Best banks for grad student salaries

[nightfarmer]

I am starting a new program in the fall in a different state, and I think it's time to switch to a different bank. I have been using the state employee credit union of my home state (NC) for years, and it's a great bank, but I want to be able to walk into a branch in my new home when I need service. So, I'm wondering if anyone knows any banks that have accounts that are grad-student friendly. Basically I don't want to have to worry about balance minimums and that kind of thing. Interest rates aren't super important at this point because I don't think I'll be able to save a whole lot of the monthly stipend anyway. I'd rather go with a major bank like Wells Fargo or BoA, but open to any suggestions (new university will be UMD-CP).

Thanks!

[rising_star]

Honestly, I haven't had great experiences with either of the big banks. I closed by Wells Fargo account last year because of their requirements regarding number of transactions or minimum average daily balance to avoid paying monthly fees just for having an account. My other issue with Wells Fargo in particular was a $5 fee if you used any ATM besides theirs (which is necessary sometimes when you're traveling, especially when outside the USA!). 

I use a big bank but not Wells Fargo or BofA. I can also honestly say that, other than closing my WF account last year, I haven't gone to a physical branch for service in about two years. Instead, I use online banking services, have my paychecks direct deposited, and use an app as needed if there are checks I need to deposit (like birthday/holiday gifts). This works for me just fine. Consequently, I use a bank that doesn't have any branches near me but has awesome customer service and consumer-friendly policies. So, if you're willing to do without being able to walk into a branch, I highly recommend Charles Schwab Bank. They don't have a minimum daily balance, they charge no fees when you use another bank's ATMs, they refund the fees those other ATMs charge (once a month they refund them all with no receipts required on your part), online bill pay is free, and you do earn a small amount of interest on your checking account. Oh, and I got 200 boring, plain checks for free when I signed up. The only requirement is that you open a brokerage account with them but you aren't required to actually have or keep money in that account aside from having it in there to open. I think it was $150 minimum to open. 

If you really need to be able to walk into a branch, you may want to go with a local/regional bank instead, since they're less likely to have fees. I've never lived in the DC/MD/VA area so I don't know any regional banks there but, other grad students hopefully will. Good luck!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

have you looked into Chase? Last time I checked, they waive fees for students (with their student account), and also don't charge fees if you meet other requirements.

[TakeruK]

I used to use Citibank and told everyone how great it was. But after a few recent changes, I no longer like banking with them:

- They keep reducing hours, now they are only open 10am to 5pm, Mon-Fri, with one single location in my city open 10am-2pm on Saturday. 

- They got rid of the student account (current student account holders keep the benefits but they will disappear soon)

I've switched to Chase now and moved almost all of my money and deposits etc. to Chase. I like it. They always have some kind of bonus where you get a bunch of money for opening a new account, so that's nice. They also have a student account, and more importantly, are open until 6pm on weekdays and 4pm on Saturdays.

It seems like almost all banks (at least in my area) have the standard banking package of $12/month fees unless you either keep a $1500 minimum balance or have at least one direct deposit of $500 or more per month. For a grad student, if your school allows direct deposit for pay (most do), then I'd say this is a pretty good plan for students. The next level plan waives more fees but you need a minimum balance of $15,000 which may not be as feasible.

As for ATM fees, I try to avoid them by sticking with big banks and using my bank's ATM when I am traveling. I also pay for almost everything with a credit card so I rarely need cash. The credit card I use has no foreign transaction fees (I just pay the exchange rate) so that is nice. If I am traveling for work though, I can get reimbursed for these fees anyways. Once in awhile, I might end up having to pay $5 in ATM fees because I am stuck in an area where my bank's ATM is too inconvenient or I need cash right away. I think it's okay to pay these fees once in awhile for the other benefits of using a big bank (instead of a no-fees but also almost no-service banking). If I am traveling for work, my per diem covers incidentals like ATM fees anyways.

[MarineBluePsy]

Have you confirmed your current credit union is not part of a national network?  Mine is and I've already found a sister branch in the city I'm relocating to that I can go into and use just like my home branch.

[nightfarmer]

On 5/20/2016 at 1:41 AM, MarineBluePsy said:

Have you confirmed your current credit union is not part of a national network?  Mine is and I've already found a sister branch in the city I'm relocating to that I can go into and use just like my home branch.

Yes, I have actually looked into that and unfortunately not really possible.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny@rising_star@TakeruK@MarineBluePsy thanks for all the info! This forum is great. Hopefully others who find this thread also benefit.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

If you could, please post what you end up doing. My credit union is also a local thing 14 hours away. So far I've just been dealing with everything electronically, which is great until you have a problem (as I currently do).

[MathCat]

I'm also with Chase and have no complaints about day to day banking. Because my stipend is set up as a direct deposit and I have the student account, I don't pay any monthly fees. It was also super quick to replace my card when it was compromised, so that was nice. My only complaint is that they were kind of difficult the first couple of times I wire transferred money to Canada - I had to go in and personally verify it both times, which seems silly for the second time since I had done it before and I was wiring it to myself in both cases.

[ShogunT]

My advice for you would be to wait until the orientation in your new school. Many public schools (I don't know the private ones) work with banks to provide students with student bank account. This kind of account, you don't need to maintain a thousand or so dollars in the bank. The enrolled information will be handed out to new students in the orientation or similar events.

[themmases]

I use a combination of credit union and Ally. I highly recommend Ally. Based on my experience with them and their rates, my partner and I are planning to open joint accounts with them after we get married next week.

Ally offers interest checking with no fee. The interest rate is not high unless you keep a lot of money in your checking account, but it's still a better deal than fee checking accounts. I believe either there is no minimum balance, or the minimum is quite low. I keep my savings in an Ally money market account which earns a decent interest rate-- lower than the savings account but they give you a debit card so you could access the money in an emergency. The interest is a decent amount even though I don't have a ton of savings, and the way I see it I would be sacrificing free money if I didn't use a savings account.

Ally has no branches, but I rarely visit a branch anyway. Their website and their mobile app work great. I transfer money and deposit checks through the app and have never had a problem. (In contrast my credit union's website is pretty dated and I have never gotten their app to work.) They will also reimburse a certain amount of ATM fees per month.

[juilletmercredi]

I too would recommend waiting a bit and investigating local credit unions in your area. The university you're going to might even have a credit union - I was a postdoc at Penn State and they have one, for example. Most metro areas have several credit unions and you might be eligible for one or more just on the basis of being a student in the area.

Actually I just did a quick look and Maryland does have a partnership with a credit union - SECU. https://www.secumd.org/university-of-maryland

I bank with USAA (my husband's a veteran). I love them, and credit unions in general. I don't pay any fees for having a checking account and I can go to any ATM and get money and not pay a fee - they don't charge you for using a non-USAA ATM AND they reimburse you for ATM fees that other banks/networks charge you, up to a certain amount per month - more than I would ever use. Since they're a credit union they have tools on their website to help me save money, manage my money, and plan for savings and retirement. They also have other useful services like a car buying service, which contracts with certain dealerships to get you discounts. I have my renters and car insurance through them as well. My husband and I want to buy a house in the next 3-5 years and they have tools to help you plan for that, too, and will help you find an agent and get veterans' benefits. Their customer service is generally amazing. 

Before that I had Bank of America. I banked with Bank of America for 10 years - I opened my first checking account with them on my 18th birthday back in 2004. I hate them. They nickel and dime you for everything. They used to have a checking account that was free if you rarely went into the branch, but they cut it (without telling their customers - one day I realized I was being charged $12/month for my checking account). The minimum balance and transactions you have to conduct before they stop charging you are too high (with Bank of America it's a $1,500 minimum average daily balance, which could be too high depending on your stipend). And they reordered my transactions so smaller ones would go through last. They claim it's for your benefit, but at least once due to a miscalculation it resulted in me getting hit with multiple overdraft fees instead of just one - if you spend $1.25, $6, $7 and $900 on the same day, and the $900 takes you over, they can reorder your transactions from $900 to $1.25 and then charge you a $35 overdraft fee three times for those transactions. And on top of all that, their customer service is awful! Towards the end I got the sense they were trying to get better because they had so much bad publicity and lots of customers were leaving for credit unions, but it's not great, and not comparable to a credit union. I had so much glee when I called them to close my account.

Chase is the same. Wells Fargo might be the best option of the big banks; their monthly service fee is $10/month but they waive it if you make at least 10 debit card purchases per month or have qualifying direct deposits of $500, both of which are manageable for graduate students. You can also get their next tier up if you get a total of $1,000 direct deposited and that checking account bears interest.

I also second the suggestion of an online bank, like ING Direct or Ally. I had Ally for a short while and they seemed to be pretty decent; their customer service was really great. They have 24/7 live customer service either over the phone or via chat, and their online system tells you (accurately) how long the current wait times are so you can decide whether to call or come back later. Most online banks have free checking accounts, will reimburse you for ATM fees (Charles Schwab has unlimited reimbursement) and some of them bear interest (Charles Schwab does, and some Ally accounts do too).

If you're going to a PhD program you also may want to check out local banks that only have a few branches in the state/city you're going to be in. Often they have lower fees, better service and more perks than the national banks do. The downside is often that they don't have as robust support for online and mobile banking, so you'll have to go into the branch more. That may be a positive for you if you like a bank with a branch and you want to go to the branch for most things. And more smaller banks are moving into this space, so you never know.

So IMO 1) credit union 2) online bank 3) smaller bank in your grad city 4) big bank only if you absolutely have to.

[hippyscientist]

6 hours ago, juilletmercredi said:

I too would recommend waiting a bit and investigating local credit unions in your area. The university you're going to might even have a credit union - I was a postdoc at Penn State and they have one, for example. Most metro areas have several credit unions and you might be eligible for one or more just on the basis of being a student in the area.

Actually I just did a quick look and Maryland does have a partnership with a credit union - SECU. https://www.secumd.org/university-of-maryland

I bank with USAA (my husband's a veteran). I love them, and credit unions in general. I don't pay any fees for having a checking account and I can go to any ATM and get money and not pay a fee - they don't charge you for using a non-USAA ATM AND they reimburse you for ATM fees that other banks/networks charge you, up to a certain amount per month - more than I would ever use. Since they're a credit union they have tools on their website to help me save money, manage my money, and plan for savings and retirement. They also have other useful services like a car buying service, which contracts with certain dealerships to get you discounts. I have my renters and car insurance through them as well. My husband and I want to buy a house in the next 3-5 years and they have tools to help you plan for that, too, and will help you find an agent and get veterans' benefits. Their customer service is generally amazing. 

Before that I had Bank of America. I banked with Bank of America for 10 years - I opened my first checking account with them on my 18th birthday back in 2004. I hate them. They nickel and dime you for everything. They used to have a checking account that was free if you rarely went into the branch, but they cut it (without telling their customers - one day I realized I was being charged $12/month for my checking account). The minimum balance and transactions you have to conduct before they stop charging you are too high (with Bank of America it's a $1,500 minimum average daily balance, which could be too high depending on your stipend). And they reordered my transactions so smaller ones would go through last. They claim it's for your benefit, but at least once due to a miscalculation it resulted in me getting hit with multiple overdraft fees instead of just one - if you spend $1.25, $6, $7 and $900 on the same day, and the $900 takes you over, they can reorder your transactions from $900 to $1.25 and then charge you a $35 overdraft fee three times for those transactions. And on top of all that, their customer service is awful! Towards the end I got the sense they were trying to get better because they had so much bad publicity and lots of customers were leaving for credit unions, but it's not great, and not comparable to a credit union. I had so much glee when I called them to close my account.

Chase is the same. Wells Fargo might be the best option of the big banks; their monthly service fee is $10/month but they waive it if you make at least 10 debit card purchases per month or have qualifying direct deposits of $500, both of which are manageable for graduate students. You can also get their next tier up if you get a total of $1,000 direct deposited and that checking account bears interest.

I also second the suggestion of an online bank, like ING Direct or Ally. I had Ally for a short while and they seemed to be pretty decent; their customer service was really great. They have 24/7 live customer service either over the phone or via chat, and their online system tells you (accurately) how long the current wait times are so you can decide whether to call or come back later. Most online banks have free checking accounts, will reimburse you for ATM fees (Charles Schwab has unlimited reimbursement) and some of them bear interest (Charles Schwab does, and some Ally accounts do too).

If you're going to a PhD program you also may want to check out local banks that only have a few branches in the state/city you're going to be in. Often they have lower fees, better service and more perks than the national banks do. The downside is often that they don't have as robust support for online and mobile banking, so you'll have to go into the branch more. That may be a positive for you if you like a bank with a branch and you want to go to the branch for most things. And more smaller banks are moving into this space, so you never know.

So IMO 1) credit union 2) online bank 3) smaller bank in your grad city 4) big bank only if you absolutely have to.

This is really useful information, especially as an international student! I'll be heading to PSU - did you use their credit union while you were there? It's currently what I'm looking at, I just wondered if you had any comments about your (or friends) experience? 

Sorry OP for semi-hijacking!

[MathCat]

I wanted to go with a credit union, but as a new international student, I didn't have a SSN and they wouldn't open an account without one. Chase was the bank recommended to me by the international student office and other international students because they are best at dealing with that. I may open a credit union account now that I have a SSN though!

[juilletmercredi]

17 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

This is really useful information, especially as an international student! I'll be heading to PSU - did you use their credit union while you were there? It's currently what I'm looking at, I just wondered if you had any comments about your (or friends) experience? 

 

I didn't use the credit union, no, because I was already a member of USAA and I liked it so much and it was national.

[maelia8]

@juilletmercredi I bank with USAA too, and I absolutely love them! Amazing customer service, great for folks on the move, and the low 1% fee charged for international ATM withdrawal is great for someone who travels a lot, like me. I only wish they would roll out the debit chip cards faster ... it's a pain trying to get folks in Europe to take your non-chip debit card, and many machines won't even read them anymore.