re: checking accounts with no atm fees

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looks like charles schwab is pretty popular also. anyone have experience with them?

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I do. They do refund all fees at the end of the month and they don't charge you any. The only drawback to Schwab is the lack of physical locations. However, with free postage paid envelopes for deposits, direct deposit and the ability to do deposits on your phone you can do most of your banking as quickly as if you were at a physical location. I have my IRA and brokerage account with them and I am about to do a rollover IRA for my wife over there.

I actually use a local credit union (neighbors fcu) for my day to day banking. They also refund all atm fees. ETA: They also give you 3% on the first 10k in your checking account provided you have 1 direct deposit a month and make like 10 debit card purchases, which is nice.

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looks like charles schwab is pretty popular also. anyone have experience with them?

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I use Schwab for banking, Roth and 401(k). I used to have my mortgage with them before I refinanced. Have been a customer for about ten years now and have no complaints.

They refund all my ATM charges at the end of each month. They don't have any retail locations but I don't really need one. They will give you postage-paid envelopes to mail deposits in, or you can use their mobile phone app to take pictures of checks and deposit electronically from home whenever. Online billpay works great too, and you can have some vendors send bills automatically to Schwab if you like. Schwab will email you that they received the bill, automatically schedule the bill to be paid on the due date (or do nothing if you prefer), and pay it.

The only drawback I can think of is if you need a physical retail location for stuff like money orders and such.