Ever since I stopped working at HSBC, I’ve wanted to extract myself from banking with them, but with a mortgage, credit card, checking, overdraft LOC, and other banking products all interlocked, I was afraid moving to a new bank would be too much of a hassle—and I was afraid that a new bank wouldn’t be able to replicate the automatic payments, overdraft protections and other features I had come to rely on. Besides, I continued to have free checking, courtesy of having a mortgage with HSBC, so there wasn’t a real incentive to move other than a general dislike of the institution.
And then HSBC finally got me mad. Like many of the large banks, they’ve decided to start charging a fee ($2.00 per transaction!) for using any ATM other than their own. No warning, no notice—the fee just started showing up in my account. This wouldn’t be a major issue if HSBC had branches on every corner, but they do not, and seldom do I find myself near a branch when I want to withdraw cash. Adding insult to injury, banks charge non-customers a fee to use their ATMs and bodega ATMs charge everyone. These fees can be anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00, so using my local bodega’s ATM now costs me $3.75 ($1.75 machine fee and $2.00 HSBC fee). Insert paint-stripping expletive here.
Meanwhile, I have been doing business with USAA ever since I insured my first car with them in 1981. Originally founded as a mutual auto insurance company for current and former military officers, USAA now offers a full range of financial services to all ranks of current and former military members, spouses and children. Among the expanded services is banking through their USAA Federal Savings Bank affiliate.
So I gave USAA a call. A very helpful customer service rep—based in San Antonio and not some call center half-way around the globe—directed me to the USAA web site, where I already had a user ID to service my auto insurance and a former brokerage account. Within minutes I was able to open a new checking account, establish a credit card, hook up overdraft protection, and set up automatic payment of the credit card balance. All my fears were for naught.
And here’s the really good news. Being an online bank with no bricks-and-mortar branches, USAA doesn’t charge me to use any ATM, and they refund monthly the fees that the ATMs themselves charge (up to a limit, but the limit is well above my typical usage). They have a great web site with bill pay and all the latest online banking tools, and I can make deposits using a phone app or by going into most UPS Stores—or by conventional mail if I’m feeling really old-school.
Bank accounts are a commodity these days, so if a bank is foolish enough to piss off its customers it is now very easy for those angry consumers to find somebody else to do business with. You have been warned.
