Banking - Montana Owners Club

herewegotogether · 03-02-2010, 02:25 PM

We have decided to set up our mail service in South Dakota. Now that we have decided that we need to set up a Bank account for direct deposit of my pension. Any recommendations on Banks in SD, I prefer to stay away from the Large banks, B of A, Wells Fargo ect.

Thanks for the advice.

Bill and Laurie

exav8tr · 03-02-2010, 03:20 PM

Unless you have a REAL reason to leave your current bank, why do so? We use our credit union in Alaska and just bank by internet. We have never had a problem and they are just a phone call away. All our accounts are on auto pay thru them....I monitor closely but no problems...Good luck!!!

vickir · 03-02-2010, 03:35 PM

Phil's right ... especially if you have a good, long-standing relationship with your bank. We stayed with the bank in Topeka we'd been with since 1979 and have had no problems whatsoever. We do all our banking online and our bank keeps us supplied with pre-addressed, postage-paid envelopes for the occasional deposit we might have. Have to admit it looks a little odd to have checks from a Topeka bank with a South Dakota address. But they've never been questioned in seven years of full-timing.

HamRad · 03-02-2010, 03:46 PM

Bill and Laurie,
I agree with Phil and Vicki. Unless you are dissatisfied with your current bank just set up everything through them. We do not Full Time but even if we were FT we would simply keep everything the way we have it now. For about the past eight years or so we've tried to get everything setup electronically for our bills. So far so good. Like Phil we do monitor carefully to make sure things are as they are supposed to be.

Dennis

sreigle · 03-02-2010, 04:11 PM

Bill and Laurie, Vicki explained how we handle our banking. One more aspect of banking you may wonder about is how do you go about getting cash...

Walmart. That's the easy answer. If you have a bank debit card, when you use it at Walmart you can get cash back up to $100 each purchase. If we need more than that, we split our purchases and each go through separately and get $100 each. Our bank limits how much we can draw that way each day but we've not yet hit that limit. Doing it this way there is no ATM charge, just whatever your bank charges, if anything. Ours doesn't other than their standard small fee for using the debit card. Something like 20 cents per transaction, if I recall.

stiles watson · 03-02-2010, 06:36 PM

The most important thing, for me, in banking is "does it work". I want ease of access to my money and the maximum amount of return I can get with that service. My Well Fargo pays about .35%. My Credit union pays .25% on checking and 1% on money market accounts. That is terrible return.

I am looking at Ally Bank. It is totally on line and pays somewhat higher rates, about triple the rate of the bank. When my CD's mature, I am making the switch. It is an FDIC insured bank.

ols1932 · 03-03-2010, 02:05 AM

When we left Iowa and set up residency in Texas, we left our banking in Cedar Rapids, IA. We do all our banking via mail when we have a deposit and via on-line when paying bills. Most eveything we do is automatically, like pension deposits, bill paying, etc.

I would always recommend that if you're happy with your bank now, why move to another one. It doesn't have to be in your state of residency. Our Credit Union works well with us.

Orv

ARJ · 03-03-2010, 02:27 AM

Use this site to find out who pays the highest rates

http://ratebrain.com/

And this site to find the ratings for a specific bank or CU.

http://www.bauerfinancial.com/home.html

I personally use Melrose CU and Chesapeake bank. Chesapeake doesn't pay the highest rate on MM funds but I have been very happy with their services and the ability to transfer money back and forth between my their bank and my bank. Melrose has been paying top CD rates for quite awhile.

Stuff changes so you have to keep an eye on things!

richfaa · 03-03-2010, 02:55 AM

We are not full time .... full timers but we are on the road the majority of the year. We stayed with our local at home bank as we saw no reason to switch not to mention the bank knew us. On line banking works well. As Steve pointed getting cash money is no problem as just about any big box store and supermarket will give "cash back" Our bank debt card does not charge a transaction fee....yet... Interest rates are very, very low and that can be a issue if you use the intrest $$$ as part of your income. In our case we are pretty much out of the money making and into the money spending mode.

adelmoll · 03-03-2010, 07:19 AM

We were fortunate that US Bank that we had been with for over forty years has banks all over South Dakota. All we did was change our address. We didn't have to change any of our direct deposits since the numbers stayed the same.

Helen

bob n pam · 03-03-2010, 11:26 AM

We did set up an account in South Dakota when we first "moved" there to establish another "tie to the state". Unfortunately they charged for online banking at that time and BofA didn't. So, we continued to use our BoA account and will be closing the SD account soon. They no longer charge for online banking, but we aren't changing all of our direct deposits now.

lenlin84 · 03-17-2010, 05:49 PM

We've been full timers now for 4 years. South Dakota is also our home of record,(Alternitive Resources). Like most everybody else, we too stayed with our Credit Union. The good thing about most CU's is that they are part of an affiliate group. That means that you can go to another CU (not your own) and do your banking there. Our home used to be in Kansas City, MO. and thats where our CU is located but here in So. Utah (St.George) there is an affiliate branch (there are thousands of them all over the country). We use the local markets or Wal-Mart for the small cash but when we need to go "to the bank" we just look up on the computer where a local CU branch that is part of the system and go there. So far it has worked well for four years on the road.

lasater · 03-20-2010, 05:15 PM

My 2-cents worth. If your bank is good to you, stay with them. Otherwise, we recommend Black Hills Federal Credit Union. We have been using them for several years and have been very satisfied with their service. On the other side of that coin, we are closing an account we have with Wells-Fargo. They are so big that the small customer (me) just doesn't matter any more. So, next Monday, they are history.

sreigle · 03-21-2010, 04:31 PM

I agree. I'd check first with your existing bank, if you are happy with them, and find out how you'd make deposits, schedule automatic and manual payments, etc.

We don't even pay to make deposits by mail. Our bank gave us deposit slips and postage paid envelopes. When I send in a deposit they send back a receipt along with another deposit slip and another postage paid envelope. It's really not been any hassle whatsoever to stay with our long time bank where we used to live in Topeka, KS.

Parrothead · 03-22-2010, 06:36 AM

We stayed with our CU that is in CA. Our truck loan is with them also and I can do all our banking on line. Once in a while they see all these out of state transactions on our account and freeze it. I just call and remind them we are traveling. They do not understand the "full timing" and suggested we let them know when we are going on "vacation". So it might be a good idea to inform your bank/CU that you will have out of state transactions. We usually get cash back when we check out at WalMart. If we need more than $100 then we split our items and we check out separately. That way we can get $200. Our three retirement checks are direct deposit and we do all banking, bill paying, etc. on line.
Happy trails....................

stimpy123 · 04-05-2010, 11:36 AM

Gang,
We weren't happy with the CU that we used before retiring some 5 years ago. I inquired of US Bank about their U.S.A. coverage, and at the time had services in 30 states as I recall. We do all the banking online and they do direct bill pay so for those debtors that don't have auto pay, they send a paper check. I use the Visa debit card for all purchases and as had been already mentioned, Walmart does give cash back. I Canada, last August, the Visa card was accepted only as a credit card, and everywhere I used it, "Cash back" wasn't available. I also had to call my USBank 24/7 number to let them know that we were traveling in Canada, because they had frozen the account. The rep told me that they thought that my card had been stolen and for my protection, froze the account. After about 10 minutes, I could retrieve $CA at a local bank ATM. Hope this helps your decision.

Jdrobone · 04-25-2010, 12:28 PM

Pros and cons with big versus little. One thing I really like (and use consistently), is the virtual credit card number. Bank of America calls it "shop-safe". Different institutions call them by different names. When I am making on on-line purchase, or any remote purchase, I use a "shop-safe" number. I get this virtual card number by going on line with my bank of asking for a "shop-safe" number for X dollars good for Y months, limited to Z dollars. Withing 1 minute I have that new credit card number with the expiration date I plugged in, good for 1 time, or for recurring payments, also that number is only good for the vendor that you initially give that number to. Should that number be hi-jacked,by whatever means, it is useless since it only works for the initial vendor for the amount you limited it to. The charge for this transaction shows up on my regular VISA statement, no different than regular charges.
I like to give shop-safe numbers to firms that try to "automatically" charge your card at the end of some initial service period without asking you if you want to renew (like out of town newspapers,or magazines for example). Should they try to use the number again, of course it will not work. Should you want to renew - just give them another shop-safe number, works like a charm.
Jerry

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