The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Alternatepriorities on April 15, 2019, 09:38:57 PM
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My wife and I have slowly combined our finances since getting married. She likes having a savings account for short term savings and just opened one with the bank I've used for ~20 years. The offer an astonishing 0.01% Interest on savings accounts! That pissed me off a little and got me thinking about one of the few financial areas I haven't optimized. I haven't paid them any fees in all these years and figured that was good enough.
I like the simplicity of having our accounts at the same bank. We need a personal checking account (which would receive direct deposit), a business checking account, and a savings account. I do like being able to visit the bank in person from time to time, but I'm wondering if it might be time to move to online banking.
Any suggestions?
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I'm in Europe so no help there :P
But I believe that N26 bank may be interesting when it goes live: https://n26.com/en-us
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Ally Bank (https://www.ally.com/) + local credit union if I ever need to deposit cash. 2.2% APY on savings account right now.
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We keep checking and a couple of short-term savings accounts (small immediate access e-fund, quarterly tax fund) at a national bank with local brick-and-mortar branches. Our main e-fund is in a high-yield savings account at Ally Bank.
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I use fidelity for 99% of my banking. My paycheck is direct deposited there. I can write checks, use an ATM for free, online bill pay, check deposit via cellphone app). I move money from the fidelity Money Management Account to my fidelity brokerage account to buy index funds. Can do that very easily with a few clicks of my mouse or on my phone. My IRAs are there, so I can fund those periodically directly from my MMA account. (BTW, the MMA account is pretty unneccessary, because you can do all of the above with a fidelity Brokerage account).
But...the only thing so far I haven't been able to do via fidelity is cash deposits. We've been downsizing and selling a lot of clutter. I've got about $900 cash right now, so I deposit that to my local credit union who offers a free savings account with 5.0% interest on the first $2500. That gets deposited there, and when that amount is too high, I just get them to write me a cashiers check and I deposit that electronically into my MMA.
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Ally for savings and money market accounts. Money market has slightly lower interest rate than actual savings, but money market has checks and a debit card so we've used that when making large purchases (mainly cars). We use a Fidelity Cash Management account for our main checking. All ATM fees get reimbursed.
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Ally and T-Mobile's high interest checking for some (emergency fund or whatnot) and Chase as primary checking.
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I use a local small town bank for my checking account (because I still get paper paychecks *insert eye roll*) and then I have two separate high interest savings accounts, one with CIT bank and one with American Express. I think they are between 2.1-2.4% APY
It is really nice to have a small local bank...they know who I am when I walk in, and it is super easy to access my money if I need it. But, I love having online savings accounts, because it takes like 3 days to get my money from those, which is perfect for accounts I hope to not ever need.
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Ally Bank (https://www.ally.com/) + local credit union if I ever need to deposit cash. 2.2% APY on savings account right now.
This is exactly what I do too. Best of both worlds. Great yield from an online savings account and a local office I can go in and raise hell if needed. Only real issue is that transfers between the two can take a few days.
To be honest, my ally experience has been pretty positive all around such that I'd seriously consider using them alone.
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Thanks everyone!
I am a PenFed member. I joined for the credit card (they offered no foreign transaction fees before it became common), but haven't really used it for anything else. Ally bank also looks interesting. Neither of them seem to offer a business account option. I suppose I don't really need all the accounts in one place though. I do need to deposit a paper check once a month which is really easy with my current account and a phone... I assume that's pretty much standard everywhere now?
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Oh, I forgot - I also have a Charles Schwab account because they refund ATM fees (even internationally).
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Digital Credit Union
Direct deposits show up 1 to 2 days before everyone else sees theirs.
First $1000 in primary savings gets 6.12%
If I overdraft, the fee is removed simply by calling, emailing or stopping in.
Every other thing a bank does except safe deposit boxes.
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I've been using Ally since 2010 for savings and checking. Never had a problem and rates are good.
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Navy Federal or USAA if you are eligible for either.
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Capital One 360. No physical bank. Was originally with ING Direct before bought by Cap One. Never had any issues in roughly 15 years. I don't chase yields though & only keep a small amount of cash uninvested.
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Local credit union all the way. No bullshit fees or account minimums to deal with - and the ATM card still works internationally.
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Navy Federal for fixed expenses. Two percent Citi Double Cash for everything that'll go on a card. Fidelity Cash Management Account to pay off the Citi every month. It's more complicated than it needs to be but it's all on auto-pilot.
I've been with NFCU since 1987 and Fidelity since 1992 and I'm very happy with them.
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Ally for better savings rates, Chase for main banking (direct deposit waives monthly fees). Vanguard for investments.
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Local credit union for checking and basic savings account. Capital One 360 for longer-term savings, TIAA Bank for a couple of CDs, Fidelity for taxable investments and IRA.
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Wells Fargo ($400) and Chase ($300) offer bonuses for signing up for their checking accounts. You just have to keep your direct deposit with them to avoid the small monthly fee.
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Consumers Credit Union out of Chicago - 5.09% on up to $10k with some hoop jumping.
Local credit union (Affinity+, MN) for the rare service needs.
Vanguard - index brokerage accounts for taxable investments
Capital One - venture card for travel expenses
Worthy Bonds - out of curiosity mostly
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Interesting data point; vanguards sweep account was offering 2.31% as of the end of January. A lot better than most savings accounts.
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Interesting data point; vanguards sweep account was offering 2.31% as of the end of January. A lot better than most savings accounts.
Thanks, I was leaning towards a PenFed solution but I just checked and Vanguard will give me 2.48% now. I already accounts there.
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I have used Ally in the past but lately havent had much in my banking accounts. With that being said I use USAA (military bank) and local banks myself.
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I use ally as my primary, though still keep an account open at a local bank for when I need cash or anything else in person or immediately.
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Credit union for primary checking. And a Goldman Sachs high interest savings account.