So Wachovia's royally pissing me off. I'm looking for a new bank to open a free checking account with. Any recommendations?

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 4:12 PM. Reason : .]

7/2/2008 4:11:52 PM

secu is the only acceptable answer

7/2/2008 4:12:17 PM

^

7/2/2008 4:16:49 PM

I recently switched from Wachovia to BB&T and I've been extremely happy.

7/2/2008 4:20:01 PM

I've had BB&T and Wachovia. I dumped BB&T and have had Wachovia for years. I now have 2 credit cards through them. What are they doing to you?

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 4:23 PM. Reason : ]

7/2/2008 4:22:35 PM

i've had Wachovia and BoA. never really had issues with either.

7/2/2008 4:27:11 PM

Id get into a credit union if you have the option.

7/2/2008 4:30:20 PM

http://www.ncsecu.org

See if you have any family members who can get you in.

7/2/2008 4:48:12 PM

http://www.ncsecu.org/AboutSECU/MembershipEligibility.html

7/2/2008 4:50:16 PM

I like first citizens for free business checking

7/2/2008 4:57:40 PM

Quote :

"secu is the only acceptable answer"

7/2/2008 5:00:06 PM

get in a credit union if you can.

if not, i have ING Orange Checking or whatever it is, and i like it a lot

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 5:02 PM. Reason : whachovia's been pissing me off lately too :grumpy pants:]

7/2/2008 5:02:00 PM

for b&m banks - i've previously had accounts at
stock yards - http://www.syb.com/ - in HS no real opinion
5/3 - http://www.53.com/ - in HS and first 2 years of college - first car loan through them and they suck as a bank
bb&t - http://www.bbt.com/ - in college and a few years afterwards - they suck as a company - avoid them like the plague


currently have them at
wachovia - http://www.wachovia.com/
nc secu - http://www.ncsecu.org/

of all of them wachovia is the best in my opinion for all around options - we currently have the lowest level crown account there though to take advantage of some of the things they give away for free when you put a little money in an account with them - we don't take advantage of them all but a good bit of them we do

Quote :

"# Free Premium Savings or money market account # Free Crown checks # Free safe deposit box note 1 # Two free withdrawals at non-Wachovia ATMs note 2 # Free overdraft transfers # Free domestic incoming wires # Free official checks, money orders, traveler's checks and notary services # Interest-earning checking account with interest compounded daily # Discounts on home equity line/loans"

when i got my car loan 3 years ago though, nc secu had the best rates around so i advise you to open an account and at the very least put the minimum in there to keep the account active in case you need it - alternatively if you are temporarily eligible for a different credit union it may be advantageous to join it while you are eligible to utilize the benefits later

7/2/2008 5:09:40 PM

secu hands down.

I honestly don't see how private banks like BB&T , BOA, or wachovia can compete with credit unions. Friends of my mine get anal raped by the man with $40 overdraft fees. Sometimes i let my account overdraft because i am to lazy do the allocation on my computer and would rather just take the 50 CENT penalty.

If only the gov't would reduce the restrictions on credit unions so they could be more widespread. We all know this won't happen though because to many politicians have big banking lobbyists chilling in their waiting room. Screw whats best for the avg american we want Hugh McCall to get his 500 million retirement pension!

7/2/2008 5:40:37 PM

http://www.jdpower.com/finance/ratings/retail-banking-ratings/southeast

7/2/2008 5:53:33 PM

Quote :

"If only the gov't would reduce the restrictions on credit unions so they could be more widespread."

I think the SECU is the second largest credit union in the country behind the Navy (?) credit union.

7/2/2008 6:54:03 PM

I mean they need enough restrictions to keep them solvent.

7/2/2008 6:57:15 PM

Quote :

"I recently switched from Wachovia to BB&T and I've been extremely happy"

same here, but mainly because BB&T has more locations in goldsboro and my girlfriend went to work with them

7/2/2008 8:44:00 PM

Can any people fill us in more on why said banks sucked so much beyond something like overdraft fees?

BB&T has treated me just fine. One time they reimbursed me when I had to use the Wachovia ATM because the BB&T one on campus was out of commission. Another time, one of their automatic payments to Time Warner messed up and didn't arrive on time, so they refunded the late fee no questions asked. (Free online bill pay ftw!)

They even called me about a month ago to thank me for banking with them!

7/2/2008 9:30:15 PM

this question really has to do with what you're looking for in a bank, for instance I love BoA because of its billpay features, of course I never overdraft, bank almost entirely online or at an ATM and use ING, etc... for savings, so cust. service and rates don't really matter to me.

if you're worried about overdraft or interest rates then shop around for ones with low overdraft fees or the best rates. if you want good cust. service a credit union is the way to go generally. either SECU or CFCU.

7/2/2008 9:54:58 PM

BB&T foreign atm fees = PWNAGE

not only you get raped by the ATM, you get fucked by your own bank

2nd SECU if you can get in.

i have both, only cause bb&T branch locations are close by . im outside of NC at this point

7/2/2008 10:57:16 PM

^you get 4 free foreign atm transactions per month with their student free checking

7/2/2008 11:18:43 PM

^yeah but im not a student anymore

7/2/2008 11:20:51 PM

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 11:25 PM. Reason : i just go in a grocery store, buy a pack of gum, and get cashback]

7/2/2008 11:24:49 PM

Does anyone have a WaMu online account? I was with Washington Mutual when I lived in California but closed my account when I moved here. I never had any problems with them before.

I don't think I qualify for SECU.

7/3/2008 12:52:22 AM

^ wamu had a solvency problem, i'm not gonna put my money there.

if you have money, most any bank is fine. no fees either. it's when you live paycheck to paycheck that i find people complaining about this fee and that fee.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 11:29 AM. Reason : eh ]

7/3/2008 11:28:32 AM

SunTrust, there's a branch right on Peace near Clark and there's one inside HT in Cameroon Village. I can always get done what I need to do quickly.

https://www.suntrust.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&cached=true&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=0&in_hi_userid=2&control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=765&PageID=0

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 11:33 AM. Reason : link]

7/3/2008 11:31:03 AM

Coastal Federal Union

go green checking=5.01%APY
[link]http://http://www.coastalfcu.org/gogreen/index.htm[/link]

7/3/2008 11:35:04 AM

Quote :

"http://www.ncsecu.org See if you have any family members who can get you in. "

or roomates...

7/3/2008 12:59:50 PM

Fuck wachovia.... I use USAA, but I'm in the military... but yea, credit unions are better. I'm not 100% sure I'd put my life savings there... just b/c they're not federaly insured, but anything under 25,000 (ish) should be great.

7/3/2008 1:25:05 PM

i bank with marine federal credit union, and they're federally insured to $100,000

7/3/2008 1:28:54 PM

I use Wachovia Crown Banking for my checking and have no problems. Maybe some of you are looking for things that I am not though.

7/3/2008 1:49:28 PM

Credit Unions are the way to go.

I bank with CCU. 3.5% interest rate. They refund all ATM withdrawls at any bank. no minimum balance. No fees. you have to buy checks for $5 bucks a pack though. I also have accounts at BB&T and Centura. They are by far the best.

If you want some info for signing up, let me know. They give you and me $25 bucks each for being a new customer.

7/3/2008 3:15:53 PM

Quote :

"I'm not 100% sure I'd put my life savings there... just b/c they're not federaly insured, but anything under 25,000 (ish) should be great."

i wouldn't put your life savings in any bank, considering that they will only insure (with the fed. govt's help) up to 100k. most people should have more than 100k as their savings.

of course you could setup accounts at different banks, to CYA.

Quote :

"you have to buy checks for $5 bucks a pack though."

that's actually pretty good. for all the perks i get at my bank, getting more money back is better. i trade higher interest bearing checking/savings for more perks like free checks, notary, deposit box, etc... we'll see if it's worth it.

7/4/2008 12:20:54 AM

I just got checks and it was like $32. Sucks.

7/4/2008 1:53:52 PM

i use wachovia and haven't had any problems...i always see wolfwebbers talking about secu though so obviously they know something i dont

7/4/2008 5:05:46 PM

never had issues with Wachovia or BOA- and I've also heard great things about SECU (though I can't join myself)

7/4/2008 7:10:01 PM

until september, you can get BB&T's plus package for free with a checking account and it comes with free checks. the plus package also gives you $10 each quarter if you send in receipts (for anything, pay with cash, debit, credit, check, anything) totalling $100 or more. that's $40 for free each year and all you have to do is mail in some receipts. there's also a bunch of discounts and shit for travel, rental cars, etc. the plus package usually costs like $5 per month.

7/4/2008 9:35:49 PM

restricted company credit union

7/4/2008 9:43:16 PM

USAA is by far the best bank/insurance/etc you can get

just suck it up and enlist for 4 years or got to OCS

7/5/2008 12:29:01 AM

USAA is indeed the shit.

7/5/2008 4:50:44 AM

bttt for some new advice since it seems the banking industry is completely different now than it was when this thread was started

if you have an RA/TA assistantship at NC State can you qualify for a SECU account?

are there any other local banks that offer incentives for opening a new checking account? which ones offer free checks?

9/29/2008 12:42:21 PM

Schwab High-Yield Checking FTW

9/29/2008 12:45:58 PM

correct me if I'm wrong but just anyone can't sign up for an account with the SECU. Don't you need a family member (or self) that works for the state?

9/29/2008 12:48:33 PM

^yeah, you or a family member needs to be a state employee to open an account there

my RA/TA assistantship paychecks come from NC State so I'm wondering if that would qualify me as a state employee

9/29/2008 12:51:23 PM

^It would, my gf did it.

9/29/2008 12:52:58 PM

i think bb&t might still be offering the free checks and shit, not sure though.

9/29/2008 12:53:43 PM

Quote :

"you must remember that the average american is a total idiot"

hahahaha i quoted the wrong thing.. oops

whatever

yeah, but just about everyone can qualify for some sort of credit union which is better than just about any bank ever.

[Edited on September 29, 2008 at 1:36 PM. Reason : WHATEVER]

9/29/2008 1:22:46 PM