I recently consolidated my emergency savings into an Ally savings account. I'm still using a B&M bank (Wells Fargo) for my checking. I'm thinking about moving my checking over to Ally as well. The decision to do so would not be about better interest rates but about convenience. I like having my primary accounts at one bank. Also, I only use the online features of my WF account anyways, so I'm basically all-online already. Before you suggest it, I use my credit card to earn cash rewards, and I'm not interested in opening up a rewards checking account like at Consumers Credit Union where I would need to jump through hoops. The only downside I can see is that if I moved all my primary deposit accounts to Ally, I wouldn't have an easy way of depositing cash, but this is not a big deal at all to me. I'm trying to remember if I have ever needed to deposit cash in the last 10 years, and I don't think I have. I also don't want to keep my Wells Fargo account open as a fallback because there's a service charge if I don't keep an average of $1,500 in it, I believe. So, what do you think? Am I a fool? Is there a reason I'm not thinking of that makes it absolutely essential to have at least one account at a traditional B&M bank or credit union?
Answers
I would mention that finding an online savings account was no problem for me, I haven't been impressed with the online checking offerings.
My outside bank also charges a service charge if you don't keep $1500.00 in the checking. This is why, I, too, am in a quandry about whether or not to keep it open longer. My reason for keeping my traditional bank account open is just to have a "fall back" account if I run into reasons later that makes me want to close out the on-line banking due to unexpected fees.
I called the online bank about the fee and was told "all" banks have this fee if you try to transfer money from their accounts to an external different account.Never have paid such a fee for an external transfer and I have had quite a few different online accounts.
