Alternatives to Bank of America

Eric

Eric

Mama's lil stinker
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Just wondering who you all use for banking, we've been using Bank of America for 20 years now and both their banking and customer service have become awful, to the point it's bad enough for us to consider the hassle of switching. I'm open to the idea of a credit union as well as it seems a bit more personalized.
 
Eric said:
Just wondering who you all use for banking, we've been using Bank of America for 20 years now and both their banking and customer service have become awful, to the point it's bad enough for us to consider the hassle of switching. I'm open to the idea of a credit union as well as it seems a bit more personalized.
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I’ve used wells fargo since I moved to california. I don’t love them, and they once lost $140,000 of mine (but the regional manager worked hard on her day off to find it again). I’ve actually been moving more and more of my deposits to Apple savings, because the interest rate is reasonably high and they make it very easy to interact and monitor it all. Also helps that I rarely need to write checks any more, so all I really need from my banking is a savings account.
 
I keep all my money in my local CU. There are a few limitations, and I had a minor crisis due to a weird convergence of events, but the big guys are teh suck. When Wells FargU ate my ATM card on a Sunday evening, not long after they ate First Interrape where my money was, I moved to KeyBank, which was fine for a long time, but I finally decided that they were just too big.
 
I still have the same checking account I got when I was 15. Granted that was a small town bank that my dad was on the BoD.

But through many acquisitions my account is now a Chase account and has been for about 20 years.

Been happy with them as I haven’t had any major issues. It is nice because I figured I would have to change banks when I moved to AZ, but nope Chase is here so all good.
 
I use USAA for the bulk of my banking stuff at the moment, and the local CU for anything that needs an ATM/Debit card.
 
Have a few since I divorced from BoA back in 2012... Joint account local Bank that has a relationship with work and waives fees. Sofi Account that I use for main savings that has "vaults" you can set up for goals, and has a pretty decent rate. Vaults are New car, Vacation, Christmas, etc. A local credit union that I used in the past and still use it to pay all my monthly bills.

Finally, I have what started as a TIAA-CREF savings account that got spun off to Everbank. It is my savings that I am putting away to have cash on hand when I retire. The goal is to have one year to live off of while I wait for my 70th year before claiming Social Security. It is a PITA to withdraw money from, so in my mind too much effort, and I'd rather not touch it while I keep putting money in through a direct deposit. Recently found out that the new bank, Everbank, is based in FLA, and with this Administration and DeSantis at the helm, I am looking to find another PITA bank.

FWIW, Sofi has been pretty good. If you do want to check them out, I have a referral link that gives you $25 (and me a bit more as well 😊), if you meet the requirements. Message me if interested.
 
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We interact so little with BoA (we've had personal and biz accounts for decades), that we haven't ever really had to deal with their CS. Funny enough we actually went to the bank yesterday! Hahaha, so weird actually walking into a physical building :D (we had a deposit that wouldn't go through on the app, mix of physical check + amount + <some_other_bs>

If we did bail, we'd probably move over to USAA for all our "operational banking". :)
 
DT said:
We interact so little with BoA (we've had personal and biz accounts for decades), that we haven't ever really had to deal with their CS. Funny enough we actually went to the bank yesterday! Hahaha, so weird actually walking into a physical building :D (we had a deposit that wouldn't go through on the app, mix of physical check + amount + <some_other_bs>

If we did bail, we'd probably move over to USAA for all our "operational banking". :)
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Yeah it’s been good up until I opened the LLC, their banking app/site is complex when it comes to linking accounts and other things.

My wife, who is really good with this stuff, also has a hard time navigating it all. So we just have a few questions that the AI is woefully unable to answer and there is simply no way to reach a human being. They make it sound possible but once you get into their maze it flat out won’t allow it.
 
Eric said:
Yeah it’s been good up until I opened the LLC, their banking app/site is complex when it comes to linking accounts and other things.

My wife, who is really good with this stuff, also has a hard time navigating it all. So we just have a few questions that the AI is woefully unable to answer and there is simply no way to reach a human being. They make it sound possible but once you get into their maze it flat out won’t allow it.
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Yep. My wife had BoA until one incident in October 2021. She refinanced her house and took some equity out, and deposited it into her BoA account. Instead of adding it, they totally f'd up the transaction and made it a deduction rather than a credit, and I mean the whole amount. On top of it all, her bills were due. Mortgage, Insurance, CCs, Utilities, and payments started bouncing. We were on vacation overseas, and she started getting BoA notices of overdraft fees and insufficient funds charges. Took 4 hours to get a human, and that human at first treated her like a deadbeat with a significant negative in their account. Wouldn't listen, didn't listen, even the "Supervisor" got on the call with an attitude. Then, after about an hour of explaining it for the 100th time and scouring through the statements and emails of the closing, BoA finally admitted to their mistake. However, it took another 4 hours navigating through the automated menus to get another representative and tell the whole tale again, to get credits back on the overdraft and insufficient funds.

Good times... Never looked back after that! Buh-bye BoA!
 
I never had a BoA account, but my cousin had dealings with them. They talked him into getting a CC (it was kind of coercive) and then used it to screw him over. He could not quite keep up with it, and when he hit the limit, instead of getting purchases declined, they just added a surcharge for being over and sent him statements with a minimum payment that did not even fully cover the interest. Banks that gleefully seek to push their customers deeper into the red should be – well, I better not say that.
 
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