Interesting timing since I am about to close my Wells Fargo checking account that I opened in 1983 as an employee account. I worked for Norwest that become Wells in about 1999. My job went from great to shitty in a few months as the new goons took over.

I moved to a regional bank that offers free checking and never looked back. My checking account is just a holding account as money is electronically wired in and the bills are electronically wired out. I write less than 5 checks a year. It doesn't really matter where the physical bank is since I never visit them in person.

Wells Fargo has different checking accounts. The one I have is free as long as I maintain a $500 average daily balance. There are other waivers too, such as amount of direct deposits. I hate the big banks, but when you are travelling and looking for an ATM, it's convenient to bank w/ a bank that has a large national presence.

I also bank w/ FCCU, a credit union.

As others noted, if you want to maintain an account at WF, look to convert it to a different no-fee type or pitch your bitch to a branch manager.

Member-owned Credit Union

I can not speak about Wells Fargo bank nor Texas ... but I changed banks to a credit union for a similar reason about 40 years ago and never looked back.

What I really liked about the credit union is the shared banking between all different credit unions especially when out of state. Another is when I went to Europe on two different occasions using foreign ATMs ... I was not charged any foreign transaction fees.

Our checking is free unless the daily balance is below $500, I think, but we keep our checking daily balance well above that.

You should look at the hassle factor as well. I have numerous drafts out of the account and also ACH deposits on a regular basis. It would take me hours to change all of that. I also have a Money Market account with DWS. They have an annual maintenance fee which they will waive if you forgo paper statments. The bank branch manager if competent is interested in future business which may come their way as a result of your account.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Two words…

Credit Union.

^^^^ THIS!!!

Have to agree, credit unions are generally fantastic.

When I had a business and personal accounts, Chase was fine. Once I dissolved the business and closed that side, I was a second class citizen. Once my hatred of them was fully matured, I left and went with State Farm Bank. Was happy enough until they closed it down. I went with a credit union and wonder now why I didn't just cut directly to that. They have been nothing short of fantastic with every thing that a bank does.

Chase Bank . I've been with them since they were Washington Mutual. I know, it's a pretty woke company but I have never had any problems with them. When I last opened another checking account with a minimum balance of $100 and no monthly service fee, they offered me 200 free checks. I asked for 1,000 and they sent me a 1,000 .

When I was in the Houston area, I noticed that they were all over the place. You can't drive for more than 15 minutes without seeing one. When I was in Pearland, there were 3 locations at one intersection. I've never seen anything like that. I guess in Texas, land is cheap enough to stack them all over the place.

quote:

Originally posted by SIP2000GLO:

Chase Bank . I've been with them since they were Washington Mutual. I know, it's a pretty woke company but I have never had any problems with them.

It was probably fifteen years ago, more or less, that we did a re-fi on the home mortgage with Washington Mutual. They were running a promo with much a lower interest rate than on the mortgage we had at the time, and no closing costs.

Everything was fine, until Chase ate Washington Mutual. Then, there was some sort of posting error on my mortgage payments just about every month. Due to the lower interest rate, and a fairly healthy income, we were able to be very aggressive in extra payments on the mortgage. Despite filling out the form correctly, showing that the excess payment should go directly to principal, Chase managed to screw it up just about every month, to the point where I had to stop doing the payments by mail, and go into the lobby each month, so I could examine the receipt and hand it back to the teller instructing her to do it properly.

We were able to repay the fifteen year mortgage in less than ten years. When it was down to the final couple of payments, I mailed a check for about thirty dollars more than I calculated was due, just to make sure that there would not be any left-over interest owed to them.

I received a message from the branch manager instructing me to appear at the branch if I was closing out the mortgage account. "Instructing me?" Go pound sand, yo.

I replied to his message, telling him that if he wanted to see me, he could visit me at my office at the hangar, I had an opening at 10:30 am on Thursday. "Don't be late," I told him, "My time is valuable. And be sure to bring a certified check for the refund for my overpayment. Other than that, I never want to hear from you again."

He never responded. I did receive mail from the Chase mother ship, with a check for the overpayment and the documentation for release of the mortgage.

Glad that you had a better experience with Chase than I did.

I'm a long way from Houston, but surely you can do better than that. I have checking in a local credit union, prior to that Suntrust. Neither charge(d) me any fees, ever. With Suntrust I had to opt for online statements only to get free checking (no-brainer). The credit union actually still sends me old-fashioned paper statements. The bottom line is you need a new bank ASAP.

Frost Bank

Banks are businesses and need to make a profit. I get that. Still some of their fees and rules drive me nuts.

I'm fortunate to have a bank that doesn't charge fees to us old farts. Free checking, no minimum balance, not statement fee... nothing. I write about 8 check a month. One a week to my lawn guys and once every two weeks to our house cleaning folks. The lawn guys go away in Oct, but there is the odd check now and again for services that don't accept CC. I might be tempted to just put cash under the mattress since the interest they give back is next to nothing.

I've been with my credit union for more than 40 years and wouldn't think of changing to a bank. I don't know how many people know this, but you can use any ATM at any CU in the country at no charge. Very handy if you travel much.

Jim

Went through the same thing when I was in Houston w BofA. I said "ok switch my account to non-fee type" and they told me Id have to close my current account and re-open a new one so I left and told the guy at BofA when I closed my account that they should get out of private banking because they suck at it.

Went to BBT which had a lot of branches in Houston and also NC where I was moving but they got bought by Suntrust and are now Truist....they are not horrible and there are ~20 Houston area branches.

When I lived in the Houston area I learned to never use a bank. Especially the larger ones. Ever! Use a credit Union like Dow or others. Ask around. Research. Dow has lots of ATMs in the area too. I must admit I stopped using them only when i moved out of the area

There are plenty of other credit unions that may want your business.

Better loan rates, cheaper checking etc. are available at credit unions. That treat you respectfully as well. Unless you have a ton of money to keep deposited, banks in Houston hate you and don’t want your business.

Some of the smaller banks may be different, but I have no experience with them.

Certainly you should explore Red Neck Bank. Yes it is a real bank. https://redneck.bank/

As an ex-banker and money manipulator, I do business with a lot of banks. Among others, I currently use Wells Fargo under a special arrangement for which you will not be eligible.

Many banks are paying a bonus from $100 to $600 to simply open a checking account with them.

Check out Hustler Money Blog - https://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/


My recommendations:

Best service
Capital One on Deposits and credit cards. Internet based, but dispenses cash at many easy locations such as Walgreens, etc. No easy effective cash deposits.

Chase is good on many services if you require a local full service branch. Account fees are waived if you have a month direct deposit like Social Security check sent to them.

I would avoid both Citi and Bank of America due to past business ethics problems. Also Wells Fargo unless you know how to handle them.

Currently doing business with:
Wells Fargo
Capital One
Chase
Capital One
Key Bank
Bank of the West
1st National Bank of Omaha
BBVA
Huntington
Citywide Banks

Sometimes Credit Unions give in branch good service, but have been in the past slow on available funds if not directly connected to the the appropriate wire transfer service.

If you elect to open an account with Capital One, they have been offering a $50-$100 referral fee. Mention me as referral and I will send it on to Para fund raising if we cannot get it sent directly to FundRazer

Joe