Average User Rating:| 13540 S Sunland Gin Rd Arizona City, AZ 85223 520-466-6986 www.greatwesternbank.com  |
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Great Western Bank is headquartered in Watertown and is the 4th largest bank in the state of South Dakota. It is also the 120th largest bank in the nation. It was established in 1935 and as of March of 2012, it had grown to 1,475 employees at 187 locations. Great Western Bank has a 4-star health rating.
Related Posts
Great Western Bank is offering two CD specials: a 2.22% APY 13-month CD and a 1.71% APY 7-month CD. Minimum deposit is $500. These specials are not listed at the bank's website. A reader emailed me info on these, and I called the bank today (9/16/09) for...
Update 6/21/08: The special CD rates have fallen. Please check the bank's website for the latest rates and specials.Great Western Bank has a CD promotion with a 3.63% APY on terms from 7 months to 27 months. The minimum deposit is $5,000, and an...
Data for Q1 2012
Institution Statistics
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Institution Health
Overall Score:
4 out of 5 
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Pretty Decent Checking Account Options.
I finally had enough of Wells Fargo re-enrolling me into overdraft protection without my consent, closed the account, and walked across the street to Great Western. I checked out another few banks before I settled on Great Western, but I was pretty happy with them from the start. When I signed up, I got that typical gift given to new accounts (reusable metal water bottles). They purchased all my old checks from Wells Fargo, and added that to the account (roughly 20 bucks, which is more than I paid for the checks, ironically).
They asked if which checking account I wanted, and there was no discernable difference between their "totally free checking" and their "VIP checking", except vip had online, direct deposit, billpay, and payed you interest (with no minimum account balance). "Totally free" has none of those things. Also, for the VIP checking (but not Totally Free checking), for every direct deposit you set up your first month with the bank, they will add $10 to your account. Every automatic billpay you set up also adds $10, so long as you set the billpay up in your first 30 days. After my wife and I had our direct deposits and billpays set up, I got a full tank of gas for something I was going to do anyways.
I declined overdraft protection (just like I did at Wells Fargo), and have not been automatically signed up (unlike Wells Fargo). If you do opt for overdraft protection, however, overdrafts here cost less than it does at any of the other banks I spoke with (Great Western charges around $32, everyone else I checked out was at least $35).
I have no problem encouraging people to at least check this bank out. The reason that I am giving the bank 4 stars, instead of 5, is because my wife got her debit card, and we got the checks we ordered, both within a week. I never got my debit card until I went back into the bank 1 month later and enquired, at which point it arrived 2 days later. I wasn't angry, but it wasn't quite perfect, so I couldn't give it a perfect score.