Finding a new bank before filing

[ExplorerZ]

Hello all,

My wife and I are long time USAA members and have become spoiled by their awesome iphone and web apps and finding the next best thing is turning out to be rather difficult and frustrating.

Citi, Chase, and BofA are out because they're going to get discharged and Wells Fargo because of the BK in general. Navy Federal's app looks great, though their online app looks horrendous and all my military family connections use USAA. We set up with SunTrust, but their pages are constantly showing service unavailable errors in red text and everything about this is just slow slow slow and their business "cash manager" is straight out of the mid 90s (I'm only looking at personal here, but it illustrates their IT problem). My wife is trying BB&T with her business, but also not a fan.

I'm currently considering Ally and Schwab, though both have a good deal of negative reviews online and I can't really tell how seriously to rate those types of things... the internet brings out the complainers far more easily than the lovers. Even USAA has a huge amount of flames and we like their products so much it was the hardest thing about the bk for my wife to accept.

So, any suggestions out there for a bank that rocks with their iphone and web apps? Mobile deposit is a must. eBill is a must. Branches not necessary. Free checking a plus but not a show stopper (with USAA I had a bunch of free checking accounts set up; our primary joint account, his and hers petty cash, bill pay holding, and allowance accounts for the kids... gotta love free checking!).

Searching for bank apps on the iTunes App Store also doesn't shed much more light on it, as most of the apps I've found appear rather limited and clunky.

As far as credit unions go, we're in south Florida now and will be moving to the north Virginia area after the house forecloses (we just missed our first payment this month, so it may be some time until that happens).

Thanks for any insight or experiences!

[TBA]

Is USAA closing your accounts? While i didnt have any checking with them, we did have a card over 25k that was iib. 15 months after discharge, i still use them for auto and homeowners insurance and my auto loan (which was reaffirmed). I even have a secured credit card with them through amex (amex was also over 200k charged off in bk - so i didnt think i would get that either... but i did).

I use a small local bank where i am. Technology isnt important to me, as i need a local branch to deposit my paper paychecks~ LOL, so unfortunately i cannot offer any other advice on the subject.

GL in your search if you cannot stay with usaa.

[TheBajan]

I can tell you that I banked with Navy Federal for 20 years before BK and we had to switch due to accounts we knew we would be charging off. So we opened a USAA account. I'm okay with it but having used both and being spoiled to NFCU, I can't say enough good about them. I cried when I realized we would have to severe ties with them. Of course, I cried about a lot of things while we went through this process. We still have the USAA account but I very seldom use it. Instead, we now use a local bank that gets the job done but I still miss NFCU.

BTW.... welcome to the forum!

edited for grammer

[ld2366eh]

I would recommend the Wintrust community of bank & trusts. We have a XXXX Bank and Trust that is within this community and ATMs are free if you stay in the community. They have a great mobile app. online banking is fine and they are now doing check deposits via smartphone. And best of all, it's a small bank in my community where I don't have any other credit and didn't include them in our BK.

[ksgirl38]

I wouldn't recommend Ally, I just got rid of them. I'm using ING Direct which was just bought by Capital One and they have basically the same as Ally. Not quite as many ATMs and checks cost $5 vs being free at Ally, but otherwise they are the same. Transfers to and from them are also much faster. Otherwise you might consider a credit union.

[ccmisery]

I wouldn't recommend Ally, I just got rid of them. I'm using ING Direct which was just bought by Capital One and they have basically the same as Ally. Not quite as many ATMs and checks cost $5 vs being free at Ally, but otherwise they are the same. Transfers to and from them are also much faster. Otherwise you might consider a credit union.

I have been using ING for years, I was not happy when Capital One acquired them and soon the name will be Captial One 360 and I am sure a lot of the freebies will soon fade away. I am going to be filing Chapter 13 soon and one of my credit cards is with Capital One, so I am not sure how that will work? I also have $500 of overdraft protection that will soon probably disappear all of which was a lifesaver a few times.

Have you had any issues with them, that is if you filed?

[ksgirl38]

I have been using ING for years, I was not happy when Capital One acquired them and soon the name will be Captial One 360 and I am sure a lot of the freebies will soon fade away. I am going to be filing Chapter 13 soon and one of my credit cards is with Capital One, so I am not sure how that will work? I also have $500 of overdraft protection that will soon probably disappear all of which was a lifesaver a few times.

Have you had any issues with them, that is if you filed?

I was discharged in November and I already had an open savings account with them with a 0 balance. I also had 2 accounts through Sharebuilder which they are connected to so no problems. I wasn't happy about the Capitol One thing either, but I didn't know about it until it was too late.

[ccmisery]

I was discharged in November and I already had an open savings account with them with a 0 balance. I also had 2 accounts through Sharebuilder which they are connected to so no problems. I wasn't happy about the Capitol One thing either, but I didn't know about it until it was too late.

I am going to close the account soon, I have an Electric Orange Checking and while it's great, I read that since I have a credit card with them that will be under the bankruptcy, probably safest option not that I have any money. I have been planning on doing this anyways since Capital One acquired it. What was good about it will soon be gone in time a lot of people have stated this.

[ksgirl38]

I am going to close the account soon, I have an Electric Orange Checking and while it's great, I read that since I have a credit card with them that will be under the bankruptcy, probably safest option not that I have any money. I have been planning on doing this anyways since Capital One acquired it. What was good about it will soon be gone in time a lot of people have stated this.

That's true, they may put a hold on your account so it would probably be best to go with a bank or credit union that you don't have any ties to.

[Sammie]

Prior to filing we closed our WF accts., emptied the safe dep. box & opened a new checking acct. with a tiny local bank (where everyone knows you name). There aren't any monthly charges either. sammie

[jange]

I have an ING direct account. I didn't have any Capital One accounts so I have not had any issues with ING. I use them as my 2nd account, my primary account is with a regional bank in my area.

[ExplorerZ]

I gave Ally a try to see what a so-called internet bank would be like and found it to be just as frustrating as the standard banks. But besides that, they are actually GMAC and have some extremely broad setoff language in their deposit agreement and since my primary mortgage is USAA w/ GMAC, that's a no-go for sure.

Found some interesting credit unions in the Reston VA area though, so I'll probably just give those a try in a year or two once we're done with our FL foreclosure and just stick with SunTrust through the bk.

[sbatman]

I had USAA since 1976. After I bankrupted them with > $100K, they don't want to have anything to do with me. No surprise. I moved over to Navy Fed and go a new CC and nice service. USAA told me that, aside from the car insurance (which I've maintained), I'll not get any banking products until Hell freezes over-unless I pay the $132K. That'll a cold day in Hell.