Money

[bertine]

gwangi and I have been having this conversation lately about where we should have our money when we merge our finances more.*

I have only ever "banked" at a credit union and Zach thinks we should go to a regular bank because he want more access to ATMs, branches and places to deposits checks.

What I like about the credit union is that I have had good customer service there in the 20 years I have an account there and they have handled my two mortgages, one of my car loans (the other one was with the dealer) and my credit card with them has a good interest rate and points that I use to get rewards.

I don't know what a bank does for you other than have a lot of locations and do shady things.


*I am not sure how much we are going to merge them yet but we are going to have some joint stuff and I am pretty sure we are going to put everything at the same "bank" because writing checks back and forth is annoying.

Comments

[pork_chop]

though i never really had any problems with having accounts at banks, i decided to switch to a credit union for the possibility of getting a better car loan and such.

you could share an online savings account for easy money transfers? then you could each stick with what makes you happy.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

That is what I have been thinking about. I love having a credit union and seriously, it will be so much easier to get another mortgage if I am still an active member of the credit union.

[damncutekitty.livejournal.com]

I have been a credit union customer for so long, I can't imagine being at a regular bank anymore. I don't trust banks!

I was bummed about the ATM situation when I switched from Trustone to Affinity. Trustone lets you make deposits at any Wells Fargo ATM.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Affinity used to be that way but then they switched for some reason last fall. I don't know why!

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

I bank at Affinity, they used to have that arrangement with Wells Fargo ATMS. Now they've switched things around and I can use any ATM in a USBank for free, but I can't deposit checks at them.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I usually just get cash at the grocery store or target so that doesn't bug me. I just wish I could deposit checks easier.

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

If you do go for a bank, you could consider a local:
http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/

[messyjessy.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge proponent for Credit Unions. I will never (so long as I can help it) use a bank again.

My credit union allows you to deposit checks by scanning them in and electronically depositing them. But there are also loads of ATMs around, so I usually deposit checks there.

Your long time membership at the credit union will be rewarded. The same is not true for banks anymore.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I have a 4.25% rate on my mortgage and the last time I bounced a check they waived the fees. I am pretty sure my long time membership at my credit union is already rewarded.

[remembering.livejournal.com]

You could use ING accounts as your "middle man". Jay and I do it for some things.

What she said!

[jayp39.livejournal.com]

We have the best of both worlds, although the setup is kind of complicated.

I have an account with the local bank here, which I use for depositing checks and ATMs. That bank doesn't have any branches where Paloma lives, so she has a different local bank down there.
Then we each have ING accounts + a joint ING account.

I can't speak for exactly how Paloma uses ING but I keep most of my money in ING, only a few hundred for easy ATM access at the local bank. I have direct deposit going to ING, and all my bill pay is from there. I haven't written a check in many years...in fact I don't remember where my checkbook is. ING can link up to your other bank accounts and transfer money to/from them easily.

We only use the joint account when we owe each other money, since we share some bills and stuff (family cell phone plan etc). If I owe Paloma money I just transfer money to the joint account and tell her it's there, and vice versa. If we wanted to combine our finances more, I think we could do so with the exact same setup, except set up automatic transfers to the joint account and have bill pay come out of there.

[scorpi084.livejournal.com]

Chris and I are going to switch to a credit union from Wells Fargo, but we also have an ING account that has access to a ton of free ATMs.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

If you go to affinity tell me and I'll refer you. I get points for it which I can use for free checks. LOL.

[scorpi084.livejournal.com]

We're going to Trustone. They have an office right smack dab in the middle of the area we like to live in, which none of the others really do (they all seem to be downtown).

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

So how is it that gwangi gets the little hat and I don't? This always bugs me when I see it!

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I bought the hat for him as a present one day. I think it was a couple dollars.

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

Cool!

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

tell him no

[isitthegenes.livejournal.com]

You could have the best of both worlds - Last I checked, you can direct deposit into multiple accounts. With smart budgeting and awareness of shared expenses, you can each keep the accounts you have and one dedicated to the expenses that require checks/electronic bill pay.

On a related note - it's a very good sign to be talking about finances early...Money issues is the second leading issue in relationships...second only to halitosis.