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Had it with Bank of America, alternatives?

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
BofA nixed my debit and credit cards a few months ago (without notifying me of course, almost leaving me stranded) and mailed out new ones. Problem is, new ones never arrived and are still floating around in the mail - along with 4 replacements sent AFTER those for my debit card, and 2 for my credit card. That makes a grand total of 6 of my cards floating around in the mail system. Since then I've been using temporary cards, which never seem to work right and just lock up CC machines left and right. Today I was nearby my house trying to fill up the truck with gas before heading out of town to a relatives place, only to find out the card was expired and BofA could not reactivate either my credit card or debit card. I am glad I decided to gas up by my place, otherwise I would be stranded in the middle of nowhere. The frustrating thing is that BofA has been able to re-activate expired cards in the past. Over an hour dealing with their phone goons and nothing but the usual crap read off a screen. Since it's a Sunday, I can't go to a bank location to pull out cash. Until tomorrow, I'm completely hosed. Ended up not being able to go, and not going to be able to get lunch or dinner or gas to go anywhere. Fvcking pissed off.

Every time I do go into a bank location, I get harassed to either 1) donate so some fund or 2) sign up for more services.

The other annoying thing is that I've asked time and time again to have the replacement cards sent to the local bank location, and they aren't allowed to for some reason. Even though they have failed at delivering replacement cards to my address 6 times now.

Over BofA. What alternatives have people been satisfied with that don't try to sell you extra stuff, don't require 15 minute wait times to talk to an uninformed representative, and are able to actually deliver cards?
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,920
borcester rhymes
a friend of mine who worked at crap of america suggested charles shwabb...he didn't keep his money at PofA until they made him for a conflict of interest.
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,516
7,063
Colorado
I rock Chase. I've thought about switching over to First REpublic, but their min. $2500 avg per checking acct bugs the hell out of me.
look into local credit unions that do not charge atm fees as well.
 

drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
Where do you live? I'd find a local/regional bank. You can get a lot more out of them typically. Or as someone else suggested, a credit union would be a great alternative as well.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
Be careful with credit unions. I won't use them again.
I had one for my truck loan. Every time I went in I would get the super hard sell to open a credit card with them. Got annoying. When I went to close my account, it took me 30 min of telling them before they would actually do it.

Went to another one for my car loan. Same deal. Super nice when you get the loan. Total pain for the rest of the deal. Paid that off ASAP just so I wouldn't have to stand in line for 30 min every month just to make a payment.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,938
13,133
Portland, OR
My credit union and USAA both refund ATM fees. I use a local credit union so I can do local things if I need to, but 90% of my money and services are through USAA.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
i'm switching from BoA to a local credit union. i did read up on their financial health at bankrate.com: some of them are in pretty dire financial straits, and i didn't want to wait on FDIC reimbursement should they go under…
 

DirtyDog

Gang probed by the Golden Banana
Aug 2, 2005
6,598
0
Where do you live? I'd find a local/regional bank. You can get a lot more out of them typically. Or as someone else suggested, a credit union would be a great alternative as well.
Second that. I plan on moving my money from one of these banks too big to fail to one with local roots and interests.
 

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,740
470
I've heard a few people mention Chase. The $100 sign up thing is kinda cool, but that's hardly a priority. Easy ATM access and low costs are high up there, as is fraud protection.

A local credit union would be an option as well. Going to look into some this week. Suggestions for any around the LA area?
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
I've heard a few people mention Chase. The $100 sign up thing is kinda cool, but that's hardly a priority. Easy ATM access and low costs are high up there, as is fraud protection.


I used to have WaMu so now I have Chase. Haven't noticed any difference or extra fees. Way less of a PITA than my wifes BofA
 

geargrrl

Turbo Monkey
May 2, 2002
2,379
1
pnw -dry side
I've been with Wells Fargo for 20+ years, back when they were First Interstate. I am a very satisfied customer. Sure they've made mistakes ( like losing a $5000 cash credit card payment) but I know my local manager, and they've always gone to bat for me.

I help a disabled relative with their B/A stuff. If nothing else, their online banking set up really, really stinks compared to the interface that WF uses. Helping this relative has really convinced me that B/A is not very customer oriented. There are always lines, they tell us to make phone call ourselves for problems they have caused....
 

Bushwhacker

Turbo Monkey
Dec 4, 2003
1,220
0
Tar Effing River!! NC
We've been with BofA for almost 2 years now and have had no problem with them. In fact...i'm sitting here looking at my new ATM that came in the mail today because of a possible compromise. This is cool because I was going to stop by and get new cards because mine was starting to get sporadic. Sorry you haven't had the same luck Hack...hope you find abank you like.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,920
borcester rhymes
i haven't really had big problems with my service from BoA, but it's the f8cking fees that drive me up the wall...my direct depo is taking forever...so there's three months of 5.99 maintenance fees. overseas transaction? 30 bucks worth of fees. overdraft, late fees, uh...they take more money than i ever could get keeping it in the account.
 

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
6,985
1,957
Tustin, CA
I have Kinecta, which was Hughes Federal Credit Union. I haven't had any problems with them. They don't charge any fees, no minimums. They don't have a ton of locations, but they co-op with most of the other credit unions so there are plenty of places to get cash out fee free. I have direct deposit and only go to the branch maybe once a month to deposit checks. You can find locations on their website: www.kinecta.org
 

Leethal

Turbo Monkey
Oct 27, 2001
1,240
0
Avondale (Phoenix)
I also say check into a credit union.. I am actually a member at three of them (work, My last employer's and a local one) when we moved away from Corp headquarters, we set up a local account with Wells Fargo but ran away after a few months after being fee plagued.