JD Power Why You Like Your Bank

If you're satisfied with your bank, it's because working with the bank just keeps getting better.

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2012 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, and it looks like consumers are surprisingly happy with their banks. In spite of higher fees and movements like Bank Transfer Day, banks are keeping you satisfied by making up for those annoying fees.

How are they doing it? It turns out that it's easier to do business with banks, and that makes customers happy; branch interactions go well, problems get solved quickly, and new technology helps you get things done. For example, J.D. Power's director of banking services Michael Beird notes:

"the percentage of customers who use ATMs to make deposits has more than doubled over the past four years, from 19 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2012."

The main challenge for banks seems to be fees. Consumers are not reacting well to new fees on products that used to be free.

Further reading:

• 2012 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study
• Make ATM Deposits

JD Power Why You Like Your Bank

If you're satisfied with your bank, it's because working with the bank just keeps getting better.

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2012 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, and it looks like consumers are surprisingly happy with their banks. In spite of higher fees and movements like Bank Transfer Day, banks are keeping you satisfied by making up for those annoying fees.

How are they doing it? It turns out that it's easier to do business with banks, and that makes customers happy; branch interactions go well, problems get solved quickly, and new technology helps you get things done. For example, J.D. Power's director of banking services Michael Beird notes:

"the percentage of customers who use ATMs to make deposits has more than doubled over the past four years, from 19 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2012."

The main challenge for banks seems to be fees. Consumers are not reacting well to new fees on products that used to be free.

Further reading:

• 2012 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study
• Make ATM Deposits

JD Power Why You Like Your Bank

If you're satisfied with your bank, it's because working with the bank just keeps getting better.

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2012 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, and it looks like consumers are surprisingly happy with their banks. In spite of higher fees and movements like Bank Transfer Day, banks are keeping you satisfied by making up for those annoying fees.

How are they doing it? It turns out that it's easier to do business with banks, and that makes customers happy; branch interactions go well, problems get solved quickly, and new technology helps you get things done. For example, J.D. Power's director of banking services Michael Beird notes:

"the percentage of customers who use ATMs to make deposits has more than doubled over the past four years, from 19 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2012."

The main challenge for banks seems to be fees. Consumers are not reacting well to new fees on products that used to be free.

Further reading:

• 2012 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study
• Make ATM Deposits

JD Power Why You Like Your Bank

If you're satisfied with your bank, it's because working with the bank just keeps getting better.

J.D. Power and Associates just released the 2012 US Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, and it looks like consumers are surprisingly happy with their banks. In spite of higher fees and movements like Bank Transfer Day, banks are keeping you satisfied by making up for those annoying fees.

How are they doing it? It turns out that it's easier to do business with banks, and that makes customers happy; branch interactions go well, problems get solved quickly, and new technology helps you get things done. For example, J.D. Power's director of banking services Michael Beird notes:

"the percentage of customers who use ATMs to make deposits has more than doubled over the past four years, from 19 percent in 2008 to 40 percent in 2012."

The main challenge for banks seems to be fees. Consumers are not reacting well to new fees on products that used to be free.

Further reading:

• 2012 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study
• Make ATM Deposits

B of As 5 Fee Drove Customers Away

Bank of America tried to institute a $5 per month charge for debit card customers last year, but the move turned out to be a disaster. B of A eventually scrapped plans to charge the fee, but the damage was done: customers got angry about a fee they believed was unfair.

Bank of America executives revealed that account closings surged 20% above expectations at the end of 2011 -- shortly after the monthly fee proposal made headlines. Their timing could not have been worse; Bank Transfer Day, November 5th 2011, was a popular movement designed to get consumers to transfer accounts to credit unions.

Banks have learned that they'll have to either deal with leaner times or find other ways to increase revenue. Broad based fee increases only send customers off to the competition.

Further reading:

• Bank Of America Debit Card Fiasco Resulted In 20% Jump In Closed Accounts
• How to Find a Credit Union

Sprig Makes Credit Unions Easier to Work With

For the most part, credit unions make banking easy. You can handle routine tasks online, like paying bills, viewing balances, and transferring money from checking to savings.

However, some credit unions don't offer additional services that you might think are important. You may want to electronically transfer money to a different bank, for example, or you may want to deposit checks with your mobile phone.

A new service called Sprig hopes to add those services to your credit union and every other credit union. Sprig connects you to your credit union via your mobile phone. You can view accounts, deposit checks, and even transfer money to another credit union. But here's the catch: your credit union needs to have a relationship with Sprig, and not every credit union is on board.

If your credit union does not work with Sprig, you may have other options. Your credit union might already allow you to deposit checks with from home, and you might already have the ability to set up links with other bank accounts. You can also open an account with one of the leading internet banks, which can handle those tasks for you (just set up a link with your credit union accounts and run the money through the internet bank).

Further reading:

• Fast Transfers Between Accounts at Different Credit Unions Using Sprig

Ally Bank Checking vs ING Direct Checking

Looking for an online checking account? Two of your candidates might be Ally Bank and ING Direct. Both are leaders in the online banking world, and both offer a pretty decent checking account. But which is best?

The truth is that you won't really go wrong with either. They both pay a competitive interest rate, and they offer all the bells and whistles you'd want. If one bank is missing something, it's sure to catch up soon. Nevertheless, there are a few minor differences that might be very important to you. For example, ING Direct offers an overdraft line of credit (which is nice, compared to Ally Bank's overdraft policy), but ING Direct doesn't let you link to as many accounts as Ally does.

For even more details and analysis, see Ken Tumin's thorough review of the differences between ING Direct and Ally Bank at DepositAccounts.com.

Further reading:

• What is the FDIC?