Very Decent Small Bank

I've been using this bank for a number of years now - initially just casually as a second checking account next to my then main account with everbank. When everbank jacked up their minimum balance requirement for free billpay to $5000, I closed that account and American Bank became my main bank incl. direct deposit.

To me the billpay features a bank offers is a make or break deal issue. Nothing I've seen and experienced so far can beat everbank's billpay (for my purposes that is) with the crucial feature of 'projected balance in future view' being automatically implemented and including any scheduled billpay payments. So that was nice.

American Bank's billpay feature does things a bit differently. The biggest difference is that projected balances are not automatically updated with newly scheduled billpay payments (done on a linked external website). Rather you have to go back to your account register and enter your new billpay manually. The projected balance then gets recalculated. So, it's a bit less convenient than everbank's billpay, but it does the job (which, e.g., can't be said of Ally's newish checking account:-( The upside is no maximum for daily or individual billpays (unlike, e.g., everbank), which comes in handy if you want to pay off a credit card with a large balance transfer just before the promotional APR jumps from 0 to whatever %.

The APR is decent with 1.10%, the free billpay monthly minimum balance of $1000 is acceptable - certainly more so than everbank's $5k!

ATM fees get reimbursed the next day. You can mail checks for deposit in pre-paid envelopes - drop a message and they'll send you another 10 envelopes. I receive many small checks, so recently I resorted to depositing them at my no-interest, no-fee Citizens checking account (inside my grocery store) and then ACH them to American Bank. Unfortunately, their minimum is $10 for each ACH transfer, so I keep mailing them the smaller checks. Keyword ACH: American Bank only allows you to withdraw money from your external accounts - you cannot deposit money from your American Bank account to other accounts. However, I have Ally and now WTDirect as hub accounts, so no real issue there. Setup of new external accounts is again a bit cumbersome: not only do they the usual trial deposit, but you also have to mail in a void check (who still gets checks these days???) or other proof of your ownership of the new account incl. FULL acct. no., ABA routing number and your name - sometimes tough to get from online-only accounts that don't send you paper statements:-( Other than that, the ACH transfers work fast.

Customer service is great - people online or on the phone are always very friendly, responsive and try their utmost to solve any problems you may call about.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this bank and would only take my business to another bank if I saw a better deal and/or better features (see above). I had high hopes for Ally's checking account (no minimum balance for free billpay), but when I learned that they don't have projected future balances that include scheduled billpay payments, I told them no thank you - maybe down the road Ally will implement this valuable feature and I'll have a second look.