Banking

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Hello Davis!

I graduated from college (yesterday!), have a job lined up, and tonight will be the first night I spend in my new apartment. Exciting times! I'm moving to the Davis area from Waltham, so I'm not yet very familiar with my new home. My question is, where do you do your banking? I use Bank of America right now, and I know there's a BoA right in Davis Sq. 'cause I've used their ATM, but I'm ignorant of the other options. I'm thinking of switching banks, and proximity of ATMs/banks to my home and work is a big part of the decision. Any thoughts? (I'll be living just outside Teele Sq.)

Thanks in advance.

Comments

[cemeterygates.livejournal.com]

Wainwright Bank (http://wainwrightbank.com/) in Davis are wonderful. Nothing but praise for their services, ethics, and policies.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I second that. And they're a SUM bank, so you can use any ATM with a SUM symbol fee-free, which is nice.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Are they, still, or did they withdraw? Because I know that their ATMs at Fresh Pond and Davis Sq. aren't in the SUM network.

Bank of America (ex-Fleet) sucks. Avoid. I have had a lot of friends who've had negative experiences with them. Only reason to use them is if you're a college student and you have lots of BoA ATMs near both school and home.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

They still are.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

hunh, so they are. I couldn't tell because the two ATMs I mentioned are the only ones of theirs I regularly see.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

Those ATMs are out of the SUM network, but the Wainwright near Downtown Crossing, a heavily trafficked area, is still SUM. I'm not sure how they figure these things.

[ron_newman]

Wainwright is a SUM member. However, not all of their ATMs are in SUM. This is also true for other SUM banks, most notably Citizens Bank.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Citizens' was the other one I was going to mention.

I used to bank at US Trust. US Trust used to be the biggest bank in SUM until Citizens' bought them out. One of the conditions of regulatory approval for the deal was that Citizens' Bank remain part of SUM and continue to support the SUM network. Since then, Citizens' has been gradually withdrawing ATMs at former UST locations from the SUM network. I suppose as long as they have one ATM somewhere left in the network it still counts. :-P

Oh, and I closed out my ex-US Trust account when I saw the "new and improved" fee schedule after the Citizens' buyout.

[ron_newman]

There is a minimum percentage of ATMs that a bank needs to include in SUM if it wants to be part of the SUM network. I don't know what the percentage is, but it's more than 50%. This subject has been discussed here before, but I don't remember when.

If you go to the SUM web site and look up "Citizens Bank of Massachusetts" you'll see they still have a large number of ATMs in the network. The list includes the ones in Davis Square, even though I don't think they have the SUM sticker displayed. Hmm.

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

I closed my ex-USTrust account when I saw the new fee schedule too.

The kicker was a new fee for "using another bank's ATM". That's right, in addition to whatever fee the other bank might charge you, Citizens would levy its own fee. I don't know if this is still true, but I got it carefully clarified before I bailed.

I went to Netbank and have been happy ever since. Netbank gets no-fee ATM service from machines in the SUM network.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

I third Wainwright. They are terrific, friendly and fair. There are two SUM banks within a block of Teele Square, too, which means fee-free ATMs for you.

[larksdream]

I fourth that!

Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

I have actually had a few problems with Wainwright. Their automatic bill pay service deducted money from my account the day before it was authorized (which was bad because I'd deposited my roommate's rent check that day, knowing that it was going to be deducted the NEXT day, the authorized day.) Their customer service was terrible and rude ("You should have all funds available at all times for any scheduled bill pay") and when I complained to the manager, I got a rude letter in response.

I've had a couple of other problems with them (can't remember the details) all around bill pay. Generally I would say they're a good bank, but their customer service has really soured me on them. I think I'll look into the NetBank option.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[ron_newman]

Was this before or after they changed over their online banking system last December? With the old system, you really couldn't nail down exactly when funds were going to be withdrawn from your account.

Also, if the authorized day is a non-business day (even a Saturday, when the bank is open), I think they may bump the automatic payment back to the previous business day.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

After. It was in March. What happened was my rent was scheduled to come out on the first day of the month, which was a Sunday, and they withdrew it on Friday because the new system takes it out on the business day preceding the scheduled date. Prior to, it had been the nearest business date. Still, there wasn't any documentation that I could find about that on their website, and their attitude was terrible. (And my roommate got paid on Saturday, so the solution is to change the recurring payment from the first whenever the first falls on a weekend.) Still, to be told and to be confirmed by a manager that you should have "all funds available at all times for any scheduled payment"? Very bad experience.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[ron_newman]

The nice person I usually dealt with at Wainwright was named Lucy. However, she took a leave of absence to have a baby, and when she went back to work, transferred to a different branch.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[joylewis.livejournal.com]

This was their corporate office.

I remembered another problem I had with them: there was a security breach and a bunch of debit card numbers were hacked. Mine was one of them and I called the number I was provided in a letter and was told that my account was still secure. Nothing would happen to my card, but I was told to monitor activity and let them know if any strange charges appeared. The next day I went shopping and my card didn't work anywhere. They'd turned it off, and they took three weeks to issue a new one. When they did issue a new one, the temporary password they gave me didn't work, and that took another week to resolve.

Nobody ever apologized for inconvenience or put a rush on anything, leaving me mostly without access to cash (except during hours the bank was open) for a month.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[jadelennox]

I've found that the Wainwright staff at Harvard are jackasses and the staff at Davis are lovely.

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[ron_newman]

Their BillPay system has its own help pages, separate from the regular Online Banking help pages. I don't want to link to their page since I'm not sure whether the URL has my account ID or session encoded it it. But this is what it says under "Repeating Payments":

Note: The payment date is the date that you want the payee to receive the payment.
If you schedule a payment to start processing on a weekend or holiday, we move the payment date to the previous business day. For example, if you schedule a payment date on a Saturday or Sunday, the payment date is moved to the previous Friday.

Although it leads to the problem you encountered, I can understand why they made this decision. The other choice would be to move the payment date to the next business day -- in which case the payee might consider the payment to be late, and charge you interest or a late fee.

bank

[reed-davis.livejournal.com]

Another vote for Wainwright

[spud.livejournal.com]

It' skind of interesting... I have never had any issue with Bank Of America, but I know several people who have had problems. If you are the sort of person who lets themselves get overdrawn from time to time, BoA can be harsh on it's overdraft fees ($30 per transaction), but otherwise they have been great.

I think the issue is more the transition from Fleet to BoA, and not BoA itself. My account was opened in Florida, and I chose them because they are available across the country, and I tend to travel a good deal. Everyone whom I've heard of having issues with them have been New England people who are dealing with the Fleet transition to BoA.

If you think you will only be using the bank only in this area, I'd definitely advise that you listen to the others here and look into Wainwright. Nobody seems to have had anything bad to say about them yet. Personally, I like BoA, but like I said, I like the convenience of knowing they have branches across the country.

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

Although being available across the country is definitely a plus for some people, I think it is also part of where most people find fault with BoA, seeing it as "big evil corporation" versus "small bank involved in the community in positive ways", so it's not so much the banking per se as the company itself that I think most people have issues with.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

This is somewhat strange, since I tend to be very anti-huge corporation (I do not go by "nowalmart" for nothing), but I will step in and defend BoA for a second.

With a huge customer base comes an assured increase in total number of complaints. Suppose every single bank had a dissatisfaction rate of .1%. Wainwright Bank might have 10,000 customers, which would mean that 10 people are pissed off at them for something. Suppose BoA has 10 million customers. That makes for 10,000 pissed off customers. They would have as many unsatisfied customers as Wainwright HAS customers.

[Note for this example that I completely made the numbers up.]

Working for a company that makes a very popular product, I can assure you that the loudest people (and frequently the only people that say something at all) are the people that feel they have been slighted by the company, regardless of where the fault actually lies.

That said...

Go with a smaller bank like Wainwright. If something goes wrong you are more likely to be able to get ahold of someone who can fix the problem (or explain why the bank does that it did) than trying to get ahold of someone with ability in a huge bank like BoA.

Note that I am a proud member of NetBank (http://www.netbank.com/) since I dislike almost every bank. To avoid most ATM fees I know of the few banks in the Somerville area that do not charge ATM fees, and I always get cash back on debit transactions at grocery stores and the like.

[ron_newman]

OK, but where does NetBank invest the money that you deposit?

We know that Wainwright Bank invests it in local loans; it's common to see their name on signs in front of local developments.

Blame Fleet

[cos]

Actually, the real problem was Fleet. I used to have an account with BayBank Middlesex, part of the confederation of local banks that merged into BayBank. That merger improved service considerably. Then they merged with Bank of Boston to become BankBoston, and things were mostly the same. Then Fleet bought BankBoston, and within a year I was so fed up I fled, and found Wainwright.

I still kept a checking account open at Fleet, without using it much, so now I have a Bank of America account I don't use much. I also kept my Fleet IRA with a balance of less than $1 because even though I transferred all the money to a Fidelity IRA, I couldn't get Fleet to actually close it (and this adventure included several visits to Fleet branches, spending multiple hours). With BofA, I was able to finally get rid of that account. And from what little I use of my checking account there, Bank of America seems okay. Probably not as good as BayBank was, but an improvement over Fleet (not that that's hard).

Wainwright

[cos]

Oh, hi! You seem familiar! :)

I fled from Fleet Bank years ago, and found Wainwright, and have been very happy with them. Their online banking system used to be their main flaw, because it only updated once a day, but they switched this past December to a new system that works in real time.

We tend to nickname them "the happy rainbow bank" (as opposed to "the evil green bank" which was Fleet)

P.S. Every Wainwright branch has a "Community Room" which is basically a meeting room with table and chairs and windows facing the street. If you have a Wainwright account, you can sign out the room for any time it hasn't been signed out by someone else, and host a meeting for some group you're involved with. I've found it very useful at times, especially the Central Square branch which is right next to the T exit there, and very accessible to people from all over.

Re: Wainwright

[ron_newman]

Yep, and since December, the Wainwright online banking now shows you check images (front and back), which it didn't use to do. Also bill paying happens more predictably -- on the date that you specify, rather than 2 or 3 days later.

Re: Wainwright

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Hi yourself! You've probably seen me around [Unknown site tag].

With all these shining recommendations for Wainwright, I'll be sure to check it out.

Re: Wainwright

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Four years, and I still can't correctly link to the Brandeis LJ community...

Re: Voice of dissent about Wainwright

[cos]

Four years, and I still can't correctly link to the Brandeis LJ community

*laugh*

But no, that wasn't it (though I have seen you there). I figured it out and wrote you on the other site.

Re: Wainwright

[siderea]

If you have a Wainwright account, you can sign out the room for any time it hasn't been signed out by someone else, and host a meeting for some group you're involved with.

Really? I asked about that in Davis, and the person I spoke to said it was only available to non-profits who had accounts with them, not individual customers.

Re: Wainwright

[cos]

I've signed out the room at central for meetings of the Boston Civil Liberties Task Force, which was a grassroots group with no official status of any sort. They did want to know what the group meeting was going to be, but signed out the room under my name because I'm an accountholder.

Re: Wainwright

[siderea]

Iiiiiiiintresting.

Re: Wainwright

[ron_newman]

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I am really unhappy with Sovereign right now, with whom I opened an account in February. I have had nothing but issues, delays, and bad customer service, and we are going to close the accounts.

citizens=still as good or as bad as it's always been, they haven't changed.

There's a BoA in Teele, or at least, an ATM. It's by the Muffin place.

[ron_newman]

I'm not sure why anyone uses Sovereign. BoA gets you access to a huge national ATM network; Citizens, Wainwright, and other local banks get you access to a useful regional network. Sovereign doesn't get you either.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Sovereign gets you access to MAC, which is a *VERY* big deal between NY and DC. Might matter to people who travel to those places a lot.

NetBank

[prog.livejournal.com]

If all's you need is the usual checking-and-savings account combo (which I'm guessing is likely), consider not using a local bank at all and instead going with NetBank (http://netbank.com). If you are fine with doing most of your transactions through ATMs (many around here don't charge you extra if you're on whatever ATM network NetBank uses) and the mail, then the significantly higher interest rates that NetBank offers might be well worth the trade-off of lacking access to human tellers. I've used them for three years, hitting the local ATMs when I need cash, have never had any problems, and earn a small tidy pile of interest every year.

If you'd prefer to go brick-and-mortar, I have used Wainwright in the past for my personal accounts and can recommend them. I use Central for my business accounts right now, and they're OK. (They had the best business checking account deal out of all of em.)

Re: NetBank

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

Hey - I have a question for you.

I have been using QuickPost for the few times I need to deposit a check. Quick and easy, since there is a UPS store in Davis. Anyway, this morning I went to deposit a couple of checks, and they gave me a new envelope. The counter guy assured me it was the correct one, but I am really beginning to doubt it will actually get to NetBank.

It was only $20 worth of checks from roommates for some utilities, so it is not a huge deal, but I wanted to know if you had used QuickPost recently.

[Oh, and as another testament to NetBank for the original poster - I have had NetBank for about three years now. I once had a problem with my account. I emailed someone and got a personal response in under an hour. The problem was resolved by the next morning.]

Re: NetBank

[prog.livejournal.com]

Heh... sadly, I have not used QuickPost since they started that program, because I've been running a feisty burn-rate startup and so the whole concept of putting money into my bank account has been alien to for a long time. (I just used ol' USPS first class to mail in my checks before that.)

Re: NetBank

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

(I just used ol' USPS first class to mail in my checks before that.)

I used to do that. I might have to go back to it now.

BoA

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

I'll second spud's comment. I have an account with sovereign (it was originally with shawmut bank, then fleet, then fleet gave my account to sovereign), and they're ok for boston, but nothing special.

then i had to move to arizona, and the deal that worked out best for me here was bank of america. while i'm not generally a "yay, big corporations" type of person, i have to say that i've been surprisingly very pleased with BoA... i've gotten great customer service when i call, i never have to write checks anymore because they have a free e-pay service (which you can use to send money to any company or person, as long as you have their address), and they have partnerships with banks in other countries, like mexico, canada, the uk, etc, so when i went to canada i used scotiabank atms with no fees and get the best exchange rate. plus, their atms are everywhere. the only downside is that you have to sign up for direct deposit to get free checking.

so, if you're not going to travel much or you don't have direct deposit, Bank of America's probably not a very good option for you, but otherwise i've actually found them to be great to bank with.

[ron_newman]

a free e-pay service (which you can use to send money to any company or person, as long as you have their address)

Wainwright added that a few months ago. I haven't tried it. Has anyone here used it, from either BoA, Wainwright, or some other bank?

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

I've used the service with BoA and it's great. I'd be interested to hear how the Wainwright service compares, since I prefer to do most of my banking online. (I do deal with a fair number of paper checks that need to be deposited, however, which makes me a little hesitant about NetBank.)

[ron_newman]

Wainwright's service uses something called "CheckFree", which might even be the same one BofA uses.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

the BoA e-pay service is their own, as far as i know. when you log in to your account at their website, there's a tab for paying bills, you just click on it and tell them you want to send money to and how much, and off it goes. it's excellent. i haven't written a single paper check since opening my account last august, and i've never had a problem with it.

Take your time

[lena-a-mermaid.livejournal.com]

You have a BoA account now and you don't seem too unhappy with it. There is a BoA ATM right in Teele Square where you are going to be living so you wouldn't have to go down to Davis if you needed money, but if you did you would find two BoA ATMs there as well as a full service branch. I live in Teele and I can't recall any other ATM in Teele, although there is a wide variety in Davis.


I have had BoA since the beginning and going into the branches around here I have had no problems and I have had some complex transactions in recent years including stuff relating to estates. I do my checks online and they have a good and easy system for that.

BoA is the most convenient because they have ATMs just about everywhere you could possibly go. You don't have to worry if they are sum or plus or whatever network because you'll never have to go to another bank than your own to take out money because they are everywhere.

I could post something here about any topic and a bunch of people would have a lot of negative comments about it or some raving positive comments but these are really just random people who may have had one bad experience (who hasn't) or are against the giant corporation type banks or whatever who happened to decide to reply to your post. Including me.

Why don't you keep your BoA for now, see how it goes. See how your convenience factor is, see what your new post-college life is like and where you go and what you do and then look at where the other banks atms and branches are and then decide if you want to change banks.

You don't have to move into a new city, a new apartment, a new post-college lifestyle AND change your bank all in the same week. You have time to figure it out.

Congratulations on your graduation. Welcome to Teele.

Re: Take your time

[ron_newman]

The other two Teele Square ATMs belong to Middlesex Federal Savings (on Broadway) and Somerville Municipal Federal Credit Union (on Holland Street). Both are SUM ATMs.