Personal Finance

Address:
100 North Main Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Details:
Online Banking gives you more control of your money. Whether you’re at home, at work, or on the road, you will have unlimited access to your accounts with Wachovia PC Access(r).

I became interested in Wachovia after reading a Consumer Reports article on retail banks. The article gave Wachovia one of the higher ratings for customer satisfaction, so I did some research online about the bank.

Capital One banking is another move toward the robotic, impersonal banking that corporations love and people love to hate. I’m not necessarily going to wax poetic about “the way things used to be”, “Blahblahblahblah Bank was better”, “I used to walk 10 miles to school uphill in a snow squall when I was a kid”, yadayadayada. I will say this, though, that I’ve had FAR better experiences with banking when banks were smaller,even when those banks were kinda rusty in the current world of online banking services.

Address:
401 East Kilbourn Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202

Number of Branches:
56

Details:
Associated Banc-Corp is a diversified multibank holding company with $11.3 billion in total assets. Headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Associated has more than 200 banking locations across Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota.

It is time for a change. I have had enough of Associated Bank and after nearly 40 years of being a customer, I am beginning to pull my accounts and move them to different local banks or on-line banks. Why? If banking is getting impersonal, I might of well get an on-line account with an Internet bank for a better return. I will list the reasons, both pros and cons, on Associated Bank and the reasons for my switch.

Address:
303 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

Details:
Through the power of SunTrust Internet Banking many everyday banking and bill payment transactions are just a click away! Bank anytime and anywhere you have a computer with Internet access 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

My husband’s job relocated us in June. Our former bank did not have a bank branch that was convenient to our new home. Friends gave us such a commercial for Sun Trust that we decided to go talk with them.

Address:
400 East Main Street, Stockton, CA 95290

Details:
With PC Banking you have around-the-clock access to your account information–updated at the end of each banking day. You can get account balances, transfer funds, and view account information anytime, free of charge.

Twelve years ago I opened up my first “grown up” checking account at a Washington Mutual branch near the university I was about to begin attending. At the time, Washington Mutual was mostly a local bank. It had yet to become the object of nationwide detest that it is now. My experience with Washington Mutual has been so pleasant that in those twelve years I have had several types of accounts with WAMU: checking, savings, business checking, certificate of deposit, auto loan and home equity lines of credit, all with satisfying results.