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Technically, unless you live in Charlotte, NC, you had an account with another bank that was acquired by NCNB in Charlotte. The very large banks honestly don't care about the age of accounts. All they are interested in is it's current profitability. If you have a $1 milion sitting in a low interest account, they will send a car to pick you up to take you to one of their private banking centers which will take care of your every need. Otherwise, the account is no different than an account that was opened yesterday.
BofA maintains a separate set of private bank branches that only their "good" customers can access.
The Oakland CA B of A branch where the account was opened in 1948 is now a storefront church...
The checks still say "Valued Customer since 1948"
If nothing else, the account has a well seasoned track record...
As for a customer with not quite a million in the bank... that describes an elderly widow I know... she has lived in the same home since they were married back in 1934... she had been seeing her fiancee for several years during the depression and finally grew tired of waiting for him to propose... so she did He accepted and said we should look for a home to buy and they did... for cash... all $2600 which was her husband's life savings..
She got so mad and said we could have been married years ago if I knew you had money saved
Anyway... her Bank would not issue her a credit card so she could take a trip to visit her niece... she had over 600k in the Bank and they denied her because her only source of income was a modest Social Security Check...
By the way, she was asking for a $2000 limit... her husband had a credit card which was cancelled when he died years ago...
So even having money doesn't mean much... I got her a credit card and set her up with CD's from a different start-up Savings and Loan that was more than happy to accommodate her... this was in 1990...
How do I find one of those Special B of A branches?
The Bank was then paying 1/10 of one percent... the local credit union was paying 3%.
3% is an "unnaturally" high rate right now, even for savings or CDs. I would be weary of anybody offering it.
Generally speaking the online banks offer better interest rates than credit unions. Personally, I see no reason to use credit unions. For the most part they are only good for people that like to do their dealings in person. Online they are almost totally inadequate.
There is a credit union here that has been building a lot of new branches and advertising...I went to their website and almost hit my head on my desk. It was just absurd that a company that is spending that much money on new offices and advertising would have such an inadequate website. They are either rather stupid, or are serving an older demographic.
3% is an "unnaturally" high rate right now, even for savings or CDs. I would be weary of anybody offering it.
Generally speaking the online banks offer better interest rates than credit unions. Personally, I see no reason to use credit unions. For the most part they are only good for people that like to do their dealings in person. Online they are almost totally inadequate.
There is a credit union here that has been building a lot of new branches and advertising...I went to their website and almost hit my head on my desk. It was just absurd that a company that is spending that much money on new offices and advertising would have such an inadequate website. They are either rather stupid, or are serving an older demographic.
I guess it was too good to last... Provident Credit Union has been paying 3% on Super Reward Checking for years...
Looks like it is now 2.5% for 2010
Great Rate:Super Reward Checking Up to $25,000 2.510%
Amounts above $25,000 0.760%
I'm skeptical, co-workers have used them for years... car loans and mortgages...
Federally Insured to 250k... anything else I need to know or should check?
I'd be weary of 2.5% right now too, an institution offering that rate is hurting for deposits. But given that its a California credit union that is not surprising. Also, its certainly possible to offer above market rates if the account has strings attached.
The highest rates I'm seeing out of healthy institution is around 2% and that is for savings/short term CDs.
... Online they are almost totally inadequate. ....
Actually the Credit Unions are usually far a head of banks in their willingless to adopt new technology to provide access. The first internet banking access in the world was at a Credit Union. At the time the major banks would not touch it believing instead that it would be better to force people onto private, for pay, networks like AOL, Compuserve, etc.
I'd be weary of 2.5% right now too, an institution offering that rate is hurting for deposits. But given that its a California credit union that is not surprising. Also, its certainly possible to offer above market rates if the account has strings attached.
The highest rates I'm seeing out of healthy institution is around 2% and that is for savings/short term CDs.
No reason to really be wary of those kinds of rates. These accounts are usually tied in to a certain amount of debit card transactions. My credit union is paying around 2.5% interest on checking up to $25000, but you need to use your debit cards at least 14 times during the month. They are just taking the debit card transaction fees and refunding them to the shareholders of the credit union, who just happen to be the depositors.
The credit union is probably making around 2% on transaction fees for each debit card purchase. They are just refunding that - it's no scam or great mystery.
There's a big advantage to belonging to a financial institution in which you are an owner.
Thanks for the link. I have been thinking about dumping my Citibank account for a while and have decided to open a new account with my local credit union.
Actually the Credit Unions are usually far a head of banks in their willingless to adopt new technology to provide access. The first internet banking access in the world was at a Credit Union.
I've yet to see a credit union with a quality website. I'm sure one exists, but forever reason they seem to invest little in their websites.
The reason for this is most likely that their demographic is older, at least from my experience most younger kids don't even know what a credit union is!
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He accepted and said we should look for a home to buy and they did... for cash... all $2600 which was her husband's life savings..
