Good points everybody - and Tad, that mirrors my experience wrt.
buyouts, I loved Security Pacific, it got bought out by BofA, and I
hate BofA. And I have really bad luck with credit cards - every time I
get some neat feature or perk in a card, the card company gets bought
out, and my original reason for getting that particular card
disappears.

I have an account with Washington Mutual which I got because I had to
have a joint account to establish cohabitation (my wife was a
foreigner, now naturalized). I got it strictly because of the
no-monthly-fees aspect, since I didn't need this account for anything
else, I wanted to have as few hassles as possible. Out of habit and
inertia, my wife kept using that account, and I must say that through
the years (4!), WM kept getting better and better (I was initially very
unimpressed). But I bring it up, because for the longest time I kept
thinking "with my luck, they'll get bought out, and there'll go the
no-monthly-fees gimmick". Now that she's naturalized, I don't care - if
they get bought out, I'll just close down the account since I
personally never use it (and my wife can get an account with.... hmmm,
I guess I'll have to recommend something based on the response I got
here!).

I don't know if it's me, but in general, except for Security Pacific I
was never really happy with a bank... and the SP account was 20 years
ago, when I was a young man, and had few requirements.... who knows how
they'd stack up if it were today.

Another subject is currency changing when traveling to Europe and back
to the U.S. - since the credit cards have decided to slap on a 3%
surcharge, that's another consideration for me in bank accounts, what
with transferring money being so expensive and not terribly convenient,
but that's another ball of wax.

Again, thanks - great responses.

Maybe I should make the currency situation a separate post - but I
don't want to hog the bandwidth in case few readers are interested.

Cheers,

mac_stern wrote:

- quote -

Mac,
I have a Citi account (same as another poster, my bank got bought out)
and found that opening a $1500, 90-day CD avoids any fees on the
checking regardless of its balance. I figured this was the best way to
always avoid fees, while not leaving a lot of money there (the MM &
interest checking haven't been competitive). I tend to go up and down a
lot in my checking balance and hate monthly fees.

I'm not exactly a Citi fan but their ATMs are all over the place, esp
where I travel.

Kind of a funny side point, this had been a Cal Fed account called
"Totally Free Checking". Right after the buyout, the monthly statements
still read that at the top, but I got hit with some monthly fee. I took
the statement in...this made for one of those crazy bureaucratic
conversations with the branch manager. I'd point to the "totally free",
he'd explain in double speak how it is totally free, as long as you do
XXX. Kind of like how all of Disney World is totally free as long as
you pay the entry fee.

-Tad

On Tue, 2005-05-17 at 09:10 +0000, mac_stern wrote:
- quote -

Citibank is good for abroad also! That is one of the reasons I have a
citibank account inspite of no citibank ATMS where I live.

- quote -

Thank you everybody for your savvy answers. I think I'll open accounts
with both Citibank (already have credit cards with them) and HSBC. I
don't necessarily have to use HSBC so much in California, but it'll
come in handy abroad. Meanwhile, Citibank could be fine for the states.
Cool!

And thank you, Tad for advice wrt. not putting all your eggs in one
basket. Point taken.

I'm really glad to have found this helpful online community!

Cheers,

Mac

P.S. If anyone else wants to chime in with extra info on my original
query, please feel free to - some lurkers may find it of further
interest... perhaps in other states?

"SD" <siddharthgdalal[at]COLDmail.com> wrote in message
news:1116257643.13981.22.camel[at]localhost.localdomain...
- quote -

I'd like to echo this endorsement of Citibank. Comments interspersed below.

- quote -

Tad had mentioned HSBC - one feature that it has that Citibank is lacking is
the ability to annotate entries online. Other than missing this feature, I
find the Citibank online interface fine (and Citibank has recently upgraded
it).

- quote -

One nice feature about its bill pay is that it will show you when the
payment cleared. You don't have to initiate a special query.

- quote -

The balance requirement is actually an average, not a minimum, requirement,
so if you drop below $1.5K for a day for this EZ Checking account, you won't
necessarily get dinged. Also, you can combine all bank accounts (checking,
savings, CDs) to meet the balance.

Another way to waive fees (and get more services for free) is to keep $6K
combined in all bank accounts plus a linked CitiTrade account. (This is for
their Citibank Access Account.) CitiTrade is not a great discount
brokerage, but if you are investing a fair amount, the odds are you can find
an NTF fund or a couple of stocks to buy and forget there.

- quote -

Citibank does not charge for foreign ATMs (foreign in the sense of "another
bank", not in the sense of "international"). On the EZ Checking account, it
waives the fee for 6 foreign transactions a month; on higher level accounts,
there are no foreign fees. However, it does not rebate ATM surcharges.

I like Citibank because it has a major presence in many states in the U.S.
(it bought out Cal Fed a couple of years ago, significantly increasing its
presence in California), and is available worldwide. A few years ago in
Bangkok, I was able to call a local branch and get a very courteous answer
(in English) to where I could find the nearest Cirrus ATM. Good for travel.

HSBC may be good internationally, but one would expect Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corp to have more than a dozen branches in California!

- quote -

Citibank requires at least 6 chars, including at least 1 digit and one
letter. That's a good convention for security, but may not be as flexible
as you like.

- quote -

--
Mark Freeland
nBeOwXs[at]pacbell.net

mac_stern wrote:
- quote -

Mac-
Given your travel you might consider finding a bank that satisfies your
ATM needs during travel, and another for your more typical stuff. Some
regional banks seem to have good offers.

One here in CA, First Republic Bank, advertises an account called "ATM
Rebate Checking" where ATM withdrawals are free worldwide. I don't know
the account minimums or exchange rates/fees and you should check that
too, it's more significant than the ATM surcharge itself. If that fee
and the minimum balance are reasonable this could satisfy the need for
free ATMs on travel. [Disclosure: I don't have an account at FRC but it
is a stock in some of my clients' accounts.]

This isn't the only bank with free ATMs and you should be able to find a
bank in your area, or credit union perhaps.

Another bank you might look into is HSBC. As I'm sure you know they are
a big bank in Europe...if an account here means you can use their
branches & ATMs there as if they were your home bank, that could help a
lot. I would be surprised but it's worth a look.

Another solution is using a debit card from a brokerage firm where you
keep your investments, and that reimburses ATM fees. I don't keep up
with this but you might check around w/the major firms. And a risk here
is that you are tapping into your brokerage account, perhaps the value
available with margin.

You asked about a one-stop place for checking, ATM, investments. I think
it's better to pick the parking garages for your investments on their
own merits, and choose a local bank based on cost and convenience of
branches. If anything I prefer the idea of a bank being a bank and a
brokerage firm being a brokerage firm, instead of trying to get
everything (and all your money) under one roof. Especially in this age
where an account is basically carte blanche for the company to try to
cross-sell you a kajillion other products and services.

-Tad

Citibank? I have a checking account with them - opened and totally
managed online. Online interface is decent (better than chase and mbna
but not as good as wachovia). Citibank phone service is great. Most of
it is in India but the people know what they are doing. You can
integrate your credit card accounts along with your bank accounts (only
direct citibank cards such as citibank platinum select not other cards
managed by citibank such as ATnT Universal).

Citibank also offers ACH transfers to any other bank online and free
bill pay. My account fees are waived if I keep a minimum average balance
of 1500 in the checking account (or direct deposit) - this number
depends on the type of account you have.

SD

On Sat, 2005-05-14 at 04:07 -0600, mac_stern wrote:
- quote -

Hi,

I'd like to diversify my options, and open another bank account. I'm
wondering what the best bank is for my needs. I travel a lot,
especially internationally - mostly to Europe. Currently, I'm with
BofA, and not terribly happy with them. I reside in California. I'd
like to start with a good checking account. I use the ATM moderately,
almost never use tellers. Wide availability of ATMs would be nice. A
bank with international presence would be nice. Broad services a plus -
investing, saving, checking, maybe even credit card. Online presence a
must. Good phone service (humans!). My problem with BofA is that they
are extremely hidebound, bureaucratic, with terrible online interface
(just one example: you can't use more than 8 characters in your
password!!!), zero flexibility, and generally I have nothing good to
say about them (how did I become a customer? They bought Security
Pacific, and so got my account that way.) Any suggestions? Thanks in
advance!

Mac Stern