Bank recommendations Options

[Spectatrix]

I'm going to be getting a new checking account soon and wanted to see what recommendations people might have on banks. I'm going to be in Austin, so either big chains or local Austin banks are viable. I've had a Wells Fargo account in the past, which has been ok, but I won't be eligible for their college checking account and thus can't get free Bill Pay.

I'm looking for:

• Free online banking
• Free bill pay
• No account fee (or waived with *small* balance)
• Provides Visa-backed debit card (pretty much everyone)
• Don't give a flip about savings, because I already have my ING Direct account for that
• Don't care if it's interest-bearing, because those interest rates are always tiny anyways
• Preferably good customer service, but lack of crazy hidden fees is a higher priority than that

This post has been edited by Spectatrix: Dec 8 2006, 10:46 AM

[Mommy]

Honestly, I never had problems like Will did with BofA. My mom would send me personal checks of sometimes up to $800 and they would hit 1-2 business days later. There is a 30-90 day ( forget exactly) period after you sign up for the bank account that your deposits are subject to a longer hold (only happened once to me and they only held the check for 3 days), but thats the case with most banks because they want to protect themselves against fraud.

[DaveFireDancer19]

Honestly, I never had problems like Will did with BofA. My mom would send me personal checks of sometimes up to $800 and they would hit 1-2 business days later. There is a 30-90 day ( forget exactly) period after you sign up for the bank account that your deposits are subject to a longer hold (only happened once to me and they only held the check for 3 days), but thats the case with most banks because they want to protect themselves against fraud.

and they can legally do that with new accounts....nice of that to only hold it for 3 days...id hafta dig out my notes for the exact number of days..but i konw its longer than that for new accounts.

whenever i deposit anything with BoA i always get the first $100 immediatly and the rest the next day...that is whats legal...unless of course its a large check and/or a number of other things that allow the bank to hold checks longer..(its a long list of fairly common things..haha)