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Maddie asks how to pick a bank from all the different options: credit union, online bank, local bank, multi-national – how do you choose?!
Choosing a bank is hard!
Some things to consider:
- How often you need to deposit cash or checks too large for an ATM
- Hours of the bank
- Banking fees for holding account
- Minimum balance required
- Other account requirements (direct deposit or debit transactions)
- Your politics (would your rather have a bank or credit union?) – check out this list of political donations by banks
- How good the app or online access is (does it make your eyes bleed?)
- If they have credit builder cards
- If you want manual underwriting for a mortgage
- If you get free checks with the account
- Sign up bonuses!
Some banks we mentioned (no referral links below, just information!)
- USAA (online only bank for military and immediate family)
- Ally Bank (online bank with high yield checking accounts)
- Simple (online bank with budgeting tools built in)
- My local Portland credit union with free business checking accounts
- Chase bank sign up bonuses (currently $200 or $300) via Nerdwallet
- Automatic savings accounts from Acorns and Stash
- Credit builder cards (google “credit build credit union” and your state’s name!)
I print all my checks at home directly from Word. It streamlines a lot of processes for me! If you want to print your own checks, here’s check paper!
As always, please write in with any show questions to questions @ ohmydollar (dot) com – and let us know if you don’t use a bank or how you chose the one you have now!
