 just chilling in it. Well, a company incorrectly tried to charge my PayPal for like $600 and I contacted them right away and they "corrected" it by giving me a payment for an equal amount. PayPal sent me a notice saying my charge was denied. I thought, "No big deal. this will work itself out. The money is sitting in my PayPal account and they'll just take their own money back" Well, apparently, they were trying to take from Compass, and Compass is in the dark ages and takes days to process anything, plus I was only set up to get mail notices. So several days later, I got a letter from Compass saying they'd denied a charge and hit me with a $40 NSF fee. I emailed PayPal right away and explained what was happening. PayPal swore they fixed it. A few days later, I got another letter from Compass that PayPal tried to take the money again and I was hit with a second $40 charge. This time, I ripped into PayPal and told them flat out to leave my checking account alone- that I wanted nothing to ever leave my Compass account from them. They said they fixed it again, but they didn't, so a third and fourth charge went through and got denied. This all happened within the span of a week. By the time I finally got to go to a physical Compass location, their NSF fees had me overdrawn and I got hit with an overdrawn fee. :/ And, worse yet, Compass will punish you for not making your account positive. They will charge you the same fee every 1-2 weeks until you pay to make your account positive again. OMG I just about lost my sh^t. The banker at Compass understood what happened, and that NONE of it was my fault, but they only removed enough fees to bring my account positive, so I lost $100 for something that wasn't my fault at all. Really. In this day and age, even if I was at fault, it does not cost them $40 to freaking deny an electronic charge. 

I used to have an auto loan through a credit union, but they changed their policies and insisted I make some kind of regular deposit to avoid monthly service fees. That wasn't an issue when I had the auto loan. I told them to do autopay and I just deposited the car payment into my account every month. But, when I paid the car off, I forgot about adding money to the account every three months or whatever it was and they changed my mailing address to my ex's during my divorce, so I stopped getting statements. They cleared out something like $200 from my account in fees before they just closed it on me. When I finally went in to ask about the account, they basically told me "too bad."

Long story short, every place I try to bank at sucks. You can't even put money in an account and leave it alone without them finding excuses to grab at it. No matter who you go with, don't enter into it thinking "That'll never happen to me" with their fees and crap. It will. Whether you do something stupid and biff it or someone gets into your account or you're fraudulently charged. Something will eventually happen and you will be at the mercy of the bank. Read everything. Read every little rule they have and know every fee they charge. Each bank and account type is different. Some hit you with inactivity fees. Others have insane overdraft and NSF fees. Others may take a week or more to credit a deposit, but will gladly remove money from your account instantly. Others limit how much of your own money you can take out and how you can take it. The devil's in the details. Know your contracts and the rules you're agreeing to, because once they have your money, they have control over you. 

I am very happy with Regions bank. I have made sure to "opt out" of any overdraft coverage. So if I run my card they have to decline the transaction rather than cover it and charge the NSF fee. I think most banks have started using that as a way to get more fees.