I’ve found Charles Schwab to be the best of both worlds. Excellent Internet bank and I’m fortunate to have a Charles Schwab office locally - does that apply to you perchance? If so, they do not accept deposits directly to checking, but will accept them to a brokerage account and then immediately transfer to checking.
If I was looking for a local financial institution to establish a relationship with, I’d be checking out good credit unions. They’re good at that.
A credit union would be ideal but the selection locally is sadly very limited. I already have 3 different brokerage accounts but will check into Charles Schwab as well…their robo-advisor had my attention from recent articles already.
Here are a few that I have used in the SE (mostly for bank account bonuses):
Regions
Hancock Whitney
Capital One
Chase
Of the two regional banks above, I would say Regions is better than HW. I didn’t have any issues with HW but they seem a bit less tech savvy and sometimes require a visit to the branch. Regions has been good. I opened personal and business accounts with Regions in the past 1-2 years. No issues.
If you don’t have any of those nearby, I might have other ideas. Would have to check my files on other banks I have used.
I also recommend credit unions as someone else mentioned. However, I only know of one based in the SE. Keesler FCU. I opened an account there to prep for a CD offer. Not much experience with them yet.
Yes, and their limits are very high (might depend on the account holder and the age of he account). But probably not going to accommodate a check for the sale of a house, which was the scenario mentioned.
Sorry to hear of the WF woes. I only use them for DD and then move the money elsewhere. They also don’t charge me for a small safety deposit box.
Here’s my recent experience with other B&M banks in the south:
Chase: staff were well trained and helpful; website is worse now than 10 years ago, but it’s prettier; nice bonuses available
TD (Toronto Dominion): very friendly, but I got the feeling they were by the book only with no wiggle room, and I’m not sure how capable they are.
Regions: friendly and capable, but IIRC, they were fee happy.
First Citizen’s: quite accommodating, but I did not like the security, or lack thereof, of their online banking.
Allamerica/redneck Mega Money Market® personal checking account June 21st, 2019 the interest rate for this account will be 2.40% APY
sorry if this is old news
Just to clarify, this pertains to the All America/Redneck bank Mega money market account, which is dropping from 2.5% to 2.4% on June 21 (the start of their next statement cycle).
Their rewards checking account is remaining unchanged at 3%, at least as of now.
Looks like EBSB dropped their rate to 2.37%. Interesting timing as NBD just brought back their 2.5% account guaranteed through year end and there a bunch of unguaranteed accounts paying 2.5%.
Looks like I’m gone!!
I have kept EBSB open & I thought 2.5% was guaranteed until the end of the year. I’m not even going to call because my Grow 2.75% is the best place for savings anyway.
@pattyb53 Do you know if there’s a minimum balance requirement to avoid a fee? I can’t remember. I don’t want to close it mid month because there’s likely an interest penalty.
Ok, I called them. Account can stay open with negligible balance without a fee however no interest paid on balances less than 5k. Also confirmed there is no interest penalty for anyone choosing to close mid month. I’m going to leave mine open with a negligible balance I think.
Yes zzz, I left $8.28 in the EBSB account. I ACH transferred out the balance. Glad to hear you called & now we know leaving a small balance will suffice.
With talk about a rate cut could happen tomorrow and . . .
Q: Shin, are you nuts? Word on the street was there would be no rate cut until July!!
Yeah, I know. I was also thinking “July”. But there is talk this morning the rate cut could come soon as tomorrow. Nobody knows what will happen, least of all me. That is why I’m writing here about Plan B.
Anyway, if the USPSFCU and Hanscom CD deals do not pan out, what remains? Well, I have just checked and at least for now PurePoint. continues to offer their 13 month NPCD at 2.5% APY. That appears to be the best deal around with a decent rate guarantee and . . .
Q: How about Grow?
Sure, Grow is great. But not everyone has a Grow account and even the Grow rate lock does not outdistance the one at PurePoint. When rate declines are threatening a rate lock of some sort means everything. The PurePoint. NPCD has the added advantage that you can access your funds, if needed, at any time.
So bottom line, PurePoint. is my Plan B. What’s yours?