[Captain Wrong]

My situation: I've been with Old National Bank for ages. During that time, I've been kind of indifferent to them as they've neither been awful or outstanding. I've also been able to hold a balance high enough to not trip their fees (<$750 and it ramps up every $250 you go lower.) However, shit happens, and the days of just holding on to that much cash are probably gone for a while. Mostly because of that, I'm considering changing banks. Here's my pros and cons for Old National:

 

Pros:

- Fairly good security compared to other financial institutions.

- Fairly good CS, when I've needed it.

- Physical locations close to my house and work. (Rarely needed, so this is about irrelevant.)

 

Cons:

- Few ATMs and out of network fees.

- Fees for balance <$750 on checking (Starting at $4/month and going up) and no interest paid on balance.

- ONB just announced some branch closings, and I've been through this routine before.

 

It really comes down to there are too many other options out there for me to feel I feel I should stay with someone charging me for my balance or for the lack of their ATMs. That's my major beef. I do most everything online, so branches aren't really important, though the fact that they're closing them makes me a little skittish about their future.

 

I'm considering going with Capitol One 360 as I've had a card with them for a long time and been satisfied. The account seems to meet my needs and, aside from the usual number of complaints any big operation gets, I'm not seeing any glaring red flags on this. I've looked at jumping to another local institution or others, but I think 360 is my best option.

 

My questions:

 

1) Anyone have any experience with a Capitol One 360 checking account? Pros/cons? 

2) It's been a while since I've done this, so what's the best way to close and transfer over a checking account? 

 

Thanks.

[theemadgamer]

Credit Union, that's all you need.  Many of the services you need from a big bank with none of the fees.

 

Open your account with $5.  Set up Direct Deposit.  Let a couple of deposits successfully accumulate so you have $$ in account.

Order checks, get debit card, obtain credit card if you like.

Go to old bank, close account, get check for remaining balance and deposit in new credit union account.

 

There is a wide credit union atm/counter sharing network

 

If you or your parents are a veteran of the US Armed forces, the USAA is the way to go.  Fee free ATMs across the country.

[SangesTheLurker]

I have CapitalOne 360 and have been with them since the times when they were ING Direct. They're excellent, especially if you're indifferent about being able to walk into a physical location (although they do have a handful of them) since that's the one thing that puts most people off from the idea.

My favorite features are how there's no minimum balance and no overdraft fees if you have enough credit (which doesn't seem to require much at all) to apply for their Overdraft Line of Credit which kicks in if you ever drop below zero, instead of being walloped with daily fees they charge an extremely reasonable APR akin to charging a credit card--if you ask me, this is revolutionary, if there are other banks that offer this, I don't know of them.

As far as I know there's no ATM fees (if on seldom occasion I'm heading someplace that's cash only where I can't use my no-fee debit card, I just go into a big box store and get cashback with my purchase), aside from whatever the ATM operator charges. They have an ATM locator if you haven't checked it out already to see if they do have some of their own conveniently in your area--they only have a handful within a 30 mile radius of my location, but that's obviously going to be YMMV.

You can link any bank/credit union to your CapitalOne 360 account for easy transfers, too. This used to be more prevalent before CapitalOne took over and ramped up the online check depositing through uploads. Now it's much easier, if you have a decent camera on your phone/wifi device, just take a picture of the front and back of the check you're trying to deposit--or scan those sides with a desktop scanner--upload and within hours/days (depending on how large the check is) your money is deposited.

And of course, if you get direct deposit (which it sounds like you might), the money is there instantly.

I think I covered all the basics and the couple questions you had. Sorry I didn't think to checkout this forum sooner. Let me know if you need any more info or if I could give you a referral link.