Services in Alamogordo (Ruidoso, Capitan, Hope: sales, mattress, credit)

[bobnsharon08]

I have been looking around, the web and City-Data forum searches, to see what I could come up with for services in Alamo as we are moving there in a little over a month and have come up with some information but now we need some unbiased opinions (opinions are like noses you know, everyone has one) based on experience.

What we are looking for information on is banks and storage units. Banks can be a crap shoot but we have had good luck with small, state, banks while staying away from the larger national banks to get good service at reasonable rates as well as a place where you are more than a number. All the websites say they are friendly, have the "best rates in town" and so on but your mileage may vary and running from bank to bank is not one of my favorite pastimes. Looking for a self-serve storage unit can be even worse than banks since you are putting things you value, more or less, in stranger's hands. We aren't moving much, the only big furniture is a couple of beds and some dressers with the majority being personal stuff, but we would like to feel confident that what we put in the unit will be there when we come back for it. We don't know about the timing of finding living accomodations so our stuff could need to be stored for a while.

For the most part we are trying to make what arrangements we can long distance but the current plan is to come out before our house closes here to make arrangements in Alamo, meet with some more folks, and finalize what we can before the actual move. We have already made one trip out and liked the area enough to move there, now we need to make preparations to actually live there.

The only other interest I have that I got very spotty results on (I am not a web-search wiz ) were looking for a bowling alley. I did find the bowling alley on base at Holloman but I don't know that it is open to the public (is it?).

As always, thanks much for any information you can offer...

...Cheers!

[elkotronics]

I know there is no bowling alley in Alamogordo and I don't know if the one at Holloman is open to the public. There are great garage sales here, in fact, the cars around Alamo have stickers on them that say "iluvhollomonyardsales.com" or words to that effect. My wife and I picked up a great vacuum cleaner for only $5 at a Hollomon garage sale and we picked up a twin mattress and box spring for only $20 at another Hollomon yard sale. Not bad, huh?

We bank at Wells Fargo and are happy with them here. The Wells Fargo online experience works easily and works well. They will work with you to give you whatever you need to make your banking experience turn out well for you. Don't know about the credit unions, there are a couple of them here but we don't use them. Hope this information is helpful to you, bobnsharon08!

[Mzurie]

Re: financial institution. Unless there's a particular reason you want to have an account at a local financial institution, might consider just sticking with the one you've got now. I've been with the same credit union for years, although I've moved around a fair amount, the most recent being to Alamogordo last September. The people at my credit union in another state know who I am and it's been easy to communicate with them online, by phone, or by email.

It's also been my experience that people in Alamogordo don't care what the address is on my checks, and neither does my credit union, so I've been using up my old checks three years past the time I moved from the address on same. My credit union has my current Alamogordo contact info if they need to mail anything to me.

At any rate (get it?) ... welcome to Alamogordo!

[GregW]

Good info on Base tag sales. The military moves people around a lot so there is always stuff to get rid of. We avoid tag sales because we already have enough junk.

Lockboxes are reasonably secure if you use a good lock. Just don't store extremely valuable things in them. Also don't store things that might melt. The storage units can get really, really hot.

[songinthewind7]

My bank is in Texas but living in Capitan with the only bank being Washington Federal, we do our Fraternal of Eagle business there and they are a nice hometown bank with personal and friendly service. I can't speak for the one in Alamogordo but if it's this way here, then it's probably the same in Alamogordo.

The only bowling alley I know of is in Ruidoso.