Bank Reviews Please!

Ok, I've been less than happy with Washington Mutual for the last few months but now I'm finally ready to take my money out and find another bank. Can you all help out and share your experiences with the banks listed below? I've got a few I'm interested in, but I really can't find very many reviews on their services.

Bank of America
Wells Fargo
Butte Community Bank
Umqua Bank
Tri Counties Bank

Any others you can suggest would be fantastic also.

No more WaMu? Chase is a decent enough bank.

If you are the kind of person who always has problems with retailers and service provides (and of course those problems are never your fault) you will never like any bank for very long and should just stay put.

If you are a reasonable person, I like BoA, Wells Fargo and ING Direct.

I switched to a Credit Union based in GA not too long ago, the difference is awesome. The lines aren't ridiculous and you get to talk to people that don't treat you like a number. I would look into that if you're willing to part from the mega-banks...

I use Bank of America, they seem ok. I liked how your debit card has your photo on them. I also use the "keep the change" service and its nice to watch the savings account grow with each transaction. No fees, tons of locations.

I have been through 5 banks in the past 8 years, the only one that never screwed me over was the local credit union. But we moved to far away from their location.

srm775 said:

No more WaMu? Chase is a decent enough bank.

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Well, my main problem with them is their "availability of deposits". If you deposit checks into their ATM's, your balance is not "available" for use for up to 3 business days...in my experience I've waited up to 5 business days. Now, if you walk into the brank and deposit those checks, no problem...the money is avialable immediately. The problem lies with their system of sending ALL deposits to a central clearing house; they don't actually process any checks for 1-2 days. This is just not acceptable to me, and since we are both busy working during bank business hours we very rarely can go into the bank. About half of my monthly income arrives by personal check, and sometimes I just cannot wait 3-5 business days to use that money.

I'm looking for a bank that makes those deposits available no later than one business day.

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

Well, my main problem with them is their "availability of deposits". If you deposit checks into their ATM's, your balance is not "available" for use for up to 3 business days...in my experience I've waited up to 5 business days. Now, if you walk into the brank and deposit those checks, no problem...the money is avialable immediately. The problem lies with their system of sending ALL deposits to a central clearing house; they don't actually process any checks for 1-2 days. This is just not acceptable to me, and since we are both busy working during bank business hours we very rarely can go into the bank. About half of my monthly income arrives by personal check, and sometimes I just cannot wait 3-5 business days to use that money.

I'm looking for a bank that makes those deposits available no later than one business day.

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Yeah, that probably won't change with a bank change. The large banks all operate the same and at the same speed. If the second largest bank in the country can't process your checks within two days, then no other ones will be able to either. I think the problem lies more with financial institution that the check is drawn on, rather than WaMu/Chase.

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

I'm looking for a bank that makes those deposits available no later than one business day.

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I have been pretty happy with BoA's ATM deposits. I am honestly not sure how long it takes for the deposits to become available, but it has never been an issue. I like that they scan the checks and give you a copy on the receipt, I am not sure it this would be helpful if there was an issue, but it makes me feel better.

srm775 said:

Yeah, that probably won't change with a bank change. The large banks all operate the same and at the same speed. If the second largest bank in the country can't process your checks within two days, then no other ones will be able to either. I think the problem lies more with financial institution that the check is drawn on, rather than WaMu/Chase.

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That's why I'm considering small, local banks. I'm assuming that they don't send their checks to some third party, although I may be wrong. I know that at least one of the banks does all of their deposit verification nightly, right here in town.

Sounds like you need business type account rather than a personal one.
IME That's usually the only way you'll have same or next day availability of funds.

Holy hell, just talked to a representative for B of A on the phone about this. They said typically funds are available in one business day, but it can be up to 10 business days. That's just crazy...I know some people are fraudulent and write bad checks, but why penalize your own customer for that? If that happens, or happens repeatedly I can see forcing checks to clear before making funds available. But to do that with every deposit? I generally keep funds OUT of my checking account on purpose, I don't want to wait for 2 weeks to use MY money that I've already been paid.

I don't leave thousands in my checking, othewise this would probably work for me. I operate on the principle of, "You have to tell your money where to go, or you'll never know where it went." Leaving money in my checking just seems like a waste to me...I at least want to get it into savings, if not my IRA.

TwoHeadsBrewing said:

Holy hell, just talked to a representative for B of A on the phone about this. They said typically funds are available in one business day, but it can be up to 10 business days. That's just crazy...

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I know (as allowed by law) BoA will put a hold on a check for up to 10 business days for new accounts. I think this is for 90 days. I got into an argument with a manager about this once, the checks were from a local, well known/established business in the area, they still insisted on the hold.

Bank of America
Wells Fargo

I would advise against these two banks. Used them before and hated them. If you have a problem with something good luck, take a number because your single bank account means very little to them.

B of A - where I'm at currently, haven't had any problems. Like Tx said, I've heard of people experiencing difficulty when trying to resolve issues.

It depends on the amount of the check and the account, but usually they make ~30-40% of the deposited funds immediately available, but don't release the full amount until the check clears (usually a day or two). Can get kind of confusing in online banking when your deposits don't match up with the total - have to look at the pending transactions.

Wells fargo - My wife had her checking, savings, and ccard through them. During a few months last year we carried a large balance due to school and wedding expenses. At some point, Wells Fargo decided that she had signed up for auto-paying her ccard bill IN FULL from her checking account.

Of course, we didn't have the cash, so the payment didn't go through. The auto-pay KEPT TRYING every 8 hours or so for three days, until she signed in to her online banking just to check on things. Each time the auto pay didn't go through, they dinged us with account fees. Despite the fact that Wells Fargo could not tell us when, how, or who enrolled the auto pay, they refused to waive the account fees.

After badgering them on the phone, they eventually reduced the fees, but we still had to pay $90-ish for their mistake. Needless to say, the checking and savings accounts were closed and moved elsewhere. We're hanging on to the credit card only because it was her first line of credit ever and we don't want our score to get dinged.

Edit: Forgot about another Wells Fargo incident - One of their (at the time) brand-new envelopeless deposit machines ate a check my wife was depositing. Tore it in half inside the machine and only spit back half of it. Happened over the weekend, we contacted them first thing monday morning. They mysteriously never found the other half of the check, which is a little worrisome since that's the part with the account number and all. Not too big of a deal, but it was a hassle getting a new check written for us.

TxBrew said:

Bank of America
Wells Fargo

I would advise against these two banks. Used them before and hated them. If you have a problem with something good luck, take a number because your single bank account means very little to them.

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Must be something to do with the Branch I get excellent service from BOA. Wifes pocket was stolen and within 4 hours the Branch manager had every credit/ debit card replaced all account #'s changed and they overnighted the new stuff to us.


Somebitch still was able to buy 2 big screen TV's and a computer at Walmart. They did catch the guy and is behind bars. Wife had to testify at the grand jury and the guy plead out.

I also get pretty good service at BoA, plus all deposits (even checks!!) made before 8pm are available next day. Doesn't really get any better than that

Another bank that works well for me is Regions, but that is a Southeastern thing

I used to bank with Bank of New York but Chase bought them out. I used Chase for about two years before I moved down to North Carolina.

My opinion of Chase is pretty poor. They took forever to process checks and their fee's were ridiculous compared to other banks. The only positive was they were literally everywhere in New York.

I switched to Bank of America and I'm pretty happy with them. The online banking is really good. When I transfer money from my checking to my savings or vice versa that money is transfered and available immediately. The check deposit at the ATM is very nice, and I do believe that those deposits are avialable immediately.

Closing my Chase account was the hardest thing. The bank personnel who was suppossed to have closed it, didn't do it right and so my accounts were left open. There was a minimum balance requirement on the savings account and since I had withdrawn all the money from that account, I was dinged with a fee, which tried to pull the fee from my empty checking account which resulted in a much bigger ding.

They refused to waive the fee's saying that it was fmy ault while the representative on the phone acknoweldged that it was the bank's fault. In order to pay the fee's and close the account, I had to wire the money from Bank of America to Chase which resulted in both banks charging me a fee.

I refuse to ever deal with Chase or their subsidaries ever again. They can keep their monopoly in the Northeast, screw them!!!

Well, maybe I'll try out BofA and see what happens. They have free checking and savings, so it won't cost anything to try them out. I'll make a few check deposits from the ATM and see what happens. But if they hold a legit check for 10 buisness days they are going to get dropped in an instant.

Don't you do direct deposit?

Only 1/2 of my income is through direct deposit.

I have been using Compass Bank for 8 years and not one issue so far.

nealf said:

I switched to a Credit Union based in GA not too long ago, the difference is awesome. The lines are ridiculous and you get to talk to people that don't treat you like a number. I would look into that if you're willing to part from the mega-banks...

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+1

I use a credit union that is local to my home town. I have pretty good access to funds (1 maybe 2 days) and everyone's very nice. I used a bank when I was younger and I really like the CU in comparison.

You're rarely the first to get the latest and greatest gizmos and widgits, but they're solid institutions.

You can use virtually any CU ATM and many CUs have shared branching. If you can't find a shared branch you can use a VISA/Mastercard cash advance (a bank, any bank, gives you $X and VISA/Mastercard puts $X on your card).

Credit union or smaller local bank .
I have an account, which I "fill up" just for the ATM use, at a larger Bank (TD)
I use a small bank for everything else, and they are great. Don't be in a hurry, because they usually want to chat a bit, and it freaks me out that they actually know my name when I come in.