The Davis Square Community

For a good compromise between online banking and local banking, you might try our local online bank, SalemFiveDirect (http://www.salemfivedirect.com). I've been using them for about six months now. They're sort of my "ATM account" so I haven't used the bill pay much, but it does work the way you want it to. You get about 3-3.5% interest on your balance, can make deposits at local ATMs (SUM network (http://www.sum-atm.com) & NYCE network (http://www.nyce.net/atm/locator.jsp)) or by mail, get $15 in ATM fees refunded every month, and a one-time $25 bonus for setting up direct deposit. Plus, if for some reason you really need a branch with humans, there's one downtown. The only big drawback is that they don't have a EFT / ACH system for making transfers between banks online. But you can make those transfers using the ACH facility of the other bank you're transferring the cash to/from. Well, that and they don't seem to offer any referral bonus like ING does. ;-)

Also, check out bankdeals.blogspot.com (http://bankdeals.blogspot.com) for all sorts of reviews and information on banks w/ good deals, some of which are online, nationwide, or local to NE (They recently featured Brookline Bank (http://www.brooklinebank.com), where I do most of my bill pay. I only don't recommend BB b/c you get crap interest, and until recently needed $5k minimum deposit every day of the month to avoid fees.)

You might want to consider a Credit Union, too. Their online banking is usually less sophisticated, but they're also less likely to try and screw you over/generate horror stories.