Breaking with Habit Today and Switching your Bank Account to a more Honest Bank
These are times in which the banks would do well to be wary. There is so much being written about the predatory practices of the big banks these days, that the average person couldn't go a week without coming by a story that encouraged everyone to stand up for their rights. The predatory practices usually include tricks like banks trying to get away with not paying any interest at all on checking accounts, or trying to sign you up without your permission for an overdraft facility, and then charging you $35 for going overboard by as little as two dollars. And worse, they'll shuffle your expenses and your incomes around to make sure that you go on the record going overboard as many times as possible. Things are so bad that the federal government has had to come in and force the banks to clean it up. And yet, people aren't jumping ship all over the place to find a bank account at a better bank. These outrageous banking practices are a modern phenomenon, not more than five years old; and yet surveys find that people haven't been bailing any more now than they used to years ago.
Most of the time, people don't change banks because it isn't easy to find a bank that does any better than your own. At other times, people won't change for a number of misguided reasons. For instance, people want to have a bank account with a bank that has a branch near where they live or work. And there are not that many banks that can actually allow you that. And if they are people who are in a situation where they receive many checks every month, living near a branch will make a lot of actual sense. If they didn't, they would have to mail their checks in and wait a considerable amount of time to get things processed. Banks, of course, are finding ways around this to be able to attract new patronage: USAA Bank for instance will let you send in a scanned picture of your check; some other banks will let you send them in by free overnight UPS service. People are also worried about having a bank that doesn't have an ATM nearby. They worry that if they use another bank's ATM, there'll be a fee. The thing is, most banks reimburse those fees, and so they don't add up really. Some people won't switch, because they have a whole system in place with their current bank account to pay all their bills automatically. It would be a lot of trouble to break the system down and set up elsewhere.
But once people understand how much they stand to gain moving to a better bank, their plans might stumble in actually finding such a bank. The thing is, thinking that you need to walk into a branch on the street and make inquiries, rarely works. Most of those banks are all undesirable for their poor customer service practices. The best way to go is to use one of the Internet services out there that help you find the best bank and bank account for your needs. Of course your first stop should be Bankrate.com; but there are also other great websites available to you. FindABetterBank, for instance, is a great service that will take your area code, some information about how much of a minimum balance you are comfortable working on, how much you need an ATM nearby and so on, and will give you a list of possible choices in credit unions and banks in your area. CheckingFinder and BankFox have excellent tools to help you find a bank and bank account that are just right for you.
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