<p>Good experiences? Bad experiences? CDs vs. interest-bearing savings/checking accounts? Discover vs. Discover-AAA?</p>
<p>Thinking of moving the family emergency fund to some place where it would still be reasonably accessible in that potential emergency, but where it would get a better interest rate than it is now. At last check, Discover-AAA was about .05% higher than Discover, and both were a bit higher than ING for CDs.</p>
<p>Have used INGDirect for years. Easy and great customer service. Had some HSBC account in the past but they were cumbersome back then so closed it.</p>
<p>Ally Bank has been fine. Good rates and easy to transfer from your main bank account.</p>
<p>Love my ING account. Very easy to set up and manage.
Easy, quick transfer of funds back and forth from main local checking account.
I think they warn you that it may take up to 3 business days to complete a transfer but
we have always seen it done in 1-2 days.</p>
<p>I do think that Ally Banks current rates are better though.</p>
<p>How about for a student’s ATM account? Do any of your students use Ally or ING for that? Ally advertises that they refund all ATM fees. That sounds almost too good to be true!</p>
<p>We have used ING for years and love it. Our daughter’s student checking account is linked to ours so we could transfer funds to her immediately. She chose a bank for her account that had easy access to ATMs on her campus (Columbia University), and then with the linking to ING everything was seamless.</p>
<p>Thanks, churchmusicmom. That sounds like an easy solution. But your reply brings up another question I have – will my son need a checking account if he lives on campus? I do so much of my bill paying on line, I hardly ever write checks so I wonder what he’d need them for. The only checks I write these days seem to be to the piano teacher. Is it likely he will need to write checks or will an ATM/debit + credit card be fine?</p>
<p>Getting back to OP (sorry for the hijack), I used to use HSBC’s online savings when their interest rate was best, but found that they dropped over the years so I moved to a local bank’s money market acct (Citizen’s Bank.)</p>
<p>I got my kids checking accounts linked to mine when they got drivers licenses. They have ATM/debit cards for those accounts. We also all have ING savings accounts linked together, so I can transfer money easily between checking accts, ING accts, or checking/ING transfers. Very handy. I looked into getting S an ING checking acct because they offer free ATM’s, but none of the free ATM’s were on his campus - they were at gas stations, convenience stores, etc, and I tend to avoid those types os ATM’s, believing they are more vulnerable to PIN theft. He uses his debit card from the home bank occasionally, but will be living off campus next year so we may need to get him a local account.</p>
<p>LB, I actually do use quite a few checks in college. My landlord only accepts checks. I write checks to my roommate who pays the bills from her account. Checks do come in quite handy IME.</p>
<p>Love ING and have used it for years - mortgage, savings, etc. So easy!
Chose bank for DS that has ATM on campus and branches nearby. He does not have checking account as no need but does have debit card that he uses frequently. This account is his own funds and is not linked to ours. If we give him money, we write a check and then bug him until he deposits it!</p>
<p>I’ve been happy with DiscoverBank but I didn’t know that AAA members could get better rates! Thanks OP - I will be calling them to switch over!</p>