I need a new bank.
Sometime around 2006, I signed up for a checking account with PNC when I was going to school in Pittsburgh. Now, in Pittsburgh, there are PNC's on every corner—there was even a PNC ATM in the lobby of my school. I eventually relocated to Maryland and New Jersey, both of which are still fairly well-populated with PNC's, so that was fine.
New York, however, has been a problem. I've been here three months, and I've yet to see a PNC building. Before I moved, I typed "PNC Bank" into Google Maps and saw a couple of locations, but, yeesh, they must be underground or something, as I have yet to come across them.
Then again, I haven't been trying that hard. My life has been so hectic lately, what with school, my internship, and being a glam Manhattan socialite (um, in my head, anyway), that instead of returning to Google Maps I've sort of been hoping to stumble across a PNC. No such luck. In the mean time, I've been racking up a shameful amount of ATM fees and lunging for cash-back whenever possible. It doesn't help that 90 percent of the delis and such in my neighborhood do not take credit.
At the same time, if Google Maps pointed me to a PNC in some random part of the island that's totally out of my way, I probably wouldn't go. I mean, is an extra one to two hours on the train really worth saving $1.50 on withdrawals? I don't know, maybe it is, I just don't find myself with copious amounts of free time.
Do you ever get caught up in ATM fees and the like, or are you a stickler under any circumstances? Is that $1.50 surcharge ever worth it?
Comments (8)
Well, I don't have a checking account only a savings account with an ATM card and I don't like to waste my money because I don't have much of it of my own. But I am glad I have my account at Chase because they are right near campus.
in new york city the best banks to have would definitely be either tdbank (which is open sundays! gotta love em!) and citibank. i wouldn't choose chase even though theres so many of them because they're horrible. have you considered any of these?
I desperately try to avoid ATM fees whenever possible, but when there are places that only take cash, it's inevitable. When I do have to suck it up and withdraw cash at an ATM not affiliated with my bank, I take out as much as I dare all at once, so I only have 1 fee for $80 instead of 4 fees for $20 at four different machines!
@twentyfivecents - that's a good point. i try to do that too, but then there's always that "do i really want to be walking around with $80 in my pocket?" dilemma. so basically, it depends on when and where i am.
@letsgetD0WNx@xanga - i'll keep that in mind. i really don't know much about nyc banks other than the ones i've seen. i was considering wachovia, since my boyfriend has it and likes it, heh.
I use Charles Schwab bank, not recommending them personally although they are a great bank but they refund ALL ATM fees at any ATM, so ie I was on a cruise ship that had a $10 withdrawl fee, Schwab refunded it 100% & didn't charge me anything to get money. There isn't a branch near my house so my account is completely online, its sort of a hassle if you have cash & want to deposit it but otherwise I mail in my checks & use any ATM I want for free. It gives me freedom from having to find my banks ATM.
Check out TD Bank, formerly Commerce Bank. I used to work there a couple years ago. Their strategy is to have branches (they call them stores because of their philosophy that it should be run like a retail business) within a certain distance of each other. I forget what it was exactly. But they're all over the city. They have even more branches now because they were taken over by TD Banknorth (but their names are switching over to TD Bank). Below is a link to their locations within a 10 mile radius of NYC.
http://tdbank.com/net/absearch/default.aspx?locationType=Branch&zip=10001&iradius=10
I live in NJ (about 15 min away from Manhattan) and you can find their branches all over the place. It's pretty convenient for me.
Also, their customer service line is open 24/7 (almost every day of the year, I think) and you always get an actual person answering the phone, not a recording.
LOL, I don't work for them anymore and I know it looks like I'm really trying to sell them, but it really is a pretty awesome bank.
Anyway, yeah, check them out.
i don't use ATMs :]