Shredded Cards originally uploaded by Brandon Dimcheff
Last week’s poll asking what your favorite radio station happened to be raised our best response yet beating out the old record by nearly 30 votes while picking up 50 comments. Not bad. What surprised me the most was the fact that “Other” beat out 89.3. Being that I listed every radio station worth listening to and even a couple that aren’t, the only ones left were really country (which isn’t music heh and other stuff that, well, sucks ;-))
This week’s poll comes after news that TCF will end it’s “totally free checking” (KARE, WCCO, StarTribune). When I first moved to MN my coworkers suggested that I use TCF and not knowing any better I did. While the checking is totally free, you get short changed on everything else–especially online banking. Their free online banking was awful and their $3/month online banking was still behind what all other banks offered for nothing. When we got married my wife and I consolidated into US Bank and have been there since.
US Bank is free, their online banking is pretty decent, and I haven’t had too many problems with them. While I don’t think any bank is perfect, they’re far better than TCF ever was. We just recently opened some accounts at US Federal Credit Union too–diversifying you know ;-)
Preferred Bank
- Wells Fargo (36.0%, 34 Votes)
- US Bank (23.0%, 22 Votes)
- Credit Union (16.0%, 15 Votes)
- TCF (10.0%, 9 Votes)
- Other (10.0%, 9 Votes)
- Mattress (4.0%, 4 Votes)
- Bremer (1.0%, 1 Votes)
- Anchor (0.0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 94
Loading ...Anyway, the question of the week is which bank do you use and why? Do you still use TCF and what do you think about their online banking? Did you even realize that it’s the worst one available? Do you worry that all banks will now get rid of free checking and start charging ridiculous fees so they can fund their unnecessary sponsorships of college football stadiums? Whatever you have to say about your banking choices go ahead and comment on and then feel free to check out our expired polls in the archive or read through the previous posts about polls here.
Dakota Complaints Map
Dakota Inmate Dashboard
January 24th, 2010 at 8:00 am
What Bank Do You Use Poll: http://www.lazylightning.org/what-bank-do-you-use-poll
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
January 24th, 2010 at 8:02 am
I’ve been with Wells Fargo since I was a little kid (then Norwest Bank) so it’s hard to leave them, but I have been using ING Direct more for long term savings and stuff like that. I’m slowly moving everything over there as well.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:53 am
we use the former N.W.A.F.C.U. now wings financial. ez online banking. before that we used qt sized fruit jars buried in back yard. a little tough to get to in the winter tho:)
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January 24th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I’ve used TCF ever since they bullied me into opening an account when I started at the UofM and I’ve always liked them. My friends who banked at US Bank or Wells Fargo always bitched about the exorbitant ATM fees they had to pay if they went outside their network (the ATM owner would charge them AND their bank would charge them a second time) and TCF is more reasonable about that.
Their online banking has always been functional for me, but I’ve never seen another bank’s website to compare it to so I don’t know what I’m missing I guess.
We use ING for savings accounts and I love them and I would like to move our checking account over now that TCF is going to start charging fees, but I also like have a brick and mortar building that I can go to if need be. I suppose I could do most checking (which isn’t much anyways) through ING and maintain a US Bank checking account to use their in-person services when I needed to.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:27 am
One thing I forgot to mention. The cost associated with switching banks is higher now than in the past if you have direct deposit setup and also any automated payments that come from your bank. We use both of these and I also have the checking account linked to our ING accounts AND paypal. Big pain in my ass to go change all that stuff, so that pisses me off too.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:42 am
I grew up using Teacher Federal Credit Union that had a branch in Roseville. Then one day we were told that our bank location was becoming a Sperm bank so needless to say I stopped making um deposits there. But it was nice when I moved South of the River they have a Branch in Apple Valley (Bank branch not sperm bank) But the customer service sucked and most of us know what happened since. Teachers Federal Credit Union use to be a good bank. But in the last year they changed names to Trustone Financial and stopped caring. It use to be Credit Unions had a different mood, it was not always about the $$
January 24th, 2010 at 9:49 am
OMG you’re a whiner! ;-)
January 24th, 2010 at 10:19 am
We are members of three credit unions. Both my husband and I were members of our own credit unions before we were married. The Tuesday after our wedding we took all the checks we received and headed to Affinity Plus Credit Union to open a joint account. We each kept our own accounts at our own credit unions for our “allowances” and so we are able to compare them when it comes to getting mortgages, car loans, etc. It works pretty well for us.
January 24th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I switched to Wells Fargo recently after being with US Bank for years. I was drawn in by the features of their online site, and their budgeting tools.
My employer is a Wells Fargo customer, so we were able to get premium member checking, which includes out-of-network ATM withdrawals and higher interest rates on checking and savings. I don’t force anyone to switch, it’s all about what is most convenient to you and what is the most fair.
A bank is a place to hold money, not sure how many places can screw that up. Although I’ve heard horror stories of TCF…
January 24th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Wells Fargo
January 24th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I use my company’s credit union, which has a branch in the building where I work and you can remain a member of even if you leave the company for any reason. Still have a joint and our “allowance” accounts at U.S. Bank, since we still have some direct pay accounts tied to it and haven’t gotten around to switching all of them, but we will at some point. I’ve found their customer service to be meh at best, despite their convenience.
We used to have an account with ING too, but stopped using them after an issue that didn’t get resolved, even after hours of trying to go through the right channels, until I acquired the CEO’s direct contact information (long story).
January 24th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
My first bank account I had was after I started working in High School and was at whatever the US Bank by the AV Ford Car Dealer was at the time. I can’t recall, but it was before they were Firstar. They gave me my first loan (a personal loan) which I used to buy a motorcycle that they had repossessed. This was the early 80′s.
Convenience was king back them as ACH payroll deposits and ATM cards were not anywhere near as ubiquitous as they are today. That bank was On my way to work from my Mom’s house (rosemount), and half way between my Mom’s and Dad’s house (apple valley). When I married, and we moved to Eagan, we went with a local bank, which in the area of Pilot Knob road and Yankee Doodle Road was Norwest. I found Norwest to be pretty good though we had some issues with payroll deposits. As that bank grew, they became less and less personal. And eventually they made one mistake too many. They treated me like shit, and cost me about $300, which at the time was significant. Since that time, Norwest, and now Wells Fargo bank are Dead to me.
We switched to a Firstar bank then and never looked back. We even won our first TV bigger than 25″ from a drawing at the bank. New bank employees at the now US Bank sometimes get confused because my account number with them is so short. US Bank online banking is essentially completely free. I haven’t tried to do anything online that costs me extra money. Unlike when I was secretary for a bowling league that used Wells Fargo. Their Free online banking is QUASI-FREE. I.e. you can view check images online for free, but you can’t view deposit slips online for free. WTF? if you’ve already imaged it and stored it, why would that cost anything?
These days I suggest my kids get accounts at a credit union. convenience for locations of the branches isn’t quite so important these days, and there are some pretty compelling advantages to a credit union, one of which is easier loans for much more reasonable interest rates than you can find at most banks.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
The number of cash machines in the metro area is key for me. Being in every Cub Foods is also key. TCF it is for me. If they require a large minimum account balance here in the future I will need to look elsewhere.
January 24th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
Associated Bank. My wife had an account with them when we got married and I was with a small local bank in western Wisconsin with a crappy online site, so I moved everything to Associated and haven’t looked back. Excellent customer service and a great site. They’ve never charged me for anything except one or two ATM fees outside of their network and they were pretty low fees for those.
They also happen to be the only bank with branches in my parents’, my in-laws’, and our hometown, which has been convenient on a number of occasions. I have nothing but really good things to say about them to this point. The only negative is they don’t have a branch in downtown St. Paul. They have one in downtown Minneapolis that I used when I worked there and given bank hours, it’s helpful to have one close to work.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:08 am
There has never been a cost for me. I went from a credit union to Wells Fargo (cause I worked there) to ING, and back to Wells Fargo (because we needed check writing while we were buying our home) and plan on going back to ING soon, and there were never any costs. If someone charges you to end your ACH deposit, they’re likely scamming you.
There’s a difference between being a lazy person (ie: too much work to move ach’s) and having a cost associated, don’t confuse the two.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I’ve been with USBank for the better part of a decade I think, and really haven’t had any issues at all. I have all my personal, business, home and one point auto loan thru them.
My Investments are at WFI due to former regulatory requirements with employment, and I just never moved it.
Having once been a TCF customer back in the late 90′s, I really hope they’ve upped their quality of service, but seeing the type of clientele that wander in and out of the grocery store branches, and the fact that they refuse to cooperate with police when a teller cashes a forged check in excess of $3,000, my guess is they’re still called TCF for a reason.. – Twin Cities F**kups..
January 25th, 2010 at 10:50 am
dmh, I think ben was referring to the time sink required to make the setup changes to other accounts so that they are pulling from/depositing to the right ACH.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Being someone who just recently changed banks, I can safely say it was a big headache to change all of our accounts to pull from Wells (it would’ve been the same going to any other bank). I still ended up missing one account. Not sure how you could ever smooth out the process…
January 25th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I still bank at the Iowa credit union I opened my first account at and they’ve never given me any reason to switch. My husband works for US Bank and basically had to move his accounts over there because USB will not direct deposit paychecks into accounts held at other banks. Aren’t they swell?
January 25th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Honestly, I can understand USB’s position in the sense that if you’re going to work for the company, you would hopefully support their product and if you don’t, they probably don’t want you working there to begin with. Still a pain, but from their perspective I think it makes sense.
January 25th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Wells Fargo for personal accounts (we had a Norwest mortgage and got an interest rate break if we had checking there, too). We moved our business accounts to USBank last year because Wells Fargo kept dicking us with fees we didn’t authorize, then expecting us to call them monthly to reverse the charges. Idiots. No, make that incompetent idiots. Screw that.
USBank small biz accounts are free (as they should be) and their online banking is good. But here is a notice for US Bank: I will be pulling my small business accounts unless we can find a way to get around the $12.99 a month you want to charge me to download my account data into Quickbooks. Why should I pay you $13 bucks for doing nothing? This is data you already maintain and provide me access to (for free if I pull down each account separately). What does it cost you to allow my bookkeeper to download the data all at once?
We have our savings accounts online at Capital One — pretty good online access and good rates (they were higher than ING when we made the selection).
January 25th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Wells Fargo because they are one of the only banks around here offering safe deposit boxes, even though they take the annual fee out of our checking account with no prior notice or reminder — annoying.
We also have a credit union account from a former employer because most things there are free, their service is friendly, and their credit card is a great deal.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
The first checking/savings account I got out of high school (for all those graduation gifts) was with TCF. I don’t think I even lasted 4 months there, they fucked my account up beyond belief. I took whatever money was left and ran to where my dad banked, First Minnesota (I believe). They were quickly bought out by Norwest, which of course was bought out by Wells Fargo. They still consider me a “member since 1990″ (year I graduated from high school) so for some odd reason I like that it is printed on my ATM card (yeah, I know, I’m a nerd).
The company I work for also has a banking relationship with Wells Fargo so I get the premium stuff for no charge as Nils stated:
And another thing, I detest TCF. Ever been somewhere that has a printed sign “Will Not Accept TCF checks?” I’ve seen plenty of those signs around town, rumor has it the cause was TCF would hand out an ATM card and book of checks to anyone that walked through their doors so they had a huge rate of bounced checks and other problems. Even though my employer has a relationship with Wells Fargo they still allow TCF to come in once a year and pitch to us, man, you do not want to fuck with me on THAT annual occasion, that pisses me off to no end.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Oh, the rest of the story.
We use Wells Fargo for the basics – checkbook for any company not set up for billpay, debit card for day to day use.
Mortgage started out with small town bank which quickly sold us to C0un+rywide then to B@nk of Americ@.
Home equity line of credit and one of the car loans through one credit union, second car loan through yet another credit union.
blahblahblah
January 25th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
TCF and US Bank for checking. Emigrant and ING for online savings. I don’t really like any of them, but I have not really had any major problems with any of them either. US Bank seems to have the worst customer service so far, but they had a great rate on a home equity line of credit this summer which makes up for the idiots working at their banks.
January 25th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
For me it’s all about convenience, probably because I hate thinking about money. When BayBank opened the first ATMs in Boston I closed my account at Century and ran over a wad of cash. When I first moved out here I needed to open a checking account on a friday afternoon for my first months rent, and Norwest had a real branch in the Roseville Rainbow open til 7:30. I stayed with them for the Quicken account syncing / bill pay features which TCF didn’t yet have. Now it’s because I don’t need to stumble as far to a Wells Fargo ATM when I’m bar hopping.
My favorite though is Bank of MrsMarcos. The fees are astronomical but my bills have magically been signed sealed and delivered on time ever since I signed up.
January 25th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
Better yet, my sister and dad had accounts with TCF, they had ample funds to cover written checks, and TCF bounced their checks for no reason. They told me to avoid TCF like the plague.
January 26th, 2010 at 5:23 am
I used TCF for a while when I was younger. My very first bank account was with the (then) Marquette Bank in Lakeville, but then I moved over to TCF when I was at the U because it was easier. I don’t remember having any issues with them personally, but it was a long time ago and it sounds like things have changed.
January 26th, 2010 at 10:01 am
I use the Charles Schwab bank for banking and credit card -
I travel out of the country often and they rebate all ATM fees and pay current exchange rates on foreign transactions. Their credit card also only charges a 1% foreign transaction fees – most others charge 3%
I find on line banks to have as good if not better service than local banks -