Somebody pays for the convenience of having a bank with physical branches. I suspect it is the customers. Just compare interest rates on savings accounts at Internet-only banks vs regular banks.
@bookworm, Thanks for sharing your positive experience at BOA.
We called BOA a couple of days ago to get our debit cards in preparation for our upcoming trip in a month. We were told we will receive our debit cards in our mail after 4 or 5 working days. I guess we will have to select the pins on the phone when we call to enable the received debit cards?
In the past, we have almost never used debit cards so we asked the bank not to issue them. But we think it may be useful while we are traveling.
So Mcat, since you agree, let him.find his own bank. Etc.
My D has been on our card since middle school. The reason CapitalOne quoted in turning her down was the disparity between her earnings and allowed credit max if I remember correctly. Naturally, it was parents’ card.
“I forgot the details here: Can a parent put his/her high school aged (or even middle school aged) kid on his/her card? (It is not necessarily a good idea unless the sole purpose is to establish kid’s credit history.) Whoever could think of this is likely a helicopter parent. LOL.”
Yes. That’s what many of us did when our kids went away to college. We simply added them to our credit card and that way they could use the card for parent-approved purchases, such as books or other school-related materials. There’s nothing helicoptery about this at all. That just eased them into getting their own cards.
Frankly my kids still have my credit card, because heaven forbid there is some real emergency and their credit limit isn’t enough - use mine, we will sort it out later. They’ve never had to use it, but there’s no real harm. It’s an extra layer of backup. More efficient than having them call and ask for a transfer of $ if it’s a true emergency.
“The reason CapitalOne quoted in turning her down was the disparity between her earnings and allowed credit max if I remember correctly. Naturally, it was parents’ card.”
That doesn’t make sense, as they weren’t going to approve her for the credit limit that a fifty something professional has.
I am not sure if there was a line to fill in to state it’s parents’ card. My D filled ithe application out. It could have been some other disparity, could be the balance and earnings except we pay off the balance every month. They could have meant the outstanding balance before it was paid off.
Going back for a second to the ATM/debit card thing.
For greater clarity, the question could have been worded, “What is the difference between an ATM card and a debit card? Or simply, what the heck is an ATM card?”
How one does or does not use the different types of cards would be a natural follow-up to that, but really an aside. I did not know there were ATM cards attached to a brick-and-mortar institution that were not debit cards, i.e., thought it was the same thing until I noticed the distinctly different way the terms were being used here.
For our most recent update, Citibank did send us ATM cards that were also debit-enabled. It’s not worth complaining about, but I did not want a debit feature. But yes, for the last umpteen years my ATM card has been just an ATM card that I used at the Citibank branches that are convenient to me (of which there are a lot).
W2E, they may operate at your own bank ATM only. Not in a store as a debit card.
I did not know their differences until I looked it up also.
I guess most people have the debit cards instead of pure ATM cards these days. That may be why people do not know their differences any more.
@lookingforward, We are trying to find out what our cards and/or banks to use on our end. It is up to our son (maybe his SO in the future? LOL) to decide what he wants to do. But we are still interested in learning more about how the money could be safely and conveniently transferred between different banks in general. (and how to safeguard our computer before we fully jumped into the online world without lingering concern about online security.)
True stories: We were once burned by how banks use their computer systems in the past 10 years (actually were burned several times):
At one time, we visited DS’s college and tried to do some banking at a Chase branch over there, using our Chase account. We were told that the computer system at a Chase branch in the NE region is different from the computer system in our home state. Therefore, the transaction could take much longer. (I forgot the details though.)
Yet another example: When BOA acquired Seafirst (the one in Seattle/WA), their computer systems were not compatible with ones used by BOA for quite many years. When we wanted to transfer several of our IRA accounts to BOA in another state, the bank told us we needed to do everything on papers and snail mails. It took us YEARS before we finally closed all of our IRA accounts at Seafirst (which was technically a part of BOA already after BOA has acquired it) and transferred them to BOA. (Granted, it was mainly because our CDs were expired at different times. But the point is that we need to use the paper versions of transactions.)
Yet another time: When NCNB acquired BOA (yes, it may seem unlikely that a less known bank would buy a more well known bank. But this was what happened then), we were also told that it would take some time before their two computer systems could work with each other. Concerning about this (I, but not my wife, was moving to another state around that time), I ended up with one checking account on the NCNB-side of the combined bank, and also another checking account on the original BOA-side of the combined bank. I still have these two check accounts from the same bank. (We have planned to close one of them but have not got around to do this.)
A friend of mine once had his account hacked and he got into the panic mode. He was the person who used the online banking exclusively before most others started to use it. So he got burned before everyone else was burned.
Another of my friends dedicated one of his PC solely for online banking – and that computer is always turned off and is not connected to the Internet whenever it is not used.
My husband HS an ATM card. He can use it at ANY bank ATM. We don’t have my ATM fees because of,th type,of bank account we have. But DH is not restricted to OUR bank ATMs only. He can use ANY ATM.
“But we are still interested in learning more about how the money could be safely and conveniently transferred between different banks in general.”
We’ve told you how several times, because many of us, myself included, routinely transfer to other banks. Your wife isn’t interested in learning. So I don’t know why you keep saying you want to learn more. It is what it is. Either she’s willing or she’s not, but anything more we say doesn’t alter that.
Indeed she is less interested in anything remotely related to computers than many other things.
You don’t have to be into COMPUTERS or information technology to do online banking. It’s set up to be idiot proof.
Look, you asked for the best way to do X. We told you. If your wife isn’t willing, then there is no point in asking us.
Or why don’t you set up it yourself? I swear, in the time it takes to have to this discussion, you could have set it up yourself.
This discussion has been going on for three days. In that time…you could have set up online everything!
We got our D a credit card when she was 13 before she went to Europe for three weeks during the summer. I don’t call that helicopter parenting. It was a requirement. That credit card eventually lapsed and there was no need to have one again until late high school, in preparation for going away to college.
Basically, just like sone people has the phobia of flying, she has the phobia of going online to do banking. Ot is not easy to convince her that iit is secure. She just does not trust these gadgets. It won’t help if I set it up but she would not use it because she thinks it is not “safe” to do so when a “large” amount of money is involved.
Fine. We get she has that phobia. So why are you asking us “what are ways to move money easily electronically” when you already knew the answer wouldn’t be acceptable to her?
As I sad, I set up Transfer option within 10 minutes at BoA, using my iPhone.