Not All Banking is Created Equal

You know how once you open your first checking account you'll likely stick with that bank till you die? Maybe you shouldn't! After about 8 years of checking with Bank of America I switched to Fidelity here's what I found:

1. I can now withdraw money from any ATM machine in the country with no fees whatsoever (that includes late night bodega withdrawals)

2. my direct deposits clear a full day earlier than they did at BofA

3. my money is insured up to 1.25M rather than 250K

4. I can set a threshold that will automatically sweep all additional deposits into any investment once the cash level in the account reaches the threshold so that it doesn't sit there doing nothing

5. the customer service is WORLDs apart to the extent that I now click a button on the mobile app and instantly hear "Fidelity how can I help you"

6. checkbooks are free

And of course it's free to open the account.

To sum it up, I'm happy that I finally challenged the status quo.

Thank you for reading. For more interesting content and thoughts follow me @rroston