What does everyone use for checking accounts?

We have USAA and really have zero issues but curious if anything is better. No fees, but also essentially no APY, 0.01%.

American Express has me interested. Their APY is 1% and you earn points on transactions. I think that alone could be worth it for things like your mortgage. But searching the internet has led me to zero answers if most mortgage carriers except AMEX even if it is a debit card/checking account. Same question regarding other services that don't typically accept credit cards. Also no answers on if withdrawals direct from your checking account to the mortgage would qualify for points or if it's just debit card transaction.

SoFi has 2.5% but I have some of the same questions.

Any personal experience with these two options? Any other options where the benefits outweigh the con of switching?

We're in Houston and have USAA (no branches) so not afraid of online banking.

I've been with PNC ever since they bought BBVA. They recently increased their savings account to 4%. Been a nice little perk.

Fidelity Spending (Checking) account.

No fees, great customer service, and if you have investments there it allows you to centralize and immediately move money back and forth between checking and investment accounts.

They also have an aggregate tool like Personal Capital that lets you see all investments, liabilities, and assets in one view for net worth and reporting.

10andBOUNCE said:

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I've been with PNC ever since they bought BBVA. They recently increased their savings account to 4%. Been a nice little perk.

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Do you mean .4% or 4%?

I started with Texas Commerce Bank back in the day until it was purchased by Chase.

I've used Chase ever since.

I don't have a savings account with them,

Any savings is moved to my TD Ameritrade Account.

I haven't paid a fee for my personal or business checking in a long time.

I have no problem moving money between Chase and TD Ameritrade.

I like the convenience of having Chase branches everywhere, although I don't need to go into a branch very often.

YouBet said:

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Fidelity Spending (Checking) account.

No fees, great customer service, and if you have investments there it allows you to centralize and immediately move money back and forth between checking and investment accounts.

They also have an aggregate tool like Personal Capital that lets you see all investments, liabilities, and assets in one view for net worth and reporting.

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Seconded. All my investment accounts are with Fidelity which is a bonus.

APY is over 2% right now I believe. All ATM fees are reimbursed. And emphasis on the fantastic customer service.

Schwab checking

I've been looking at SoFi as well to move our banking and credit card spend to. 2% unlimited cash back if redeemed to a savings account is really attractive. I'm tired of playing the points game and am looking for the best value from using a single card for everything possible instead of juggling them for max point earnings.

TDECU has also caught my eye a little bit for being local while having the same cash back, but their saving APY is only at 1% as opposed to the 3%+ at SoFi (and having high APY on both checking and savings is a nice perk).

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Schwab checking

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What do they offer that makes it worthwhile?

I have Capital One but I don't think they are anything special. They do have a lot of ATMs and their app is pretty easy to use. TDA is about to switch everything to Schwab so might be nice to have everything at Schwab.

I've used Ally for about 15 years. No complaints at all with them.

The interest rate is nothing to write home about, but it's better than industry standards. However, the big pull for me is no atm fees anywhere regardless of network or country.

I just moved all of my accounts from USAA to Fidelity last Friday. Their checking account gives 2.2% on standard deposits and you can invest within the checking account, so you can buy interest-bearing funds in the account that will boost returns. Transfers out of the account can be set up to be a weighted amount of the funds you own or a fixed rate from each fund.

I also dumped the USAA Visa for Fidelity Visa, which gives 2% back on all purchases rather than the 1% I was getting with USAA. It Simplifies my credit card usage to Fidelity for everything other than Amazon purchases, which I get 5% back on with the Chase Visa.

I didn't shop around for the best returns, because I'm not going to quibble over .3% annual returns if it means I can simplify the number of accounts I have, and I already had my investment and 401k through Fidelity.


If you do open up a cash management/checking account with Fidelity you'll be given the opportunity enter a promotional code, Fidelity100 gets you $100 if you deposit $50 to the account.

txaggieacct85 said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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I've been with PNC ever since they bought BBVA. They recently increased their savings account to 4%. Been a nice little perk.

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Do you mean .4% or 4%?

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4%. I signed-up for the same in December and have shifted my cash to PNC because of this. Also got a $600 bonus for setting up a checking account with direct deposit.

Not finding new accounts being offered at that rate at the moment though. Might be a problem with their website though, it's failing to load for me.

I've had Schwab for a long time and like it but also have investment accounts there too. One perk is they reimburse all atm fees.

Anyone worth their salt is reimbursing ATM fees. If you are still paying for them then you are being taken advantage of. Having said that, I pull cash once a year so it's mostly irrelevant to me.

Schwab, due to no ATM fees, no international fees, and that's where I do my trading.

coastalAg said:

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YouBet said:

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Fidelity Spending (Checking) account.

No fees, great customer service, and if you have investments there it allows you to centralize and immediately move money back and forth between checking and investment accounts.

They also have an aggregate tool like Personal Capital that lets you see all investments, liabilities, and assets in one view for net worth and reporting.

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Seconded. All my investment accounts are with Fidelity which is a bonus.

APY is over 2% right now I believe. All ATM fees are reimbursed. And emphasis on the fantastic customer service.

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I just realized my Fidelity government cash money market is paying over 4%!

I also added the PNC 4% savings account but a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't add it to my existing accounts and it has to be a separate "online account". Probably one of PNC's better account offerings at this point. Been a good while since I made 4% in an insured savings account.

Finally got ahold of someone competent via the Amex chat, you don't earn points on direct transfers, withdraws, only debit purchases. So don't think the Amex checking account is worth it.

Fidelity seems like the best option at this point. Also like how you can set high and low limits to automatically transfer to identified funds/accounts.

Fidelity will bump the cash back up to 2.5% if you have $1M with them in accounts. Just another FYI

I use USAA for all my combined stuff with the misses and then I'm using either Chase or ALLY depending upon the other situations

With the fidelity cash management is there any issue with depositing a check over a certain size on the app?

Ever needed a physical branch?

kingj3 said:

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With the fidelity cash management is there any issue with depositing a check over a certain size on the app?

Ever needed a physical branch?

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Daily deposit limit of $100k on app.

No. We've used Fidelity for about 15 years now so I haven't set foot in a physical branch one time in that time period. I'm baffled by the insane number of brick and mortar banks as is and why people use them at the rate that they do but maybe that's just me.

Current USAA checking and Fidelity brokerage customer (due to an old 401k). You've pretty much sold me on changing… now I need to fight inertia and actually do it.

Although I will say - USAA does give you your direct deposit money a day early, which is loads of fun when annual bonuses get deposited… people never believed me when I told them I got mine a day early. (And I've heard a rumor they stopped that, but I'm grandfathered in… not sure how true that is).

Swapped my direct deposit and was curious about this. Fidelity reflected on Thursday, same as USAA.

Only caution I would give everyone is to know what is insured and by which agency. Most bank checking accounts will have FDIC insurance, know the limits, and money markets will be SIPC insured. The coverage is different, so just research it to make you are comfortable with the vehicle you have your cash.

Been with Frost for a long time. Mainly because when I call a real person answers the phone and not an automated phone tree. I don't need to call them to hear my account balance.

I found it funny though they sent out an email offering interest checking at what was at the time 3%. Clicked the link and then saw that it required 20 million plus to get anything higher than their normal pennies on the dollar rate.

Not really a suggestion but just what I use. I still have a Wells Fargo checking account as my main. I really only keep enough in there to pay bills for the month. Otherwise money gets moved elsewhere for investments or savings. I got the account when I was like 16 and still have enough checks for several lifetimes. But I like that I can walk into a branch if I need to.

Out in Left Field said:

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still have enough checks for several lifetimes

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Sounds like me - I have written 3 checks in the last 9 years, the last one was written 7 years ago

InMyOpinion said:

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Out in Left Field said:

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still have enough checks for several lifetimes

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Sounds like me - I have written 3 checks in the last 9 years, the last one was written 7 years ago

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First big fight with my wife was 16 years ago in year 1 of marriage over checks. I had already gone 100% digital even that long ago, and my wife was still recording stuff in her paper checkbook. She was trying to put her foot down and maintain her manual check book and I put my foot down and told her we were not going to regress from a digital process back to us recording **** by hand in a checkbook. SCREAMING fight over it.

I ultimately won that one through attrition because the additional complexity of marriage and home ownership and all that entails eventually made her realize that a paper process to manage that was unviable. She became a bottleneck and a hinderance and she relented all ownership to me.

We're forced to write checks for a few things. Like our landscaping company and daycare.

htxag09 said:

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We're forced to write checks for a few things. Like our landscaping company and daycare.

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When I'm told check is preferred, then I simply send them an electronic check from Fidelity. Same thing; I just don't have to physically write one that way.

That was her plan all along! Congrats, you "won"!

LeftyAg89 said:

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That was her plan all along! Congrats, you "won"!

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Maybe so but my life is much easier vs what it would have been! I'll take the win thinking I won it!

htxag09 said:

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We're forced to write checks for a few things. Like our landscaping company and daycare.

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Interesting that a daycare requires checks. I have a client that's a daycare and we forced everyone to autopay by card. Way too much time spent chasing money every two weeks.

LOYAL AG said:

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htxag09 said:

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We're forced to write checks for a few things. Like our landscaping company and daycare.

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Interesting that a daycare requires checks. I have a client that's a daycare and we forced everyone to autopay by card. Way too much time spent chasing money every two weeks.

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It's a family run daycare out of a couple of houses. Not sure they have anything electronic. Getting our pay statement to withdraw from our childcare fsa is even a process.