Author Topic: Online, no fee bank accounts?  (Read 7267 times)

theSchmett

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Online, no fee bank accounts?
« on: November 18, 2014, 11:45:31 AM »
What are people using? I have gotten into mining cryptocurrency (bitcoin, that sort of thing), and never linked my bitcoin wallet to my bank account. Why? I don't trust ANYONE.

So I need a no fee, totally free, online transfers and (why not) mobile check deposit bank account to hook up to my bitcoin wallet. This will shield my main bank account, since I draw my mortgage from there I don't want to mess around.

Suggestions? Some people on hashtalk.org said Capital 360.

What's the mustache community think?

Oh - and I know bitcoin and the like aren't for everyone... don't flame me here. I'll just laugh. The earnings are unrealized (see above for reason #1) but I'm doing pretty well. Mostly luck. But if anyone does have any questions about the totally unregulated 100% risky and "if you throw money in a fire at least you get heat" being a better investment (that's my idea of a disclaimer) feel free to PM me.

NinetyFour

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2014, 12:19:05 PM »
I love Capitol One 360.  Easy and free.  Customer service has been great.

Here is my referral code.  I'd appreciate it if you consider using it.  I would get $20 is you do.

https://r.capitalone360.com/RT88UFGSfy

Regardless if you use my code, you can get a $50 bonus for jumping through a couple fairly easy hoops after you start an account.

https://home.capitalone360.com/lp-nofeeschecking

forummm

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2014, 12:31:49 PM »
ETradeBank is free with $1000 average daily balance. Wells Fargo is free with $750 direct deposit. My credit union is free too. All have online and ATM access.

GizmoTX

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2014, 12:40:57 PM »
No Bitcoin here.

For $, Schwab is free, plus all ATM fees are refunded, mobile deposit, & free checks.

SpreadsheetMonkey

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2014, 02:56:21 PM »
I like Schwab as well. In addition to the benefits listed above, they don't charge a fee for foreign currency conversion when you use your debit card overseas. They also have terrific customer service...I can get a person on the phone quickly when needed.

Ricky

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2014, 08:05:53 PM »
+1 for Schwab. Don't fool with any minimum balance or direct deposit bs. My only qualm is the inability to deposit cash easily.

GizmoTX

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2014, 08:37:47 PM »
Schwab has mobile deposit: apply for this, install the app, snapshot of the check, upload, done.

TeresaB

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2014, 08:49:13 PM »
I've had nothing but good experiences with Ally.

JustTrying

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2014, 08:52:45 PM »
We do all our long-term savings accounts with Capital One 360. Overall, it's been great for longer-term savings (you can break it up into a bajillion little accounts, which is what we like since we save in different specific categories). The drawback to Capital One is that all transfers take way longer than they should (in my opinion) whether transferring money, in, out, or between accounts, it takes almost a week (or it seems that way to me). I did have to call them on one occasion, and I found them to be very helpful. That being said, I don't have experience with Schwab so I don't know how it compares.

pzxc

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2014, 09:24:50 PM »
I have both Capital One 360 and Schwab.  I use the 360 account for primary use (debit card/direct deposit) as the unlimited # of savings accounts is nice, and can link up to 3 external accounts (personal only) so I have my schwab hooked up to it as well as my Fifth Third (business) - makes for easy transfers between the accounts.  (Yes, I have spent a lot of time optimizing bank usage haha).

Despite Capital One's advantages in linking to other accounts, better savings, better mobile deposit (schwab wouldn't accept pics of homemade business checks, the kind you print yourself, when I checked a couple years ago), plus a REALLY nice attached credit line, so if you overdraft your account instead of getting hit with a 30 buck overdraft fee, instead they just let you go negative up to $500 and charge you a decent interest rate on the amount at the end of the month, which for a small overdraft means you usually pay a buck or less.  Super nice.  BUT despite all that, I keep Schwab around because (1) I have a brokerage account with them also and (2) schwab will reimburse ALL atm fees no matter where they occur.  That's nice to know if you ever need cash, doesn't matter if you're at an airport or disneyland you can get your cash out for no cost. Sweet.

Oh yeah, Capital One also lets you buy just a small pack of checks for $5 (like 25-50 checks, I forget) instead of making you buy a full package where you get 2-3 checkbooks like most banks do -- who uses THAT many checks these days?  I use 1 per month for rent, that's it.

USAA also is a great bank from everything I've ever known about them, but I have no affiliation with the military even through family, so I'm ineligible for the type of account that they have that is really nice. Just mentioning that as it might be an option for some of you.  But CapitalOne (had an account since it was ING Direct, thank god capital one hasn't changed anything it's still as awesome as it ever was) and Schwab serve my purposes fully. Very happy with them.

Ricky

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2014, 05:53:45 AM »
Schwab checks are free. Why would you pay anything other than free if you have both accounts? And Schwab has always waived my overdraft fees which occurred exactly twice in four years, one of which wasn't my fault. Schwab transfers are super quick. It's the other banks that are slow. I can have money out of Schwab into another account in one day, literally, with banks that are equally as quick.

midweststache

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2014, 06:39:32 AM »
+1 for CapitalOne 360. No fees? Check. Interest bearing savings AND checking? Check. Great customer service? Check. Lots of free-to-use ATMs? Check (although not ALL ATMs qualify, the two closest to our apartment do...)

Our transfers to non-360 accounts take a while (when we used to have separate finances, the payments I would send to my partner's 360 account would take a week to clear), but all our checks show up ready to go on pay-day, and payments we make are always on time.

Checks do cost money, but if you only use checks (i.e. want a book you can carry around). If you need to send a check, you can set it up as an automatic or one-time payment online, and then CapitalOne creates the check AND mails it for you at no cost (not buying postage? sweet). We do this for our rent every month.

MandalayVA

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2014, 08:00:56 AM »
All of our banking is done through Fidelity.  Like Schwab it offers free checking (called "cash management") and ATM fees are refunded.  We switched from Bank of America last year and haven't regretted it.

aetherie

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #13 on: November 19, 2014, 08:12:33 AM »
I've had nothing but good experiences with Ally.

I second this. Free interest checking, mobile deposits, you can use any ATM and they pay back the fees, and their customer service is actually good.

NinetyFour

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2014, 08:30:26 AM »
I learned one trick about Cap One (from one of their customer service reps).  Say I want to upload a check to one of my Cap One savings accounts.  This would take several days.  It is faster to upload it to my Cap One checking accounts, and then instantaneously transfer it to one of the savings accounts.

FarmerPete

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2014, 09:30:40 AM »
I've been going back and forth on this since my local CU discontinued their high interest checking accounts (Until last month, I was getting 1.5% interest on my checking account!).  I decided to ditch them since without the high interest checking, there was nothing really keeping me there.  Here was/is my requirements for a bank:

1) Mobile check deposit
2) Decent customer service.
3) ATM access, including at least one drive-up ATM somewhere convenient to me.
4) A way to deposit cash.
5) Interest is nice, but at today's rates, it's really a non-issue.
6) No annoying hoops to jump through to get services.  Direct deposit and online statements is fine, but my old account required 15 debit card transactions a month.  Once I cut spending down, this was hard to maintain.

Ultimately, I decided to switch to a different CU.  They solved everything except for number 5, but the $100 credit I get for joining will cover 5 years of 0.20% interest on 10k.  The CU has a full service ATM in my work building, and they are part of the Co-Op network with shared branches with a bunch of other CUs in town and abroad.  A close second was Fidelity's cash management account.  I loved their full ATM reimbursement policy, and I already do business with Fidelity.  The main drawback was that they have no cash deposit capabilities, so I would have to maintain an account at a brick and mortar in town to deposit cash into.  I didn't like that so much.  I'd much rather have one bank.  Constantly transferring money from one bank to another gets old real quick.

theSchmett

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #16 on: November 19, 2014, 09:41:28 AM »
I think I'm hesitating on Capital One 360 because their commercials were so annoying for so long, and on Hulu they kept playing and playing and playing...

I won't do Ally. They are part of GM, and a bank. How many bailouts do they need?!?!

Has anyone used Simple?

theSchmett

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2014, 10:06:36 AM »
Ok so I started the process with CapOne360 and found that they want to be linked to my existing bank account. Not what I'm looking for. I want standalone. I'm going to use this account as the safety shield for using PayPal, Coinbase, etc... and I don't want them linked. I could care less about anonymity or anything like that (a lot of crypto people are involved in shady business, super paranoid etc..., I'm just saving for a nice couch!), I just don't want to compromise my main bank account with online linking.

FarmerPete

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2014, 10:08:24 AM »
Why go online?  Why not get a no-fee account with a local CU?  Getting online banking without it being linked to a normal account is...difficult. They can't accept cash deposits, so most require a B&M bank link.

theSchmett

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Re: Online, no fee bank accounts?
« Reply #19 on: November 19, 2014, 12:49:40 PM »
Farmer Pete I am seeing thing your way. I'm not sure what CUs are available to me. My wife has one through her school/union, I don't believe my workplace has one. Also, her CU is a pain, no online features, only one location if you need something... not sure what the benefit is.