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There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

bloomberg.com

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Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#91

Post by [deleted] »

sharkweek wrote: post #52
inferiorhuman wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit unions, by law, must have restrictions on who can join. Often times they're gated by where you live, what city you worship in, where you work. I'm a member of a large California based credit union and while the low/no fees are nice, their general incompetence is awful.

I'm at a credit union for a chunk of my banking. Their tech is bad, but you know what I love? When I call the number on the back of the debit card a human answers the call after a few minutes and 9/10 times can fix whatever I need fixed themselves.

[deleted]

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#92

Post by iLoveOncall »

michaelhoffman wrote: post #23
iLoveOncall wrote: post #7

I have bank accounts in 3 different countries and none of them have any fees either. What they have thought is redundant documentation of my funds that guarantee I won't be SoL when the building burns down with the paper ledger in it like this bank here. I really don't understand this fascination or even admiration for outdated ways.

The old-school way to document savings accounts is with a passbook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passbook If this bank offers that, then you have the redundant documentation yourself.

That doesn't seem like the kind of redundancy that the bank would trust. It's nice for you to see what is in your account but you cannot reconstruct a trusted bank ledger from those.

(but I may be wrong, the wikipedia page is short in details)

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#93

Post by pxx »

boring_twenties wrote: post #71
lannisterstark wrote: post #62

Or just use Fidelity, which has 0 fee as well. Free wire transfers, free ATM reimbursements etc. On another side, it actually has branches scattered throughout too.

Schwab is a little bit better for this: 1) Like Fidelity, it requires you to open a brokerage account, but the minimum deposit is $0, unlike Fidelity which last I checked was $2,500 2) $1k/day ATM max instead of $500 3) ATM fee reimbursement is worldwide and no forex fees, can't remember anymore if Fidelity had both of these

I think the value is actually towards the Fidelity CMA right now and I'm saying this as a long-time Schwab enthusiast.

To your points:

1. No minimum opening or ongoing balance required on the CMA. Note. You don't have to open a separate brokerage account. The CMA is a brokerage account.

2. If push comes to shove you can always do a manual cash disbursement (aka "cash advance", but there's no line of credit involved here) from any bank displaying the Visa logo. The range ($500, $1000] is a little too specific to be useful, and you'd probably have to hit up multiple ATMs anyway. It is also much easier to have multiple Fidelity CMA accounts than multiple Schwab Bank accounts if for some reason you really need specifically ATM network transactions.

3. This is partially correct but not as big as the deficit you're stating. Fidelity charges 1% if the card is used for a foreign Visa debit purchase. ATM fees are reimbursed globally (supposedly a little less reliable than Schwab) and forex is zero on ATM. The only time I've seen a need for this is back when Chip-and-PIN was first being introduced and my credit cards weren't working with offline PIN in Europe. Since then, I don't think I've ever needed to use the Visa debit network.

In comparison:

A. Schwab free wires are limited to three per quarter and only if you have $100k of assets. Fidelity wires are always free. The web interface is worse on Fidelity though: you have to call them if over $100k, if you have a memo, or if you have further credit instructions, so take this with a slight grain of salt. If you have consistent memo/further credit instructions you can send a form in to be able to do these online. The "not having to worry about quota" is super nice.

B. The ability to auto-liquidate money market funds, as the Fidelity CMA is actually just a brokerage account, for incoming ACH/ATM/Visa/check debits at any time of day or week makes the Fidelity product far more useful than Schwab's ridiculous 0.2x% interest product. It means I no longer have to worry about my account balance, which can safely be at $0 (as long as there are sufficient appropriate money market fund investments).

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#94

Post by pxx »

LoganDark wrote: post #28
iLoveOncall wrote: post #7

I have bank accounts in 3 different countries and none of them have any fees either. What they have thought is redundant documentation of my funds that guarantee I won't be SoL when the building burns down with the paper ledger in it like this bank here. I really don't understand this fascination or even admiration for outdated ways.

> I have bank accounts in 3 different countries How is this even possible? Do you have citizenship in all three countries?

It's the opposite. You just really, really need to not be a US citizen.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#95

Post by moffkalast »

xeromal wrote: post #56
moffkalast wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you are trusting someone else with it, that doesn't sound much safer.

It's FDIC insured and regulated.

So hold on, if these credit unions are so small and still get insured, why not just make one for yourself? Put your money into it, gamble to your heart's content, either you win big or the FDIC takes over and gives you your money back since you're technically a depositor lol. Literally cannot go tits up.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#96

Post by xeromal »

moffkalast wrote: post #95
xeromal wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's FDIC insured and regulated.

So hold on, if these credit unions are so small and still get insured, why not just make one for yourself? Put your money into it, gamble to your heart's content, either you win big or the FDIC takes over and gives you your money back since you're technically a depositor lol. Literally cannot go tits up.

I'm sure if it was that easy people would be doing it.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#97

Post by moffkalast »

xeromal wrote: post #96
moffkalast wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So hold on, if these credit unions are so small and still get insured, why not just make one for yourself? Put your money into it, gamble to your heart's content, either you win big or the FDIC takes over and gives you your money back since you're technically a depositor lol. Literally cannot go tits up.

I'm sure if it was that easy people would be doing it.

Hmm from what I can find there's two things, FDIC doesn't handle credit unions but NCUA, and a credit union may need a minimum number of depositors for protection to apply. Maybe one can convince enough people to deposit $1 with a contract that they get a share of the gambling winnings in case there are any.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#98

Post by softsound »

I like my credit union, no fees, good support (in person though...), easy to setup accounts. It's a little dated it feels like but the app is reasonable, with so many type of banking options I'm surprised people would use a bank with fees. I've been using Chime for years with no issues, online banks work for me just fine. I can understand a little more though when it comes to international travel because there tends to be more restrictions, I have a small chase account for international travel as the card just seems to work better but I rarely use that account and would probably close it if I found a better international debt card.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#99

Post by piperswe »

oefrha wrote: post #77
sharkweek wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm at a credit union for a chunk of my banking. Their tech is bad, but you know what I love? When I call the number on the back of the debit card a human answers the call after a few minutes and 9/10 times can fix whatever I need fixed themselves.

Hmm, with a reasonably good bank you shouldn’t have had ten problems with your debit card you had to call. With things like bank cards, the best customer service is don’t need customer service.

The problems probably aren't with the card itself, the phone number for the CU just happens to be printed on the card.

Re: There are no fees at America’s smallest bank

#100

Post by yencabulator »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #49
smelendez wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s an interesting article about church-based credit unions. It looks like they exist to offer better options to underbanked populations and are often limited to church members: https://religionnews.com/2018/10/30/church-run-credit-unions...

Credit unions, by law, must have restrictions on who can join. Often times they're gated by where you live, what city you worship in, where you work. I'm a member of a large California based credit union and while the low/no fees are nice, their general incompetence is awful.

Including donating $5 to a charity, where the credit union pays the $5 on your behalf: https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/membership#faqs
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