Bank Shopping

I have been researching the best banks in our area lately because I'm not really 100% happy with Chase. I like some things about them though. Their online banking interface is nice and they are quick to process things, but I don't like the "free" checking account we have because for us, it's hardly free.

If you have Direct Deposit and don't plan on using outside ATM's then Chase would be fine for you. We don't have Direct Deposit, and are often places that don't have a Chase ATM, so it's not that great for us. I'm trying to save as much as possible, so $4 for withdrawing at a non-chase ATM ($2 Chase charge, $2 other bank charge) plus the $6/mo service fee that we get charged for not having DD adds up. Lets say we use a non chase ATM three times a month and let's add in our $6/mo fee. That comes to...

$144 in ATM fees per year and
$72 in Service fees per year
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$216 Total for our Chase "Free" Checking Account

Luckily we probably only use a non-chase ATM about 8-10 times a year. That still adds up to approximately $112 a year. That's just not good enough for me. So I am bank shopping with the help of Bankrate.com.

So far the best-looking account to me is the National City Free Checking Account. This account IS ACTUALLY free. Check it out.

And even better if you:

"Have monthly automatic activity — ACH direct deposit of your paycheck, Online Bill Payment or ACH debit (car loan or utility payment, etc.)" and choose the "Free Checking Plus" account you'll get any fees charged by other banks for ATM use refunded to you.

Sounds like an awesome account especially since both the "Free Checking" and "Free Checking Plus" come with free checks.

Any thoughts?

SMB

This entry was posted by Stephanie Briones, on Saturday, August 4, 2007. You can leave your response.