Banker Reviews

What I dislike about the service
Chase, my current banker, has a great, free bill pay service That’s really the biggest reason. Sure, Chase’s float period is 2 (a few) to 5 days on non-Chase payees, but they will let me pay any vendor with a US address. They have very solid capabilities (actually BETTER than Bank One, who they acquired) for recurring payments and, like bill payment for many banks, it’s free.

More vendors are allowing automatic payment I’m now doing it with all my utilities. I’m going to pay them anyway, and it’s much easier. So, I really don’t need notification on most vendors.

MyCheckFree has relatively few vendors The one vendor I could use notification on is US Cellular, my cell phone vendor. It’s not an available vendor. A US Cellular person told me that they considered Mycheckfree, but the discount(processing) fee was too much.

They do have Citibank, so I’m paying my 5% rebate card through them. I still have my NICOR (natural gas) bill visible, even though I am paying that through direct charge to my Chase account.

Lastly, and it’s minor,

the payment defaults to the minimum Maybe that’s not a problem for people making minimum credit card payments, but I pay my credit card bills in full every month. If you cannot, then you should rethink your spending practices. Once in a while, in a hurry, I’ve set up the minimum payment, instead of the full payment I want. I’ve caught it, and now I’m wise to it, but it’s a minor annoyance.

So, on balance, they are what they are. They do a good job of reporting bills, and they pay them quickly and reliably. The problem is, they don’t have enough vendors to be a one-stop bill payment source. You should check with your bank to see if their bill payment service meets your needs. Use Mycheckfree.com for those vendors they have whose bills change, and your main payment service for the rest.

Thanks for reading. God bless!

I have hard time finding the right bank. Currently US banks try to brand themselves as a full service financial supermarkets. Nevertheless, I am forced to use several financial institutions to meet all of my needs.

Given today’s technological progress my needs are very basic:

• Checking Account with Free Online Banking

My Checking account should not only provide me with the book of old and boring checks but also come with a nice package of Online Banking. Online Banking Component shoul allow user to Pay Bills, Transfer money via AHC and SWIFT.

• Savings Account with the Good Rate

Savings Account should be indexed against other banks in the country and maintain a high level position in the rankings. Let’s say I want my bank to be in the Top 5% of the US banks by the Savings Rate

• Certificate Of Deposit with variety of terms and GOOD rate as well

CD Rates should also be indexed against CD rates in other financial Institutions.

• Multi-Currency Bank

Bank should be a Multi-Currency. Bank should allow its customers to store money in a variety of different currencies. With USD condition in the unknown satet I would like to hedge some of my financial exposure by keeping some of my money deposited on EURO and British Pound CDs.

• Overdraft Protection

Every respectful bank should protect its customers from accidental overdrafts. Overdraft protection is a very good feature that I demand to have on my checking account.

• Customer Service

However, Currently I was not able to find a single financial institution that is capable of fulfilling my needs. Therefore, I have to use 5 different financial institutions to accomodate all of my requirements.