Recommendations on a Bank

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I travel about New England and my current bank is a local bank. If I run into a good cash FA deal I like to make it happen.

Looking far a bank that has presence around New England and:
- Good teller week end hours
- No charge for certified checks
- A credit card
- Low or no ATM charges

Any suggestions?
 
I use Citizens. CC. nc at thier ratms ( also in Cumberland Farms nc ) Never got a cert.check so can't say. In most Stop and Shop stores. IMHO
 
DCU had my eye while I was down that way. I ended up trying Eastern, and they were surprisingly understanding and good, but ATM fees bad. Accounts weren't cheap.

Ended up going all over to USAA. Great security, no fees for anything we use, fair interest, even on our checking account, and haven't paid an ATM fee in years.

They matched a local credit union on a vehicle loan, and then ended up taking a few hundred extra off since the vehicle I wanted was one of the vehicle finder hits through their service.

One of their agents even passed me a number to text during negotiation, so I'd have some wiggle room and ability to quickly seal.
 
I’ve had experience with a bunch of different banks in the area so first the bad ones:

Bank of America - High prices and poor service. While they have banks everywhere their customer service is a nightmare. I’ve had accounts with them and managed the accounts for my parents and recently their estates. The nickel and dime you to death and make everything as complicated as possible. Run away from this bank.

Santander - I dealt with them all the time when running my ex wife’s business. They made huge mistakes and were extremely unresponsive. Another one not to consider.

Citizens Bank - I deal with them now for an estate account. They are convenient because they are in Stop and Shop stores. I’ve found their website poor compared to other banks and some of their policies that forced me to go to a location instead of making some transactions online to be maddening. They aren’t at the top of my list.

TD Bank - I use them now for one of my two main personal bank accounts. While they do have fees the only one I encounter is a $3.00 charge they bill at non-TD Bank ATMs on top of the other bank’s ATM charge. If you use a TD Bank ATM there is no charge. They do this because there are many TD Bank locations around and they have some ATMs in stores such as Walgreens. One reason I can recommend them is that they deliver the goods. I think of them kind of like a Bank of America (many locations) except they actually do their job and for me I’ve experienced great customer service. They also have Sunday hours. Besides a checking account I have a credit card through them. I had someone steal my card number and I received texts from them immediately and I was able to shut down the card within minutes which was important since there were thousands of dollars in multiple false charges. I’m generally pretty happy with TD Bank.

DCU - I’ve had a DCU account for many years. I have used their credit card, had personal loans through them and car loans. The fact that you can do just about everything online is tremendous. Generally their customer service is very good. This year however I had paid off a loan and had considerably paid down another and they weren’t updating the credit bureaus with the information. As I was refinancing my house it was very important to get it done to raise my credit score for the best loan rate. For those two occasions I had to continuously contact them for over a month each time. I finally found out the bank was having problems due to some internal issues but they never said anything for months. It was very frustrating and because of it while I’ll use them as a bank I won’t use them for loans moving forward. Maybe it was a speedbump and generally other people would be fine but for those two instances customer service was very poor.

So my recommendations would be for general banking DCU is good if being open Sundays isn’t important, you want minimal fees and you don’t need locations to go to outside of the immediate Massachusetts area. If you don’t mind paying for some services, you need excellent customer service, bank hours all weekend long and locations outside of Massachusetts I’d recommend TD Bank. For me I have needs for both types of situations so I have an account with both.
 
DCU have several branches in N.H., not a real lot,but I can deposit by phone or service credit unions ( maybe others), what ever is closer.
 
I would say a credit union that has branches in your local walmart. They have extended banking hours in my experience. I used to belong to Service Credit Union. I used other credit unions many times, even after we moved to TX until I found a credit union I wanted to switch to down here. Some credit unions are stopping their "shared branch" operations so be sure you ask about that if that's something you would be interested in.
 
As much as everyone loves to hate them, TD Bank is in fact throughout new england, and in my town at least they are open even on Sundays.
 
TD Bank, DCU, maybe Capitol One.

Most of the traditional banks are terribad and hate you as a customer.
 
Middlesex Savings is pretty decent - they reimburse third party ATM charges. I know they do this for Bank ATM charges (I see it in my statement); not sure about private ATMs in convenience stores. Plus, they are cooperative about things like notarization; running a 50cal ammo can of change through their counting machine; wire transfers; etc. Their main branch is kind of like a private club in the plague era - you are met at the entrance by a doorman where you answer questions three ere the other side you see.

BoA double sucks. I tried to buy a $40 bank check with CA$H on my way to a certain AG's building to pick up some paperwork (cash not accepted) and told "Nope, won't do it for a non-customer". I was willing to pay a few dollars service fee. Plus Middlesex Savings would give my dog treats and BOA has a "no dogs" sign on the door. I guess they are afraid of K9 depositors 🐶💩

Actual conversation:

My regular mechanic: My bank sucks
Me: Why do you use BOA?
Him: Branch locations

(note no mention of BOA before my response)
 
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