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June 21, 2005
Bank of America is not completely horrible
I used to hate Bank of America. Well, hate might be too strong to describe feelings towards a bank, but I just didn't like them because of the fees they charge for simple things like checking accounts and overdraft fees and fees to park at their branches (okay, I lied about the last one). They also have something silly called the Money Return Visa, where they give you back 10% of your interest charges every year. That's right - if you're willing to carry a balance to essentially borrow money at insane rates of up to 29.99%, they'll rebate you 1/10 of that money. No thanks. That's why when I signed up for a new checking account with them, I had every intention of pocketing the sign up money, closing the account, and laughing maniacally after essentially stealing their cash.
I got the ATM card and had no intention of using it until we went on vacation and found out we could withdraw cash at Barclay's in the U.K. with absolutely no fees. Even Washington Mutual, which runs all those ads about free banking, charges $3 for overseas ATM withdrawls. So that was pretty cool. Then I've found myself using their ATMs back home, because, well, they're everywhere. It's so darn convenient. And they won't charge me any fees for Campus Edge checking for at least six months (even though I'm not in school anymore - but they don't check enrollment when you fill out an application). On top of that, I can conveniently pay off my Fleet Visa, which turned into a Bank of America Visa when Fleet sold out to the evil, err, mildly annoying, Bank of America a few months ago, by moving money from checking to the Visa on the website.
So I'm actually giving them a good test drive. I'm not saying I'll be applying for their cheesy "POWER REWARDS!" card anytime soon, but I'm happy to say that I didn't just steal the money and run (maybe I'm starting to feel a little guilty about earning all this free sign up money in my old age).
Of couse, when that six month trial runs out on the Campus Edge checking account and I have to keep a minimum balance earning no interest, I might re-think things.
Posted by brian at June 21, 2005 05:27 AM