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What's the Best Online Financial Solution?
Financially Challenged asks "While lots of our techie contemporaries are making fistfuls of cash, I find myself stuck in a relatively impoverished academia. That will all change when I enter the real world in May. While I have little money now (hopefully some IPO magic of whatever company I work for will remedy this) I would still like to know what slashdot readers think the best online banking solutions are. Are there any hidden all-in-one total financial solutions that will let me keep track of my whole portfolio?"
I know that they also have credit card accounts, but I don't use their credit card. Some time ago, they were setting up brokerage accounts, but I don't have one nor am I interested in one, so I don't know if it's the case anymore.
Hope this helps!
NOTE: I don't represent SFNB at all. I'm just a very satisfied customer.
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
A good one is Datek (http://www.datek.com). They have all the nice tables and graphics you can dream of.
Another interesting one is stockchallenge.internet.com which lets you run a virtual 100 000$ portfolio. It's a good way to get into the game without losing everything.
http://www.logient.com
Try Wingspan. I just started up an account with them and they seem to have it together. It is backed by Bank One and they seem to have invested heavily into capturing this market.
"Classic UFO's
I don't know about one-stop banking, but we've been very happy with Security First - they have a 6% checking account, and pay your bills free (using CheckFree). If you're looking for stock or mutual funds though just about any of the big guys seems to have a significant web presence now.
Energy: time to change the picture.
of an online trading company that doesn't charge you for trades, but rather a percentage of the profit on your portofolio. So they only charge you if you are sucessfull. Anybody know what the name of this company is?
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison
E-Trade works great for me. Easy to use, with lots of free research. The handle difficult things like paper stock transfers and name changes very well. On top of that, they have pretty good rates. E-Trade is pretty darn solid.
I have been very satisfied with WingSpan Bank so far. Their customer service is at least as good as my local bank, and they have the best situation regarding fees I have yet seen. I have never been charged a fee of any kind by them. They even refund up to $5.00 a month in ATM fees charged by the machine. They have online investing as well as credit cards. They update the transactions online just about simultaneously with the real world, and of course, they offer online bill paying, which is a pretty good thing for me. I tried Bank of America, but I got tired of the fees. They charge you for a deposit slip if you go in a branch and don't have one and have to get one there. I had never heard of such a thing before.
Logic ... merely enables one to be wrong with authority. -- Doctor Who
(*Service requires you to turn over your immortal soul to Microsoft for all eternity. Bank of Microsoft is only compatible with Windows 2000, Microsoft Money 7.0, Microsoft Wallet 4.5, Microsoft Hidden Fees 3.0, Microsoft S&L Scandal 6.1, and Microsoft Surly Bank Tellers 2.0.)
--- Dirtside | "Spirituality" is the irrational belief in the supernatural
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
The answer to the question completely depends on what you want out of the service.
Do you want ease of use? Loads of features? Low cost? Integration with financial planning software (Money 2000, Quicken 2000)? High security?
Do you just want to pay bills? Track investments? Track monthly expenses? Manage multiple foreign accounts?
I pay about $10/month for my online banking/real world banking services, plus another $100/year for my brokerage/investment services with the same institution. I can find similar services elsewhere for less (and even for free), but I'm not willing to give up the features I get with my current service.
Just a quick reference for Canadians:
CanadaTrust EasyWeb: Probably the best online baking service in Canada. Loads of features, easy to use.
Scotia Online: Probably the most secure online banking service anywhere. Doesn't rely on SSL for session security.
Presidents Choice Financial: Easily the least expensive... they give you free stuff for using their service.
"Tomorrow's forecast: a few sprinkles of genius with a chance of doom!" - Stewie Griffin
Hi having graduated from a eco/comm programme and having been a suit before I saw the light streaming from my monitor I can tell you any and all one stop financial management solutions are a bad thing. It's a given that once a client is heavily vested you've got them by the whatevers and can lead them anywhere. The key to financial wisdom has always been diversify and this advise applies to services as much as to investments. Good luck
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Although still in beta, USAA offers their banking services online. You can transfer funds, pay bills, track account use all online. Many other services are offered online as well like Money market accounts, insurance services, etc. Some of the services require special software, but most are available right through your browser. www.usaa.com
It took me two months to get my corporate cheques after opening my account. I had been told on three occaisions that the cheques had been printed and shipped and that the fact had been verified. When the cheques arrived they were printed wrong. I asked them to ship the cheques by courier and I went to the extent of asking for the name of the courier company and a tracking number. The told me they had shipped the cheques by purolator but didn't have a tracking number. I asked them to verify the facts. Later the cheques arrived via postal mail. When I asked for the phone number of a supervisor I was told there was none!
mbanx recently changed their pricing so that you have to pay for each time you view your account history on-line.
I won't be an mbanx customer for much longer but it takes a while to shop around and find another on-line bank who can provide everything I have at mbanx (on-line trading in US and Canadian funds, linked directly to my chequeing bank accounts, etc.).
I have tried to apply on-line to "President's Choise Financial" (actually run by CIBC I believe) but they never send me the enrollment package after I fill out the on-line application. I figure if they can't make a little CGI work, I'm not going to trust their banking system!
In the long run you want to deal with an investment firm rather than a bank. The leaders are Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab. These companies are large enough to have a full range of services, have relatively low fees and a real investment orientation. A lot of people I know really like Vanguard because they do a good job of keeping the fees on their mutual funds at a minimum level. Schwab and Fidelity may be better known, but part of that reason is they spend a lot of money on marketing, and you pay for that in their fees.
You will probably still want a checking account at a local bank for more mundane tasks, especially for the convenience of an ATM machine without those damnable fees.
I wouldn't go near E-Trade etc. I just do not trust these outfits, and I think some day some of them are going to go belly-up leaving their users with a mess. The good thing is E-Trade and its ilk have done investors a lot of good by driving the cost of other services down.
I use Bank of America for on-line bill paying and (because I'm now in CA) ATM card. They had a nice web site when everyone else was deploying windows-only systems. They have an associated on-line brokerage, but I prefer the less expensive DLJdirect.
Except for the Datek site someone mentions (which I haven't seen), PMT has a very useful "balance sheet" view and "income/expense view". Use the balance sheet view to see the wonderful/sorry state of your personal equity, and the income/expense view to see if you're spending less than you're taking in-- if you're not doing that, what the hell are you doing? ;) (You can configure the accounts to budget your spending for the year.)
Even better, you don't have to be "on-line" to see where you're at with your finances as long as you're vigilant about entering in transactions. I use it instead of Quicken on Windows because I don't even have a Windows box at home to run it on.
The only thing missing is something that'll help you do your taxes. I'm not going to link to it, you can use a search engine to find it on the usual Palm sites.
For on-line stuff, American Express seems to have acreted a large collection of financial services with a web-interface for banking, brokering, and credit management. I'd consider it only if my brick-and-mortar bank was mistreating me, but they just approved my loan for a brand new 2000 Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 Sedan! (Woohoo!)
_______
computers://use.urls. People use Networds.
They were great when they were independent.
Since they were bought out by Royal Bank, their
service has gone down.
In particular, they used to answer emails, and you
could have email notifications sent when your
balance was too low to handle an e-pay.
For the past year or so, their email is useless.
I closed my account last summer because of this.
Since these don't work, there is no difference
between SFNB or any other bank... except that
SFNB doesn't allow ATM deposits and only has one
branch, in Atlanta... I don't recommend them.
So you might want to bear this in mind when you decide which box(es) you will keep financial data on, and make connections from: This is a case where security really does matter. And BTW, you mignt want to see an independent security certification for the financial institution(s) in question.
This is probably redundant stuff to most /.ers, but someone had to mention it. So I did.
doing things online is great when everything works. If for some reason there is a bug or problem in the system, or if you want to complete a more complex transaction, or do something else esoteric, you may find that a menu to do what you want is not available online.
And if there is some sort of weird problem, life is a lot easier if you can go and show you statement to a branch manager, rather than trying to correct a problem over the phone.
For some of the best rates, and the least surly service, you might want to check out Credit Unions in your area.
For simple stuff like stock purchase, I think online is fine.
Windows, like Stalinism, is great in theory, but troublesome in practice
Hidden Win2K Menu
have done right by me. Wit Capital offers the usual financial products (IRAs, joint accounts, etc.) and has been prompt and helpful (and hasn't tried to shove inappropriate investment products "helpfully" down my throat). They are at http://www.witcapital.com/ and are publicly traded and SIPC licensed, etc.
Wells Fargo is a Large Evil Company, but in spite of this, their bill payment options and online services (among the first banks to offer useful web-based banking) have made them my first choice for a regular bank.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter manages some of my accounts, but that's only because my father retained the services of a real financial planner and I am able to ask said planner's advice provided some of my holdings are with MSDW. If that were not the case, I'd have WitCap manage all my long-term investments.
Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.
One service I particularly like is the automatic bill payment. I schedule it to pay my rent on the 1st, and it pays my rent on the 1st. It doesn't mesh completely well with my every-other-friday paycheck, because I sometimes need to 'float' a little, but it does the trick in general, and worked very, very well when I was paid on the 1st and the 15th.
There's been problems from time to time, but what's kept me there is how they handled things. Once, my rent wasn't sent. At all. I called the bank, and they asked me for the phone number to my rental office, and they took everything from there. They paid my late fees and just took care of things.
In another incident, they had some glitches when they were upgrading, and my balance wasn't updating, and I ended up overdrawing my account (by like 400 dollars). Not a single service charge, not a single check returned. Made me a pretty solid customer.
Everything's free, there's interest paid with no minimum balance on the checking account, which turns out to be about a dollar a month for me, and they provide the checks for free as well. They have no branches anywhere, so if you need a money order or something, you'll have to go elsewhere, but that hasn't been a problem for me.
Since they don't have any branches, you'll end up paying ATM fees to whoever owns the ATM you use. Netbank won't charge you to use the ATM, of course. It hasn't been a big deal for me, I usually just get however much cash I'm allowing myself for that pay period and then I'm done with ATMs.
Deposits are done either by auto-deposit (like your paycheck) or by mail (they give you self-addressed stamped envelopes). No ATM deposits for some reason.
As far as their stocks go, they're not the cheapest on the block, ($25/trade) but they seem to be in the range. The money comes out of/in to your money market or checking account with NetBank.
Drop me an email (by spelling out the dot), and let me know if you're interested in getting a referral. Its not required, but it'd get me a nifty t-shirt and maybe $1000 bux.
Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
waterhouse has $12 trades, unlimited check writing against your money market acct, and an atm/visa debit card. overall, this had everything i needed to make it my checking/online stock buying/debit & atm needs only account. i have been very happy w/ them for the past 2 years
Go to www.gomez.com, they review a bunch of online providers (banks, brokers, insurance, pets, etc). They have great advise. You can also check out TD Waterhouse (broker). With $1000 in assets (cash, stocks, etc) you get a web account ($12 trades) and a Money market Sweep checking account (4 to 5% interest). jbw
They are owned by Bank Canada now - I've been using them for about two years now, and they also offer credit cards that you can see along with your bank accounts.
They also have limited online reporting tools, and you can export your accounts in a Quicken format (although for me the online site offers all the tools I need and I don't use Quicken).
They let you schedule transactions if you like, or pay a one-time bill to a set of "Payees" that you can define and update. I use them to pay all my bills, and really like the web interface they have - very clean and simple.
They said they'd be offering online brokerage services soon as well, but the company they were going to use charges $19.95 per trade - I myself use Datek, and don't care too much that I have to go to seperate sites to manage my accounts. At least it's all online!
The only downside to SFNB is that they have no local ATM's (unless you live in Atlanta) so if you'd like to avoid an ATM fee you have to find a local credit union ATM that doesn't charge fees.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Check out Wells Fargo. They've got everything you need. Checking, Savings, Credit, Brokerage. All of it online.
They have more than a million online customers last I heard and it shows. The service is never down and the customer service is good.
Disclaimer: I do _not_ work for Wells Fargo
Datek really sucks. I sent them a $50,000 cashier's check to fund an account. At first they couldn't find it (I sent it Fedex, so I had a record that someone there signed for it), then they sent it back to the bank it was drawn on. They kept telling me "Don't worry, it will show up any your account any day now".
I've been with Security First for several years now. They've always treated me well. I use Etrade for the stock stuff - mostly because they were also our Stock Option solution at a previous job.
Oh, for the 'cash problem' - I just pull some cash whenever I go grocery shopping...
and have been happy with them. I have what they call a SchwabOne account: free checking, debit card available (debit cards are generally a BAD idea), mutual fund supermarket, full brokerage services, and so on. This brokerage account is our only 'bank' account. They have fairly good services, and give us everything we want. The only problem for young students is that this requires a $5000 US minimum. I suggest steering clear of commercial banks unless you have a specific need for the services they provide, such as international money transfers, and so on. We need such services occasionally, and go to a commercial bank to pay for them.
God luck,and shop around.
Nels
See what I've been reading.
I am also a charter member of MBANX, although I'm not sure what distinguishes a charter member from any other member. I have a personal, Canadian dollar account. Overall, I'm very happy with MBANX.
I pay $13 (Canadian) per month. This plan allows me to do pretty much anything I want, with no additional fees. (Free cheques, free bill payment, free ATM (any brand), free money orders sent wherever I want.) I receive a "reward" every month which is proportional to the amount I have saved or borrowed. Since I have my mortgage with MBANX, my monthly reward is in excess of $25. (It's pretty neat coming out ahead of the game with service fees!)
On the other hand, the interest they pay isn't fantastic, so it may not make sense for large deposits. I was lucky that they offered me the best deal on my mortgage - paying an extra 1/4% on your mortgage rate would more than offset the paltry $25 monthly reward. So MBANX probably isn't for everyone.
Or I should say I don't yet. I have been looking for a 'one stop shopping' alternative myself and haven't seen much. It looks like one is best off to pick the best alternative for each area of financial services (bank, brokerage, etc.)
If you need to get education about the stock market along with free stock tracking and some cool Java interactive charting (which costs money anywhere else) you should check out the site my girlfriend works for: www.stockcharts.com. Build up the hits there so she can get rich and take me on a trip!
Jack William Bell
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
With President's Choice Financial you can apply in person at certain Loblaws.
Give them a call on the phone and apply that way.
Call them up and ask them to mail you an application.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
So far they lack Quicken and on-line brokerage, but more than make up for it in quality of service, low fees, and ethical business practices.
Is there any bank that uses one-time passwords for authentication? I am not ready to trust my money to a single password that can be sniffed (if not on the net, then on my workstation). I really prefer a banking solution that uses devices not connected to my computer (SecurID, Vasco Digipass, etc).
There is a bank in Poland that has just introduced this, there should be more...
I think its a little more complicated then just "what bank". I think choosing a bank is a lot
like choosing a network provider to host your whatever. When you choose a network provided you
probably talk to the staff, try to figure out if they have a clue, what hardware / software they use; etc. Choosing a bank isnt all that different.
Banks are all basically the same, the do about the
same thing. The things that matter to you may be
location, online banking, service, or something
else all together. Personally all of these things
matter to me. I want a bank that has a local branch, who has a clueful staff and provides olb.
There seems to be a growing trend at banks, atleast the smaller banks (ie, not boa/bone, etc) to use "off the shelf" online banking packages.
I know of atleast three companies that produce
online banking software; Digital Insight, Qup,
and FundsXpress.
Does it matter who wrote it? Well, that depends,
if you care about security / the safty of your
account - you probably should. Is your banks
software run under NT or *nix; was it done in
C/Perl/VBasic? Does the software company host
the machines, or are they physically at the bank
tied into their core? What sort of security
experince do the people desiging the software
have?
Qup and Digital Insight, for example are NT based
shops. Qup goes as far as putting a NT box in the
bank and attaching it directly to the core processor - is that really a good idea? How about
performance / scalability. As the need/desire for
online banking grows how well will the service
scale?
Security issues aside, interface and features also
matter. What do you want out of your online banking package? Do you just want to see your balance? How far back? BoA limits your history to
60 days is that enough? Do you need to pay bills
online? Should the bills be paper, or electronic (when possible) ? Do you want to be able to transfer money between accounts ? Wire Money ?
Apply for loans? Intergration of finnical services into a sigle consistant interface ?
What about 1-2 years down the road? What then? Will your bank / banking software be able to do
that?
But anyway, I thought that needed to be pointed out before anyone got goo-goo eyed at Wells Fargo and signed up where they wouldn't be comforable at some point down the road.
(What's so bad about sending SSN across the net? Get on Google and type "SSN FAQ" and pretend you feel lucky, even if you don't. Warning, you may get a bad taste in your mouth about Big Business before you're done reading. IMHO, You Should.)
Quite a few of the local banks here in Michigan offer Online accounts where you can do everything online as well as in person depending on your preference. As far as stocks/investments if your new to the arena try setting up a small account at an investment firm, learn everything you can from reading/your financial advisor then open up an on-line account for the true saving. I personally work for an International investment firm and trade on-line because it is a hell of a lot cheaper.. and I hold my stocks and don't day trade them. Diversify is the best advise I can give though.. not just your investments but where they are held.. if you have more than one option your less likely to get burned.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein
I've had an account with USABancShares.com now for approximately two months, and if it weren't for the fact that I have a car loan with my local credit union that I can't quite yet afford to pay off in a lump sum, I'd close down my local accounts and move everything there. They offer a 5% interest checking account (not as high as others mentioned here but certainly higher than I've seen at any mortar-and-brick institution), competitive rates for CDs, reimbursement of some ATM transaction fees and free bill-paying. There are some costs for wire transfers out of an account but none for transfers into one, so they don't charge for direct deposit (not that I think anyone does).
In addition, they have an associated investment company, www.usaforce.com, and they provide the option of opening an investment account such that you can simply sweep money into your USABancShares account when you sell stock and use money in your account to make stock purchases, rather than make money not currently invested sit in a holding fund earning less interest than I could get at a regular bank.
There are of course the good things. They have a good payment scheduler for automatic stuff. They give you FREE unlimited checks if you ever use them at all since the bill payment handles everything. They don't charge for an ATM transaction but you will have to pay the actual ATM's fee (.25-1.50).
However I have had a bunch of bad things happen. They are slow to respond and customer service is not very cohesive. They missed/lost a mortgage payment, mega hassle and late fee as well as possible negative credit impact. I had to threaten with a lawsuit for them to get moving on fixing this. Didn't receive a working debit/atm until after nine months. The site is slow on DSL. They have timeouts that are so short. EVERY email reply I have had has timed out while I was typing it so I lost what I had typed. They sent a payment to the wrong bank so it took another 2 months to straighten that out. Normally I wouldn't be so uptight but it was $5000 to pay off my car and they sent it to my credit card. I double-triple checked what I entered since it was a big amount. They of course denied everything.
I am still not unsure why their bill payment is so unpredictable and untraceable. They provide no proof that the reciever of the bill payment has received the funds(cashed), they just debit your account and it is up to you to tell them or wait for a payment to be lost.
I am gonna switch to CITFI which is the new integrated banking/broker/loan/trading from Citibank. Hope it is better.
humbao
a one-stop financial place, you should have
a plan. What are you saving for? Are you
planning on buying a house? Are you spending
money on credit? There's no one-size-fits-all
plan for everyone.
So here's my one-size-fits-all plan for you,
based on some guesses.
Make a financial plan first.
Street" by Malkiel is excellent. One of
the last chapters is a how-to-invest guide
based on your age and current plans.
Any book by Andrew Tobias is good. Consumer
Reports has an ok, eat-your-broccoli sort of
book. Suze Ortman (sp?) kind of gives me
the creeps, but her advice is good.
You're paying 15% to 25% in credit payments?
It would be more fun to burn the money in
your own home. Pay down all credit ASAP,
and don't worry about investments or anything
until you do.
available to you. This would mean 401(k)
for most people, but if you're paid by the
university, it will be a 403(b) plan. Put
every dollar you can spare in those plans.
Since you sound like you're in your twenties,
this will turn out to be one of the best
decisions you will have made by the time
you retire.
More typically, people reach their late 30s
and start to think about funding their
retirement in just two decades. Not
going to happen -- fund it right now and
let compounded interest work for you. Your
youth is an advantage. Also, use Roth IRAs
as much as you can, even if you've put 401(k)
money away.
(Btw, I work for MSDW Online). They're fine
for people who know what they're doing, but you
don't. Stay away until you can afford them,
and you have a clue about stocks. Instead,
buy mutual funds that specialize in indices,
such as the Scudder and Vanguard families of
funds.
aren't you? Ok, read the books above, but
also check out the Motley Fool web sites and books.
They get it.
-- Crazy Horse
They have a $1000 minimum deposit, but they currently have a special offer which waves the minimum for 6 months.
One thing to keep in mind: just because a bank is FDIC insured, doesn't make it "safe". Even if you eventually get your FDIC payout (if the bank goes under), you're going to have hassles galore in the meantime. So watch out for fly-by-nights.
Having friends in the financial services sector, one piece of advice I got is that if you go into a fund, e.g. a mutual fund, find a fund that can consitently beat 'the monkey score'. For mutual funds this is the S&P 500 (there are other indices for bonds etc.). Statistically, if a monkey were to randomly pick a stock from the S&P 500 it should have about a 50/50 chance of beating the average. Yet close to 2/3 of the fund managers cannot beat this average. Find a fund (and manager) that can perform on this level on a regular basis.
With in a services house, diversify your funds.
Balance a high yield/high risk fund with bond or other income funds.
Be sure to investigate ALL fees they might cahrge you and subtract it from you estimated returns.
If you have access to a credit union, use it! Credit unions are like Linux, once you use one nothing else will seem up to snuff. They provide you with low cost checking, loans, credit cards, mutual funds, IRA's and you get to vote for the board of directors as well. Many (including the ones I am a member of) have web access to do your banking and investing.
If your academic institution had TIA/CREF retirement and you partook in it, stick with it. They are reputable, stable and have a good track record.
ersonally I use credit unions, TIA/CREF and a private financial services company.
HTH
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
If you're just looking to track your stock holdings, money market funds, and that kind of thing and don't mind devoting a few minutes to actually building the information by hand, NASDAQ offers a portfolio tracking service for free on their site. I believe it's a cookie/java solution, so if you're frequently changing pc's or browsers, you might be SOL, but it's fairly simple and straightforward. I haven't played with it in a while, but recall asking them to include long-term growth charts for personal portfolios (like they have for individual stocks), so this might be extant by now.
Rafe
V^^^^V
Rafe
Opinions expressed by the author may not actually exist in the wild.
I use a local bank with internet access. I use Accutrade for most investments, eTrade for some and go directly to the mutual funds I pick.
....
... would provide US customers/consumers usable software for home/office. All the software packages/applications I have looked at fail to provide me with real tools for automating and simplfying the process.
...) and internet brokers like eTrade, Datek, DLJ, ... for investments and research. Currently I have, but would not recommend any home-office finacial software applications, because they are purty packages of ledger and printer fluff and not very helpful in tactical/strategic financial planning.
... I would recommend Intuit's Turbo Tax Delux (if you do it yourself) or a good CPA.
I use "Yahoo!" to track day to day gains/loss. I research stocks and mutual funds on many no cost internet sites (and those I have assets at) "Yahoo!", Quicken/Intuit, WallStreet,
I wish Intuit/Quicken, Others, Banks, Brokers,
Currently I would advise use a local banker with internet access (just in case
Being it is the season
Hope this stuff helps.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Good points:
- Interest-bearing checking account (3.75% or so right now)
- Reimbursment for up to 4 ATM transactions a $1.50 per.
- Free online bill pay (option to schedule), online statements, first batch of paper checks.
- Free paper statements with images of cancelled checks.
Bad points:- They use the "Pulse" ATM network, which mean I can only use some 20% of the ATMs in the Indianapolis area.
- No online view of cancelled checks.
- Website downtimes that I have quite frustrating (several minutes each day, with occasionaly half-day crashes).
- Web site frequently seems slow (via modem, at least).
Looking at everyone else's posts, I'm going to look seriously at moving my account to Security First, if I can figure out what ATM network they use...in the traditional sense of running your household finances on a
monthly basis. The other is about investing, which is what
you do with the money that isn't going "in one hand and out the
other." There are any number of places to run your checkbook from as
noted above, but I sincerely hope you don't expect that to address
your IPO-scale cash.
Once you clear about $100k you start becoming interesting to the
investment community for real. And you start really needing
professional services. Below $50k investable you'll be paying a lot
for any real customized services you get; above $250k you can get a
team of people working for you for less than you'd pay a mutual fund
in management fees.
We all see the results of people dabbling in technical fields when
they aren't really professionals in it. It would have been cheaper to
have hired a pro from the start. It's the same with money. There are
a lot of smart people in the money management business, and many of
them have a lot more experience in their field than you (or I) do in
ours. Why would you want to roll your own with something so precious?
My opinion is that "best online banking solution" is an oxymoron for
real investments by people who are not full-time financial
professionals. It may be fine for cookie-cutter household finances
like bill-paying and downloading your statement into a spreadsheet,
but investing is a customized service industry.
That said, you can check out ICFP
for independents. Merrill Lynch
offers a Cash Management Account (CMA) that rolls up the household
checking, credit card, and a team of people into one package. Their
quoted rates are a maximum; it declines the more money you have with
them.
I think the sign-up process is a good metric for how the bank manages its customer relationships. I think that doing business over the phone is a bad idea as there is too much opportunity for confusion and misunderstanding. Furthermore you don't get a record of what was said when you conduct business over the phone.
If they are truely an on-line web-based bank then they should be able to process my application (at least enough to email me forms to sign) on-line. While they may offer many other ways to do banking (probably a good thing!) I'm only interesting in on-line banking and if they can't support that well I'm going to keep looking until I can find someone who can. Currently I'm with a bank that doesn't satisfy me, but I'm not going to put in a lot of effort until I'm confident another bank will satisfy me.
Check with your local banks - many of the more progressive ones are going on line. I use Commerce bank (www.commercebank.com) because there are many ATM's around us and they have online services including sending checks to pay for your stuff. Word of advice - DON'T LET COMPANIES HAVE DIRECT WITHDRAW!!! Once you give them permission, you can't take it back. My wife had problems with GE Capital after her car was totaled. They kept trying to collect the monthly fee even after the loan was paid off, so we empied out the account. She put a stop on their withdraws, but you can only stop withdraws of a specific the amount (not from a specific person/place), so they changed it +/- some pennies and kept trying. We closed up the account to prevent them from withdrawing, but since they were trying DAILY to pull money out we had $100's in bounced check fees even after the account was closed. The bank did eventually waive those fees, but it was a nightmare. Don't learn the hard way like we did. SO, I would definately reccomend using a bank that does online check payment (like Commerce) instead of direct withdraw!!
Have been using WebStreet for the last few years. Always hated the design of their website, lots of frames, very annoying. American Express has an all in one brokerage account which I am switching to. No comission on stock purchase with a balance of > $25,000! Plus free checking, atm, gold card and online bill paying. The Motley Fool recently switched to American Express...
I applied to SFNB for an online account but they twice lose the supporting documents they needed, finally they sent me a snotty letter informing me that they had closed my application as I hadn't sent them the information they required. I tried contacting them several times to say they had it (I'd faxed it twice and mailed copies) but all they would do was log my call and promise me an email reply.
So I decided that I didn't want to trust my meagre savings to someone who couldn't keep track of a few pieces of paper.
I went to NetBank.com instead - its adaquate rather than stellar.
If you want to get a run down of the biggest and most popular online investment companies and reviews about each, go here: http://www.fool.com/media/DiscountBrokerageCenter/ DiscountBrokerageCenter.htm
Signed, Yo Mammy!
One site I've seen that reviews banks/brokers (along with user comments) is Gomez Advisors.
They rated my bank (SFNB) as one of the better banks overall, and I've really been happy with them so far.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No ATM charge then.
Deposits are still a real pain. Pay is automatic deposit, but other checks have to be mailed in.
--
Infuriate left and right
Since we're being capitalists, Forbes (the capitalist tool) did an extensive survey of financial sites (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/0913/index.htm) which they're keeping updated. A bit daunting, but it should give you some good pointers regardless of the type of service(s) you're looking for.
For analysis of stocks, I think the best is www.clearstation.com. They are very good on both community take and technical analysis. Yahoo's stock pages are pretty good for fundemental analysis.
If you plan to be a heavy day-trader, take a look at CyberCorp.Com. I haven't used them myself though.
The earlier comment about getting a good book and reading it is quite apt.
they dont have any branches, checking, loans, creditcards, but you can have bright shiny bits of metal in your account. www.e-gold.com
I have been with them for about a year, since HSBC does STILl NOT offer internet banking! That and the 6% interest on a lowly checking account helps too.... www.sfnb.com
Citibank now has their own sort of 'internet bank' called Citi-f/i ... I received a flyer in the mail the other day and have been meaning to check it out. From the glossy brochure it seems there are no fees and the minimum balance is an entire dollar ... sounds nearly too good to be true (and I'm betting it is). They dont have ATM's in my area but they do offer to reimburse the 'other bank's' service charges on four withdrawls a month. If your account balance is over $10,000, they will reimburse you for ANY and all withdrawls from enemy ATM's. Anyone have more info/experience with this bank than I?
... I just visited the site to make sure I had the url correct and guess what, no unix support of any flavor! ... Citi F/I
fyi
There goes that idea
I am about to close my account with NetBank. Their site is unbelievably slow, too slow for me to easily use, and is often down, even after the upgrade. On top of that, they don't answer their phones.
Ok... I have *No* credit... Not bad credit, just no credit. I have NOT been able to open an account there because I get rejected everytime. I also try a simaler bank with the *same* problem. I recently opened an account with X.com and have been *very happy* with them. They gave you $20.00 FREE when opening an account and they give a 3.9% APR on check accounts. All services are 100% free and they have *no minimum* CD's and Mutual funds. (also free). They also send me a Debit Visa and gave me a $200.00 crrdit line (9.9% APR. They have been awesome. They sent free checks for the account also and they make is easy to transfer funds to friends and in/out of other bank accounts of deposit money via credit card (or debit from your existing bank). I have never seen service like this before. And to top it all off they have a geeky name and a cool logo. Click here to open an account, they will put $20.00 free in your account as soon as it's opened.
I'd give this a -1 for troll. After last summer's happenings, E*Trade must be the most hated online brokerage in the Linux community by now. Or do people just have short memory?
Say no to software patents.
Check out Telebank. I don't use them yet but I'm tempted to (good rates, refund ATM fees, etc.) I've also heard that eTrade is going to buy the service -- might be all that you're looking for.
I've had a LOT of experience with this lately. There are several parts to this question and several things to think about.
Normal Banking:
Where do I get my ATM card, DEBIT card, Credit Card, etc. How do I manage my Checking and Savings accounts.These are all included in Normal Banking. I highly recommend Wells Fargo. They have branches everywhere on the west coast but I never use them. Their online banking system is EXCELLENT. Their customer service department is actually useful as well. Their online service allows you to download your account history into MS Money (evil) or Quicken (also evil).
Financial Software:
On your computer, it is nice to track your finances with charts, investments, etc. which allow you to keep a close (private) eye on whats going on. It also makes taxes a lot easier. Scheduled payments are also nice. The pain in the ass is that there are really only two products to let you do this, and they both suck, and they are both for windoze. They also make use of a modem which is a pain if you have already switched to a high speed internet line.
Stock trading / tracking:
Tracking your portfolio, doing stock research, and of course, trading, are all functions of online stock brokers. I have had experience with a few.
- Datek was very nice. Good interface, but not many special offers or goodies.
- WitCapital was also very good although their services lent themselves to assistance regarding IPO's and not much else. The site design was also so/so.
- Etrade has its share of success stories and nightmares. So far my experience with them has been a bit of both. Etrade has many bells and whistles and extra services. Thier site design is not great, but it is fair. Their customer service leaves MUCH to be deisired. Slow to respond to phone calls and slow to follow through on withdrawls, deposits, and transfers of cash. They are also slow in getting checks and there were several screw-ups in the initial sign-up process. I don't feel very comfortable with them although actual stock trading has been smooth.
- Moneynet.com is who I use for tracking my portfolio. The site design is nice and there is a lot of free information and news. Note that this is NOT a stock trading service. It is only a way to track assets, investments, etc. A lot of good resources here.
Conclusion:
I want either web based or net-enabled software (for linux) that easily allows me to track portfolio's and assets, as well as get news. I also need to be able to import downloaded account histories from multiple sources (usually in money or quicken format). I also need to be able to schedule bill payment automatically and not require a modem. I need to be able to reconcile this information for tax purposes. I also need to make stock trades and manage my bank accounts. If all of this were in one place, it would make my, and probably everyone else's, life a lot easier.
Just my 2 centavos. Hope this helps.
Breifly I have an account setup with janus.com that has the bulk of money spread across 3 of there funds plus a money market account. I still maintain an account with my brick and morter bank (not a problem since they now offer online banking) and since I have auto deposite of my paycheck and credit card autopay (off of my visa check card) setup for most of my bills I never actually have to go there or write checks for that matter. In fact I can safely ignore my snailmail completely now ;-> With the janus setup I've bought into there Olympus fund (pretty tech heavey returned over %100 in 99, will probably have similar returns for a few more years if the this bull market continues) their growth and income fund which did around %35 in 99, and a global life sciences fund which is very new and as you might guess is invested in biotech pretty heavy, which to me seems like the next biggest growth area after the internet. Plus a money market account I keep becuase it has check writing abilities and I like having it for emergencies (since i don't have an actual credit card) The beauty part of the system is that since janus gives you full access to your funds online 24/7 I really can use them like very high interest savings account, and when the money is needed either have it in the money market account or my real checking account in a matter of minutes (unless the market is closed, then transactions are of course delayed untill 8am EST ;-) Like I said with this system in place I never have to write checks, buy stamps or even actually check my snail mail, very smooth. I also have an account with schwab.com but with the amounts I'm dealing with their fees are just chewing me up and I'm going to switch to etrade or a similar outfit RSN.
I hope this helps!
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
Want to get around the ATM fee? It's easy but the catch is that you usually have to go into a bank (or some institution) to do it.
Your checking/money market account should come with an associated debit card. This uses the standard VISA network. Simply make take a cash advance on your "VISA" card. There is no charge for cash advances by any insitution that I am aware of, although there is usually a cap on the amount, it is also usually much higher than you could get from an ATM (or the same, $500), plus you can get it in the bills of your choice! What could be better?
I guess that using the VISA network only costs the end bank some tiny fee and they just don't care about it, and they figure your bank is going to ream you with charges for taking a cash advance (they usually do) on your credit card. There's no need to inform them that it is not a credit card -- as far as they are concerned, it is. In one place I told them it was a debit card and they didn't care. So.. have fun.
Bury your money in a pickle jar and wait for civilisation to collapse. Then trade it for valuable supplies - after all, those bills will make great toilet paper.
Seriously, why would you ask us on slashdot this question? Asking hacker geeks for financial advice is like asking pill bugs for flying lessons!
--Charlie
I use TD Waterhouse, which I am reasonably happy with: $12 trades (market or limit), no annual fee IRA accounts, lots of no-transaction-fee mutual funds to pick from, a linked no-annual-fee Visa card that pays back a flat 1% rebate on all purchases, free ATM/debit card & free no-minimum checkwriting. You can also get a free linked checking account with limited ATM surcharge reimbursement & free bill-pay. Bad things: they don't track average cost basis information for tax time, they don't send back checks or check images on the brokerage account, customer service can occasionally be spotty. I just signed up for a USABancShares account as well... 5% interest, no monthly fee, ATM reimbursement, etc. We'll see how that works. Be sure to check out the Gomez Savings center if you're looking to open an account. You can get $75 for opening a Waterhouse acct, $150 for opening an E*Trade acct, $100 for opening a USABancShares account, etc. For rebate/reward credit card gossip/info, nothing beats Credit Card Goodies.
Personally I use Quicken and Wells Fargo. I've looked at all the different online banking solutions but none of them really appealed to me after I got used to Quicken's online banking. In fact I switched to Quicken from Wells Fargo's On-Line banking.
For me the ability to keep track of all my accounts, get the updates to them automatically over the internet, write checks all from one interface is a complete boon. Pretty soon I'm going to upgrade to Quicken2k and purchase PocketQuicken for my Palm. Can't keep more up to date on your books than that, IMHO.
My only problem is that more of the newer online banking institutions don't offer this solution *AND* that there were some open standard so there would be products other than Quicken and, IIRC, Microsoft Money to do it.
-- Grey d'Miyu, not just another pretty color.
The web is an awful interface (slow, proprietary for each service) for doing stuff like paying bills and looking at graphs of account data. Some day you will change services and lose all your old data - you want your list of periodic bills, etc. to be local, not on their server.
Lots of folks mention downloading information in Quicken format. That may be the best we can do now, but we need a Linux program to process it. Surely there are at least some programs or spreadsheet macros (in gnumeric?) to deal with that for account data, but is there any open-source way to ask a bank to pay your bills?
--Neal
--Neal
Go IETF!
You might checkout BankDirect at http://www.bankdirect.com $100 minimum opening balance for regular checking paying 3.25% interest. 5.5% money market with $500 minimum opening Free unlimited Bill Pay, Free ATM with 4 reimbursements per month (up $1.50 each) Their banking pages are clean without alot of unneeded glitz. Check the site, they have a fully operational demo - (not selected screens) I checked out all of them about 6 months ago and this one came out tops.
They came out early with some promising web services, but they've fallen way behind traditional banks. I suspect at some point Royal Bank (the Canuck bank that bought them) will just roll their operation into the mothership.
In Florida at least, you can use the ATMs at any Publix to withdraw money from an SFNB account without a fee.
Only USAA's auto and property insurance is restricted to the military. Their other products are available to the general public.
-- David Ripton
Takes one to know one!!
Couldn't resist the temptation. I like slamming a good moron once in a while with more moronic comments.
BTW... The MS post was hilarious.
The big online banks have their _fees_ and the little wannabe online banks can't deliver the services online. The best solution is to abstract an online source over _the best_ bank you can find. CheckFree.com allows you to choose your bank of choice - They provide the online services. CheckFree even *guarantees* your check you write from their system is _good_. What a novel idea!! When WellsFargo screwed-up their fee structure and the fees started I switched to a local bank with little online services. It was great... changed the direct deposit to the new bank. Changed CheckFree to point to the new bank and it was a GO. The advantage is that *all* your payees don't get lost in the switch. They stay with CheckFree and you are only switching your funds source. If you sucker-up to the banks BillPay system, you can't move your Payees to another bank. This one abstraction takes all the risk out of banking online. I highly recommend CheckFree for the freedom it provides. For $9.00/mo. you get to choose whatever bank you want to draw your checks against... Cool.
find another on-line bank who can provide everything I have at mbanx (on-line trading in US and Canadian funds, linked directly to my chequeing bank accounts, etc.)
Try Canada Trust... that's what I use and am very happy with them, they manage to do all the things you say above, plus other things like bill payments. And... on one page it lists the balances of my chequing account, my investment accounts, and my mastercard. Very, very convenient. And it doesn't cost much either.
Of course, there is a caveat (isn't their always?)... CT was just bought out by TD Bank and they have their own system so I am crossing my fingers that they won't screw things up too badly.
-rt-
** Evil Canadians are taking over the world. Learn about the conspiracy
My parents just got a mortgage through CT and had a great experience. They got a better rate on their mortgage by switching all their banking to CT. On-line banking is very important to them too but they aren't half as fussy as I am! I also know someone who is a manager at a CT branch and know they have pioneered some on-line banking stuff (in 1995 I got to demo their on-line banking website before it was available to customers).
A business I used to be a partner in used TD for its banking and we had a pretty bad experience with them, so this news that TD has purchases CT makes me nervous but I won't hold it against them.
IMO, the more pieces of discrete software users have to open and close, and the more independent logins they have to make, the less likely that someone will come up with an automated tool for ripping off their whole electronic ID package and transferring their assets through a chain of offshore banks ending in a pile of easily negotiable cashiers' checks...
Too much automation could turn out to be have problems similar to those arising from M$ tying Office, IE, and the IE mail client together in an "innovative" integrated package... and spawning a whole new class of worms and virii.
My 2 cents.
It was hated because the "Linux Community" are all a bunch of little kids who don't know shit about stock or buying it, or IPOs or even opening up a brokerage account. E-Bay tried to hold Linux kids up to adult standards. The Linux kids got angry and stamped their feet. Big deal. E-Trade is an excellent service for grownups.
Good and Valid points ..., I agree.
..., Open the Envelope" for others (AKA: Necessity is the Mom of Invention NMI).
However, I have always believed that it is best for some of US to "Ride the Edge,
Never be happy with limited bandwidth.
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
Don't do anything until you read Personal Finance for Dummies. This book is excellent. This book surveys the financial landscape and helps put everthing in perspective. Despite the off-putting name, it delivers solid hype-free advice. Especially useful is the investing advice, which exposes the various conflicts of interest that exist in the retail financial environment. Eric Tyson is a nationally recognized financial author and consultant. Another good book is "Common Sense on Mutual Funds : New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor" by John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. Although a bit tedious to read at times, the book shows how fund costs can impair your long term return.
Most of the high-street banks have SOME kind of online-banking, but most of them require windoze software, or some of them have nice java software but it checks you're running windoze before letting you run it! (yes, there are hacks, but I'd rather not give THOSE kind of people my business)...
Egg has a nice interest rate, and has done it The Way It Should Be Done with no java, just plain HTML, CGI, HTTPS... but they only allow you to pay out into your one or two nominated accounts, so you can't use it to pay bills, give money to friends, etc etc, and anyway, their security panics and locks you out if you dare to use the wrong capitalisation in any of the security questions.
marbles isn't a bank after all. anyone tried first-e? any good? what about any of the others?
I'm after something that will take my pay-cheque, and look after it, preferably earning a little interest. Something that will let me pay bills, pay money to friends, or transfer to other accounts. It MUST NOT make a fuss about me using any more secure OS than most of the rest of the planet. It should PREFERABLY not use huge java apps either, but I'd probably put up with java if it met all my other requirements.
Help! :-)
Nick Waterman, Sr Tech Director, #include <stddisclaimer>
you may check with a local bank if you're near a military town. i know of several banks that are developing online-banking solutions that target military personnel b/c of their mobility.
banks are very happy if they can keep a customer when they move every 2-3 years, including overseas deployments. and staying with one financial institution makes my life much easier.
The best banks are the tardiotnal credit union. I do my banking at the local gas station, by the phone, by snail mail, or the web. My particular credit union has never been within easy driving distance of their customers, so they are well setup for this situation. (They are for state hiway department workers, who live around the state despite the bank offices being near only near the state capitol)
It is harder to get in as you need to live/work in the right place, or be a relative of someone who is a member.
When my parents wanted to buy a car they call the credit untion, the person (I've never been on hold, the person answering the phone can hanlde my buisness, and I always get a person imeadiatly) who answered the phone said "For that model of car don't pay more then $x, we are putting $x in your checking account, when you buy the car send us the title." Now granted my parents have a good creit rating, but this service is nice, they trust members with the bank's money.
Also, savings interest rates are higher, loan rates lower. And of course the service is better.
They don't have all the fancy features and they don't have ATMS, but I keep a standard bank account for immediate cash and arrange an automatic deposit into my TD Waterhouse Money Market account. I have also arranged automatic investments from my Waterhouse account to various mutual funds through Waterhouse. Waterhouse offers over 9,000 mutual funds, many with no-load and no transaction fee. I looked at it because Ii was the only discount brokerage firm that didn't get consistently flamed in the online investment basics discussion groups. They usually don't get raves, but a lot of folks like me saying "Hey, they provide good, basic services, diversity and food price." They are hardly the "pretty boys" or for high fliers who need day trader speed. Some of their research tools are more primitive than the folks like E-Trade. If the tools are important, you might want to look at Schwab. They are pretty comprehensive. The really cheap guys made me nervous because they seem really oriented towards day stock traders. Good-luck!
"Schwab and Fidelity may be better known, but part of that reason is they spend a lot of money on marketing, and you pay for that in their fees." Just FYI, Schwab has the most efficient advertising cost structure in the industry, spending approximately $30 average to attract a new customer. For comparison, E-Trade (the worst in the industry) will spend approximately $900 to attract a new customer. (How these were computed, I don't know.)