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You sound just like me! My husband and I have rearranged our finances so that we don't have to do business with Bank of America. We are now soley using our credit unions. Take a look in your area.
I have my account with a credit union. They are wonderful; I have never had to pay a fee for anything, the interest rates for loans are competitive, and the customer service is good. I would never switch.
I've been very happy with Chase Bank for about 10 years.
Used to bank with Fleet, what a disaster. They were taken over last year (?) by Bank of America; didn't surprise me.
For a while I used Washington Mutual (they had some promo rates going) but didn't have a good experience. Wouldn't use them again.
Chase recently acquired the retail business of Bank of NY and doubled their branches and ATMs.
The service and perks you get will depend a lot on the branch you choose and the Personal Banker you have. Some take really good care of their customers (mine does) but others are lazier. But that's with any bank anywhere.
p.s. I just re-read and saw you're looking for low or no fees. Account fees with Chase depend on your combined balances. I think the minimum is 25K but you can include checking, savings, CDs and IRAs in that. If you want a no-fee checking account, look at some of your local (CT) banks. Astoria Federal here on LI has a no-fee, no-minimum-balance checking account.
They will get my credit union membership card when they pry it from my cold, dead hands... Seriously, we've been credit union members since 1974 and won't ever darken the door of another bank if we can help it. We belong to two full-service credit unions and they have taken care of our every financial need, from credit cards to our mortgage. And we even have a pretty good term life insurance policy through one of them.
Do you have an account with a discount brokerage firm for investment purposes? Several of them have reputable, safe and solvent banks that they own along with the brokerage businesses. Charles Schwab and ETrade have their own banks. Both have a few hundred branches spread around the metro areas in the US, if you can live without holding hands with a bank teller, the brokerage banks are a good deal.
Etrade lets you open an online checking account and savings account. Need cash? Go to any ATM in the US, and they refund you the "other banks" ATM fees instantly! This is a huge plus in my book, I can go to any ATM when I need one, anywhere, no fees. Visiting abroad? Ever look to see how many big banks whack your account for $5 to $10 when you put your ATM in a machine in another country? My brokerage bank doesn't whack me at all. It's great cause I don't have to carry lots of cash and travelers checks when in any country that has a decent ATM network. Forget about those rip off "currency exchange" places.
Also my savings account pays 5+ percent, better than long term CDs at the big banks. I can electronically move cash from savings to checking. They have credit cards too. Electronic bill payment free from checking account, practically eliminates the need for check writing. They do home and auto loans too - if I was looking for a loan I'm sure it would beat most other places.
"I'm looking to close my Bank of America account. Long story. I need free everything or low or no fees."
"My husband and I have rearranged our finances so that we don't have to do business with Bank of America."
"Used to bank with Fleet, what a disaster. They were taken over last year (?) by Bank of America; didn't surprise me."
I wonder if the reason some people are leaving BoA has anything to do with the current mortgage loan promotion they’re running, the "No Fee Mortgage Plus" product which was made available nationally in late April. There seems to be a growing number of borrowers who are sold on the attributes of the "to good to be true" no-lender fee mortgage. Perhaps their opinion will change when they realize why BoA willingly makes nothing on each of the "Mortgage Plus" loans they originate in exchange for the opportunity to build a huge database of potential new clients for all of the other financial services that they now offer. Following is info I found on the web.
When asked about the no-fee mortgage program, Floyd Robinson, Bank of America's president of consumer real estate and insurance services said, "this is about a relationship more so than about a single product sell. We are here to build relationships, to become the trusted adviser for the customer." Bank officials say they typically are able to cross-sell 5.3 additional products for every mortgage customer.
Mike Bennett, Western regional sales manager for Wilmington Finance, a mortgage subsidiary of insurance giant AIG, sees the no-fee mortgage as the way BoA can bring in customers to whom they can sell other, more profitable products and services.
In earnings released April 19, 2007, BoA results revealed "…weak spots, including some damage by the challenging loan environment. The company said that losses on loans and leases grew 73.6%, to $2.57 billion, during the quarter, compared with $1.48 billion a year earlier."
Over the last few years, the company has tried hard to land new investment banking and trading clients. That helped the company increase its service fee and investment banking income. The two drove non-interest income at the bank up 10.1%, to $9.8 billion, from $8.9 billion a year ago.
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