<p>We just got the letter today! Because of our family money woes the government has allowed us to become a bank. TOBLIN TRUST CO. Member FDIC</p>
<p>One branch, no drive thru but with plenty of free parking on the street. (You’ll have to knock because the doorbell is broken.) Buy a $25K CD and you get to pick one item out of the garage. Don’t worry, we’re insured.</p>
<p>The number 1 bank if you are in the US is Wells Fargo. No other bank comes close in terms of stability at the moment, and this is borne out in the credit default swap market. Wells has one of the lowest CDS of any bank in the world.</p>
<p>After this would be RBC Bank (it is the American arm of Royal Bank of Canada). This institution is much stronger than TD. Actually TD just recently announced that they need to raise more capital; not a good sign.</p>
<p>ING is also solid, much better than JP Morgan Chase or Bank of America. </p>
<p>Wells Fargo, RBC, ING, in that order. I wouldn’t touch anything else right now.</p>
<p>nauru,</p>
<p>You might find this article enlightening.</p>
<p>[reportonbusiness.com:</a> TD, RBC scramble to raise money](<a href=“http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081125.RBANKS25/TPStory/Business]reportonbusiness.com:”>http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081125.RBANKS25/TPStory/Business)</p>
<p>toblin, send me your address and I’ll drop by tomorrow to open my account! </p>
<p>I just looked into Wells Fargo. They offer accounts in NY, but have no offices or ATMs anywhere near here. We already have a savings account in ING - maybe I should move everything to them? Not sure what to do about ATMs. They don’t have any.</p>
<p>I agree with dadx above - you should consider the FDIC insurance for US based banks of all amounts up to $250K. If the amount in question is more than that, split it up among multiple US FDIC insured banks.</p>
<p>CHASE CHASE CHASE
We pay all our bills online that we can. Transfer money between accounts, etc.
Never had a problem.</p>
<p>Anyone with info about ING Direct? It has good rates & sounds pretty interesting. Would love to hear someone who has experience with them.</p>
<p>I am a 20+year USAA banking customer - simply perfect all of this time. A couple of things that take getting used to:</p>
<p>1) They don’t have branches - you mail in your deposits if you have paper checks
2) They don’t have ATMs - you use virtually any ATM and then they refund the fees.</p>
<p>They don’t take everyone - their target customers are the military and their dependents.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thought–have also heard great things about them but we are not a military family, tho hubby is a long-term civillian employee.</p>
<p>In my experience ING customer service is fantastic. The people I talked to on the phone were extremely nice, helpful, and “real” sounding. I’ve always gotten a live person right away on the phone. I don’t actually have an ING account. I started to set one up but found a better rate somewhere else, so I had to talk to them to cancel it. I was very impressed, though.</p>
<p>I opened a savings account with ING a year ago. As the banking landscape has evolved, I’ve funneled increasing amounts of cash there for safekeeping.</p>
<p>It may be worth checking with USAA anyway - they have been loosening up their rules.</p>
<p>NY? Try a regional bank like Astoria</p>