What would prompt you to change your bank?

[jetsfan2013]

I was having a discussion with a few buddies while watching the playoffs this weekend, and one mentioned he and his wife spent an hour in their local community bank setting up all new accounts as they were moving everything from Wells Fargo. I asked why and he said they both agreed they were tired of the fees and big bank politics, and preferred to bank with someone local.

What have been (or would be) reasons you would make a switch? The last time I opened a new banking relationship was when I moved six years ago, and still have NFCU to this day. Can't see myself going back to any of the big banks now.

[Anonymous]

Incompetence. I've changed banks when it has felt that all of the employees are on different pages. If every time I call I get a different answer to the same question, then I bail.

I have also left when I've found better banking options. Better rates, etc.

[Green456]

Let’s see:
Wells Fargo: I didn’t mind them for awhile. Although I was very irritated paying $5 monthly fee when I was a broke student. What really changed my mind was when I called them twice to resolve and issue and by the 3rd time I received a recording, we are busy call back tomorrow. Not to mention all that other stuff that happened.
Chase: see my other thread.
https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Terrible-Chase-experiance/td-p/5585657

[Anonymous]

Better products, better locations, ATM reimbursement, etc.

My previous bank at the time didn't offer Zelle which is a must have for me now.  They recently got it but it was about a year too late.  They don't offer a PLOC and their cards I feel are lackluster.  I also in all of those years never got a preapproval, prequal, or even an invite to apply for their cards.

When I was closing down my accounts, I told the banker my reasons and she asked "Would you like to apply for a personal loan?"  No thank you.  I'm still wondering if she knew the difference between a personal loan and a line of credit.  I wasn't completely unhappy with the bank but I moved on to what I feel works best for me.

[Streetervillelady]

Fees, lies and ignorant CS.

BOA came to the Chicago market by purchasing a local bank.  They immediately added additional fees to accounts, including UTMA.  No notice no ‘grandfathered’ waivers.  The branch claimed the fees were always charged.  I returned with 8 quarterly statements.  They wanted to keep them for 4 to 6 weeks to ‘investigate’.  I told them to download copies from the system.  After a week of their stonewalling I contacted the corporate headquarters in Charlotte.  The fees were refunded that day.  Similar stories made the news here.  I believe it was an angry customer that broke all their windows on LaSalle street a few years ago!

[pinkandgrey]

I would change banks if mine started charging a bunch of fees

[Anonymous]

I changed banks when I was 19 from 1stBank to US Bank because I used my debit card at the grocery store and the transaction was processed twice (it even had the same transaction ID) which slapped me with 8 overdraft fees. I went and tried to talk to the branch manager and she agreed to refund 4 and said I had to get the other 4 from the grocery store. I explained to her that the transaction ID being the same means the grocery store isn’t at fault, they are, and she refused to do anything else before I started making a scene in the lobby. She finally removed them all and I walked right across the street to US Bank and opened an account.

When I had to file my BK, since US Bank was IIB, I closed my accounts and moved to Bellco Credit Union. When I overdrew that account in 2012 and didn’t have the money to pay, I let it close and went without a bank account for awhile, just using a Chase Liquid card until my roommate convinced me to go open an account at 1stBank and that’s where I have been since.

I was looking at leaving 1stBank because they are very no frills and they like their fees (they even charge $10 a year for a debit card and $20 a year to have a PLOC that’s only usable for overdrafts) but I have checked out DCU, NFCU, compared with the other banks like Chase and US Bank, and there’s always something that 1stBank has that the others are missing whether it be Zelle, 24 hour customer service that’s also all local, a great app, or lacking on the customer service front even if they have 24 hour availability. 1stBank has excellent bill pay as well.

After a big mess with BECU, I decided that my direct deposit will stay where it’s at and I’ll just have secondary accounts at DCU and NFCU. I closed the debit card so my account has truly no fees and if I have to use a debit card for some reason, I’ll either Zelle the money to DCU or NFCU or use my PayPal business debit for the 1% back.

At the end of the day, changing banks is a huge pain and I really will only do it if it comes to fees, technical limitations, or a big screw up. If I do switch again, it’s likely to be back to US Bank but for now I’m just staying where I am.

[DaveInAZ]

Well, I spread my banking around a couple places for what they offer. I have checking & savings at DCU for my car loan rate and 6% interest on savings up to $1k. Savings at Penfed for my Home Equity line of credit. Checking & CC at a local credit union for local branch convenience and the low interest no cash advance fee on the CC to move funds into checking.

But the last bank I walked in and dumped was Wells Fargo. I'd been with them for 8 years with a couple big annoyances but the final straw was in 2009 when I got a mailed noticed that they had "automatically renewed" a retirement fund CD to their shortest 6 month CD that would only pay 1/10th of 1%, .001%. I checked rates and saw an 18 month CD paying over 1.5%, which was what I had previously, so I called in and told a rep that was what I wanted. "You have to come into a branch to do that" was the curt response. I protested that I had moved and the nearest branch was well over an hour away. "You have to come into a branch to change a CD maturity, and your grace period to change maturity ends in 2 days". I protested, "why in the world would I have to come into a branch to change a CD, it should be easy enough to do over the phone". "Because that's just how we do things" was the curt reply.

So, OK, the next day I drove over to the nearest branch and told the teller "Give me all my money and close all my accounts".

[Revelate]

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@pinkandgrey wrote:

I would change banks if mine started charging a bunch of fees

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This is where I am too: if the fees are my fault (and clearly disclosed) I'm fine with them; however, BOFA charged me fees 3 times none of which were my fault and even though they refunded all I simply moved.  I also closed a Logix CU account because they started charging fees and imo didn't adequately notify me... though admittedly I wasn't doing much with them anyway.

Better products for me are a potential draw too, it's why I picked Chase cause it was basically right after I found this forum and knew I wanted some Chase credit cards in the future after doing some research.  

It's also why I have stayed with Chase with the release of their Sapphire Banking and YouInvest products and moved more of my assets to there instead of just keeping them in Fidelity (where I still have my rollover IRA which is my second largest account by assets) but the brokerage account was all equity all the time so was easy to move.

Honestly if Chase hadn't come out with those, BOFA is looking super attractive right now with their Merril Lynch product and the way they are stacking up their rewards tiers and after 7 years I would've given them another shot and depending how things break with my income streams I still might even though I literally still run basically my entire financial life through Chase... but I was pending negative balance on Chase, and deposited a check and I'm pretty sure it would've been a fee because the unfortunate ACH withdrawal hit first in BOFA land, but it wasn't in Chase, just didn't happen basically and wound up with +300 in my account and no penalties... and that fee would've been my fault too.

I just don't need much, don't want a savings account, do want credit cards, and do want somewhere I can put my DD and then move it quickly... and their Sapphire Banking product = free wire transfers and I have to admit I'm really starting to like that option.  I literally setup a wire at 9 am to DCU to repay the check I had to draw from my HELOC on, and had the HELOC paid off before noon and might've been faster than that if I actually had checked earlier.  No messy 3 day waiting at all, was just super awesome from my perspective banking at my speed finally.

[CAS2019]

Many years ago, I started with WF.  It got to a point that I got fed up with their customer service and fees.  I closed that account and went with what was then, Washington Mutual.  Loved them and when Chase took them over, I stayed, and I must say I love Chase.  I am never charged a fee, I’ve had excellent customer service, as well as many branches/ATM’s and a robust banking app.  I did take the advice from MyFICO forums though,  and opened up a back up account.  Started with a small local credit union, and although the customer service was great, they made one too many mistakes to my account—so I closed it.  I ended up going with NFCU for emergency checking & saving and am very happy with them.  Chase, however, is my primary account.