What's the Best Online Financial Solution? 143
Financially Challenged asks "While lots of our techie contemporaries are making fistfuls of cash, I find myself stuck in a relatively impoverished academia. That will all change when I enter the real world in May. While I have little money now (hopefully some IPO magic of whatever company I work for will remedy this) I would still like to know what slashdot readers think the best online banking solutions are. Are there any hidden all-in-one total financial solutions that will let me keep track of my whole portfolio?"
Security First Network Bank (Score:1)
I know that they also have credit card accounts, but I don't use their credit card. Some time ago, they were setting up brokerage accounts, but I don't have one nor am I interested in one, so I don't know if it's the case anymore.
Hope this helps!
NOTE: I don't represent SFNB at all. I'm just a very satisfied customer.
Cash flow (Score:1)
Another interesting one is stockchallenge.internet.com which lets you run a virtual 100 000$ portfolio. It's a good way to get into the game without losing everything.
Wingspan (Score:1)
One-stop? (Score:2)
I have heard (Score:2)
WingSpan (Score:2)
I have been very satisfied with WingSpan Bank [wingspanbank.com] so far. Their customer service is at least as good as my local bank, and they have the best situation regarding fees I have yet seen. I have never been charged a fee of any kind by them. They even refund up to $5.00 a month in ATM fees charged by the machine. They have online investing as well as credit cards. They update the transactions online just about simultaneously with the real world, and of course, they offer online bill paying, which is a pretty good thing for me. I tried Bank of America, but I got tired of the fees. They charge you for a deposit slip if you go in a branch and don't have one and have to get one there. I had never heard of such a thing before.
Stash your cash at the Bank of Microsoft! (Score:1)
(*Service requires you to turn over your immortal soul to Microsoft for all eternity. Bank of Microsoft is only compatible with Windows 2000, Microsoft Money 7.0, Microsoft Wallet 4.5, Microsoft Hidden Fees 3.0, Microsoft S&L Scandal 6.1, and Microsoft Surly Bank Tellers 2.0.)
--- Dirtside | "Spirituality" is the irrational belief in the supernatural
What are -you- looking for? (Score:1)
Do you want ease of use? Loads of features? Low cost? Integration with financial planning software (Money 2000, Quicken 2000)? High security?
Do you just want to pay bills? Track investments? Track monthly expenses? Manage multiple foreign accounts?
I pay about $10/month for my online banking/real world banking services, plus another $100/year for my brokerage/investment services with the same institution. I can find similar services elsewhere for less (and even for free), but I'm not willing to give up the features I get with my current service.
Just a quick reference for Canadians:
CanadaTrust EasyWeb: Probably the best online baking service in Canada. Loads of features, easy to use.
Scotia Online: Probably the most secure online banking service anywhere. Doesn't rely on SSL for session security.
Presidents Choice Financial: Easily the least expensive... they give you free stuff for using their service.
One Stop Financial Management is a trap (Score:4)
USAA (Score:1)
mbanx is bad. (Score:3)
It took me two months to get my corporate cheques after opening my account. I had been told on three occaisions that the cheques had been printed and shipped and that the fact had been verified. When the cheques arrived they were printed wrong. I asked them to ship the cheques by courier and I went to the extent of asking for the name of the courier company and a tracking number. The told me they had shipped the cheques by purolator but didn't have a tracking number. I asked them to verify the facts. Later the cheques arrived via postal mail. When I asked for the phone number of a supervisor I was told there was none!
mbanx recently changed their pricing so that you have to pay for each time you view your account history on-line.
I won't be an mbanx customer for much longer but it takes a while to shop around and find another on-line bank who can provide everything I have at mbanx (on-line trading in US and Canadian funds, linked directly to my chequeing bank accounts, etc.).
I have tried to apply on-line to "President's Choise Financial" (actually run by CIBC I believe) but they never send me the enrollment package after I fill out the on-line application. I figure if they can't make a little CGI work, I'm not going to trust their banking system!
In the long run.. (Score:2)
You will probably still want a checking account at a local bank for more mundane tasks, especially for the convenience of an ATM machine without those damnable fees.
I wouldn't go near E-Trade etc. I just do not trust these outfits, and I think some day some of them are going to go belly-up leaving their users with a mess. The good thing is E-Trade and its ilk have done investors a lot of good by driving the cost of other services down.
Re:Security First Network Bank (Score:2)
For the record, I am both a SFNB customer and a SONE stockholder.
Bank of America + DLJdirect (Score:1)
Re:Cash flow (Score:1)
(And, if you want to know why I keep my money there even if it sucks, it's because I'm too lazy to go through all the paperwork to change it do a different brokerage.)
* mild mannered physics grad student by day *
Best "Offline" Financial Tracking I've Seen (Score:2)
Except for the Datek site someone mentions (which I haven't seen), PMT has a very useful "balance sheet" view and "income/expense view". Use the balance sheet view to see the wonderful/sorry state of your personal equity, and the income/expense view to see if you're spending less than you're taking in-- if you're not doing that, what the hell are you doing? ;) (You can configure the accounts to budget your spending for the year.)
Even better, you don't have to be "on-line" to see where you're at with your finances as long as you're vigilant about entering in transactions. I use it instead of Quicken on Windows because I don't even have a Windows box at home to run it on.
The only thing missing is something that'll help you do your taxes. I'm not going to link to it, you can use a search engine to find it on the usual Palm sites.
For on-line stuff, American Express seems to have acreted a large collection of financial services with a web-interface for banking, brokering, and credit management. I'd consider it only if my brick-and-mortar bank was mistreating me, but they just approved my loan for a brand new 2000 Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 Sedan! (Woohoo!)
_______
computers://use.urls. People use Networds.
Paranoid considerations (Score:3)
So you might want to bear this in mind when you decide which box(es) you will keep financial data on, and make connections from: This is a case where security really does matter. And BTW, you mignt want to see an independent security certification for the financial institution(s) in question.
This is probably redundant stuff to most /.ers, but someone had to mention it. So I did.
to answer the question you did not ask... (Score:2)
doing things online is great when everything works. If for some reason there is a bug or problem in the system, or if you want to complete a more complex transaction, or do something else esoteric, you may find that a menu to do what you want is not available online.
And if there is some sort of weird problem, life is a lot easier if you can go and show you statement to a branch manager, rather than trying to correct a problem over the phone.
For some of the best rates, and the least surly service, you might want to check out Credit Unions in your area.
For simple stuff like stock purchase, I think online is fine.
Windows, like Stalinism, is great in theory, but troublesome in practice
Wit Capital and Wells Fargo (Score:2)
Wells Fargo is a Large Evil Company, but in spite of this, their bill payment options and online services (among the first banks to offer useful web-based banking) have made them my first choice for a regular bank.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter manages some of my accounts, but that's only because my father retained the services of a real financial planner and I am able to ask said planner's advice provided some of my holdings are with MSDW. If that were not the case, I'd have WitCap manage all my long-term investments.
I've been happy with NetB@nk (Score:2)
One service I particularly like is the automatic bill payment. I schedule it to pay my rent on the 1st, and it pays my rent on the 1st. It doesn't mesh completely well with my every-other-friday paycheck, because I sometimes need to 'float' a little, but it does the trick in general, and worked very, very well when I was paid on the 1st and the 15th.
There's been problems from time to time, but what's kept me there is how they handled things. Once, my rent wasn't sent. At all. I called the bank, and they asked me for the phone number to my rental office, and they took everything from there. They paid my late fees and just took care of things.
In another incident, they had some glitches when they were upgrading, and my balance wasn't updating, and I ended up overdrawing my account (by like 400 dollars). Not a single service charge, not a single check returned. Made me a pretty solid customer.
Everything's free, there's interest paid with no minimum balance on the checking account, which turns out to be about a dollar a month for me, and they provide the checks for free as well. They have no branches anywhere, so if you need a money order or something, you'll have to go elsewhere, but that hasn't been a problem for me.
Since they don't have any branches, you'll end up paying ATM fees to whoever owns the ATM you use. Netbank won't charge you to use the ATM, of course. It hasn't been a big deal for me, I usually just get however much cash I'm allowing myself for that pay period and then I'm done with ATMs.
Deposits are done either by auto-deposit (like your paycheck) or by mail (they give you self-addressed stamped envelopes). No ATM deposits for some reason.
As far as their stocks go, they're not the cheapest on the block, ($25/trade) but they seem to be in the range. The money comes out of/in to your money market or checking account with NetBank.
Drop me an email (by spelling out the dot), and let me know if you're interested in getting a referral. Its not required, but it'd get me a nifty t-shirt and maybe $1000 bux.
Zipwow
Re:What are -you- looking for? (Score:2)
Just adding my 2 cents (Canadian) on Scotia Online: The security is great, but it's done via a small proxy program from Entrust (more details [scotiabank.ca]) which is only available for Win32 - if you're a Linux or Mac monogamist, you're out of luck with Scotia Online.
Having said that, I'm very pleased with their online banking - especially free bill payments. About the only thing I would add to the system is the ability to schedule recurring transactions (you can schedule one-time transactions, such as bill payments or account transfers, a month or so in advance). Haven't tried their online discount brokerage - all I have for stocks is what I got when my insurance company demutualized.
________________________
waterhouse nantional (Score:1)
Re:Security First Network Bank (Score:2)
Personally, I use First Union [firstunion.com], and they've just recently gotten their heads out of their butts and become pretty decent in their online offerings. (It used to be that their online bill payment system used a netscape plugin that only worked on 95/98, not even NT, certainly not *nix).
The system they have now uses a pure web-based system (currently supplied by checkfree, but I've talked to them and they're building their own improved interface) for bill payment, bill presentment, etc. The interface they have is fairly nice. It's cool to be able to tell it "Ok, every month pull down my phone bill and if it's not over X dollars, pay it automagically." They have a nice system for statement download for checking, savings, and credit cards. They have a section for brokerage services, but I don't use it so I can't comment on it. Personally, I'm happy with them. If for no other reason than when I call their tech support, I usually get someone clueful.
They have demos set up of most of their functionality. Browse through it [firstunion.com] and see if it looks like what you want.
Gomez (Score:1)
I also use Security First. (Score:4)
They also have limited online reporting tools, and you can export your accounts in a Quicken format (although for me the online site offers all the tools I need and I don't use Quicken).
They let you schedule transactions if you like, or pay a one-time bill to a set of "Payees" that you can define and update. I use them to pay all my bills, and really like the web interface they have - very clean and simple.
They said they'd be offering online brokerage services soon as well, but the company they were going to use charges $19.95 per trade - I myself use Datek, and don't care too much that I have to go to seperate sites to manage my accounts. At least it's all online!
The only downside to SFNB is that they have no local ATM's (unless you live in Atlanta) so if you'd like to avoid an ATM fee you have to find a local credit union ATM that doesn't charge fees.
Wells Fargo is pretty good (Score:1)
They have more than a million online customers last I heard and it shows. The service is never down and the customer service is good.
Disclaimer: I do _not_ work for Wells Fargo
Re:datek (Score:1)
Security First & ETrade (Score:2)
Oh, for the 'cash problem' - I just pull some cash whenever I go grocery shopping...
Re:Stash your cash at the Bank of Microsoft! (Score:1)
--- Dirtside | "Spirituality" is the irrational belief in the supernatural
Re:WingSpan (Score:2)
The one issue I've had so far with them is that deposits by mail are on the slow side. It takes 7-10 business days, and the first one I sent them took 3 weeks to show up in my account. The second one showed up in a more reasonable time period though, so hopefully that was an abberation (they blamed it on slow holiday mail).
I do really like the idea of having my banking and investment accounts in the same place and to be able to pay bills from my investment account if I need to (rather than doing last minute shuffling of money). Their fee structure is very reasonable compared to most banks (no charge for receiving wire transfers, unlike some banks, refunding of ATM fees) and they have excellent interest for checking and their bill pay seems good. I still haven't closed my old accounts at BofA and ETrade yet, but in a few months I will assuming things continue to go smoothly with Wingspan.
One of the things I like best about an online only bank is that they're motivated to make it easy to do things without having to come down to the branch. I don't have time to go to the bank and some banks are not very good at allowing you to do some things remotely. My husband's bank, Fremont Bank, is really bad about that. Clearly online banks aren't for everyone, but I don't go to ATMs very often and I'm most interested in good bill pay/online administration of account and a nice interest rate, so for me it's a good fit.
I have used Charles Schwab for about 10 years now. (Score:1)
God luck,and shop around.
Nels
mbanx is good (Score:2)
I pay $13 (Canadian) per month. This plan allows me to do pretty much anything I want, with no additional fees. (Free cheques, free bill payment, free ATM (any brand), free money orders sent wherever I want.) I receive a "reward" every month which is proportional to the amount I have saved or borrowed. Since I have my mortgage with MBANX, my monthly reward is in excess of $25. (It's pretty neat coming out ahead of the game with service fees!)
On the other hand, the interest they pay isn't fantastic, so it may not make sense for large deposits. I was lucky that they offered me the best deal on my mortgage - paying an extra 1/4% on your mortgage rate would more than offset the paltry $25 monthly reward. So MBANX probably isn't for everyone.
I don't do online banking or stock purchases... (Score:3)
Or I should say I don't yet. I have been looking for a 'one stop shopping' alternative myself and haven't seen much. It looks like one is best off to pick the best alternative for each area of financial services (bank, brokerage, etc.)
If you need to get education about the stock market along with free stock tracking and some cool Java interactive charting (which costs money anywhere else) you should check out the site my girlfriend works for: www.stockcharts.com [stockcharts.com]. Build up the hits there so she can get rich and take me on a trip!
Jack William Bell
PC Financial application choices (Score:1)
Give them a call on the phone and apply that way.
Call them up and ask them to mail you an application.
Re:USAA (Score:1)
You missed one (Score:1)
So far they lack Quicken and on-line brokerage, but more than make up for it in quality of service, low fees, and ethical business practices.
Is there an US bank that uses good crypto devices? (Score:2)
There is a bank in Poland that has just introduced this, there should be more...
Banks and Software. (Score:2)
like choosing a network provider to host your whatever. When you choose a network provided you
probably talk to the staff, try to figure out if they have a clue, what hardware / software they use; etc. Choosing a bank isnt all that different.
Banks are all basically the same, the do about the
same thing. The things that matter to you may be
location, online banking, service, or something
else all together. Personally all of these things
matter to me. I want a bank that has a local branch, who has a clueful staff and provides olb.
There seems to be a growing trend at banks, atleast the smaller banks (ie, not boa/bone, etc) to use "off the shelf" online banking packages.
I know of atleast three companies that produce
online banking software; Digital Insight, Qup,
and FundsXpress.
Does it matter who wrote it? Well, that depends,
if you care about security / the safty of your
account - you probably should. Is your banks
software run under NT or *nix; was it done in
C/Perl/VBasic? Does the software company host
the machines, or are they physically at the bank
tied into their core? What sort of security
experince do the people desiging the software
have?
Qup and Digital Insight, for example are NT based
shops. Qup goes as far as putting a NT box in the
bank and attaching it directly to the core processor - is that really a good idea? How about
performance / scalability. As the need/desire for
online banking grows how well will the service
scale?
Security issues aside, interface and features also
matter. What do you want out of your online banking package? Do you just want to see your balance? How far back? BoA limits your history to
60 days is that enough? Do you need to pay bills
online? Should the bills be paper, or electronic (when possible) ? Do you want to be able to transfer money between accounts ? Wire Money ?
Apply for loans? Intergration of finnical services into a sigle consistant interface ?
What about 1-2 years down the road? What then? Will your bank / banking software be able to do
that?
Re:waterhouse nantional (Score:2)
Can they handle direct deposit?
-Billy
Re:I also use Security First. (Score:1)
They've been great for the past 2 years.
The only downside to SFNB is that they have no local ATM's (unless you live in Atlanta) so if you'd like to avoid an ATM fee you have to find a local credit union ATM that doesn't charge fees.
If you live in S.F., the Bank of Canton ATM on Montgomery Street does not charge a thing.
Re:WingSpan (Score:4)
WingspanBank is the *first* bank i've ever had, where my money keeps its value. The interest is at good enough average that leaving money in the account over long periods keeps up with inflation and other costs, customer support answers and has answered within the first few rings of every time i have called. Online Bill Pay, free ACH transfers, Online Trading, Visa card, and very quick balances and payments.
Direct Deposits go in great, checks are payed in a timely matter, ATM/Visa Purchases actually show more then bank code (i hate that with other banks), So i can see where my money goes (the only leash i have for my girlfriend :).
So wingspan is my recommendation. Its an online bank, but operated by a national chain, so it has some establishment, while still showing great advances over the traditional offerings of other "pathetic online banks" :)
Re:Wells Fargo (Score:1)
But anyway, I thought that needed to be pointed out before anyone got goo-goo eyed at Wells Fargo and signed up where they wouldn't be comforable at some point down the road.
(What's so bad about sending SSN across the net? Get on Google and type "SSN FAQ" and pretend you feel lucky, even if you don't. Warning, you may get a bad taste in your mouth about Big Business before you're done reading. IMHO, You Should.)
Ask around at local banks (Score:1)
USABancShares.com (Score:1)
In addition, they have an associated investment company, www.usaforce.com [usaforce.com], and they provide the option of opening an investment account such that you can simply sweep money into your USABancShares account when you sell stock and use money in your account to make stock purchases, rather than make money not currently invested sit in a holding fund earning less interest than I could get at a regular bank.
Re:I've been happy with NetB@nk --- NOT! (Score:1)
There are of course the good things. They have a good payment scheduler for automatic stuff. They give you FREE unlimited checks if you ever use them at all since the bill payment handles everything. They don't charge for an ATM transaction but you will have to pay the actual ATM's fee (.25-1.50).
However I have had a bunch of bad things happen. They are slow to respond and customer service is not very cohesive. They missed/lost a mortgage payment, mega hassle and late fee as well as possible negative credit impact. I had to threaten with a lawsuit for them to get moving on fixing this. Didn't receive a working debit/atm until after nine months. The site is slow on DSL. They have timeouts that are so short. EVERY email reply I have had has timed out while I was typing it so I lost what I had typed. They sent a payment to the wrong bank so it took another 2 months to straighten that out. Normally I wouldn't be so uptight but it was $5000 to pay off my car and they sent it to my credit card. I double-triple checked what I entered since it was a big amount. They of course denied everything.
I am still not unsure why their bill payment is so unpredictable and untraceable. They provide no proof that the reciever of the bill payment has received the funds(cashed), they just debit your account and it is up to you to tell them or wait for a payment to be lost.
I am gonna switch to CITFI which is the new integrated banking/broker/loan/trading from Citibank. Hope it is better.
humbao
Re:I've been happy with NetB@nk (Score:1)
I second this recommendation. I've used Net.B@nk [netbank.com] now for about 6 months now, and I've been completely happy with it. They've upgraded their site, so that logins and navigation take seconds instead of a minute or two. They've got free checks (very few banks offer this) and postage-paid envelopes so you can deposit your checks. And of course, the free bill-pay is a huge timesaver. They also respond via e-mail very quickly and have extended telephone customer service hours.
Originally, I wanted a Wells Fargo account but being the giant that they are, they closed my account because of a silly mistake I made in the early days. Well, I was pissed and never went back, and have been very happy that I tried Net.B@nk.
As for brokerage accounts, I have a Datek [datek.com] acct. Originally, I had an Ameritrade acct but switched when I realized that limit orders were cheaper with Datek and Datek had real-time updates to your account as well as the real-time quote streamer and trading info for their associated ECN, Island.
I've had no problems with Datek in the past 9 months and their customer service has been very good to date.
Perhaps I've been lucky with my banking/brokerage experiences but it does take some work on your part to make sure it stays that way!
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what to do (Score:1)
a one-stop financial place, you should have
a plan. What are you saving for? Are you
planning on buying a house? Are you spending
money on credit? There's no one-size-fits-all
plan for everyone.
So here's my one-size-fits-all plan for you,
based on some guesses.
Make a financial plan first.
Street" by Malkiel is excellent. One of
the last chapters is a how-to-invest guide
based on your age and current plans.
Any book by Andrew Tobias is good. Consumer
Reports has an ok, eat-your-broccoli sort of
book. Suze Ortman (sp?) kind of gives me
the creeps, but her advice is good.
You're paying 15% to 25% in credit payments?
It would be more fun to burn the money in
your own home. Pay down all credit ASAP,
and don't worry about investments or anything
until you do.
available to you. This would mean 401(k)
for most people, but if you're paid by the
university, it will be a 403(b) plan. Put
every dollar you can spare in those plans.
Since you sound like you're in your twenties,
this will turn out to be one of the best
decisions you will have made by the time
you retire.
More typically, people reach their late 30s
and start to think about funding their
retirement in just two decades. Not
going to happen -- fund it right now and
let compounded interest work for you. Your
youth is an advantage. Also, use Roth IRAs
as much as you can, even if you've put 401(k)
money away.
(Btw, I work for MSDW Online). They're fine
for people who know what they're doing, but you
don't. Stay away until you can afford them,
and you have a clue about stocks. Instead,
buy mutual funds that specialize in indices,
such as the Scudder and Vanguard families of
funds.
aren't you? Ok, read the books above, but
also check out the Motley Fool [fool.com] web sites and books.
They get it.
-- Crazy Horse
Beat the monkey score (Score:1)
With in a services house, diversify your funds.
Balance a high yield/high risk fund with bond or other income funds.
Be sure to investigate ALL fees they might cahrge you and subtract it from you estimated returns.
If you have access to a credit union, use it! Credit unions are like Linux, once you use one nothing else will seem up to snuff. They provide you with low cost checking, loans, credit cards, mutual funds, IRA's and you get to vote for the board of directors as well. Many (including the ones I am a member of) have web access to do your banking and investing.
If your academic institution had TIA/CREF retirement and you partook in it, stick with it. They are reputable, stable and have a good track record.
ersonally I use credit unions, TIA/CREF and a private financial services company.
HTH
Just the portfolio? (Score:1)
Rafe
V^^^^V
I wish Intuit/Quicken, Others, Banks, Brokers, ... (Score:1)
I use "Yahoo!" to track day to day gains/loss. I research stocks and mutual funds on many no cost internet sites (and those I have assets at) "Yahoo!", Quicken/Intuit, WallStreet,
I wish Intuit/Quicken, Others, Banks, Brokers,
Currently I would advise use a local banker with internet access (just in case
Being it is the season
Hope this stuff helps.
Re:waterhouse nantional (Score:1)
Household banking vs. investing (Score:2)
in the traditional sense of running your household finances on a
monthly basis. The other is about investing, which is what
you do with the money that isn't going "in one hand and out the
other." There are any number of places to run your checkbook from as
noted above, but I sincerely hope you don't expect that to address
your IPO-scale cash.
Once you clear about $100k you start becoming interesting to the
investment community for real. And you start really needing
professional services. Below $50k investable you'll be paying a lot
for any real customized services you get; above $250k you can get a
team of people working for you for less than you'd pay a mutual fund
in management fees.
We all see the results of people dabbling in technical fields when
they aren't really professionals in it. It would have been cheaper to
have hired a pro from the start. It's the same with money. There are
a lot of smart people in the money management business, and many of
them have a lot more experience in their field than you (or I) do in
ours. Why would you want to roll your own with something so precious?
My opinion is that "best online banking solution" is an oxymoron for
real investments by people who are not full-time financial
professionals. It may be fine for cookie-cutter household finances
like bill-paying and downloading your statement into a spreadsheet,
but investing is a customized service industry.
That said, you can check out ICFP [icfp.org]
for independents. Merrill Lynch [ml.com]
offers a Cash Management Account (CMA) that rolls up the household
checking, credit card, and a team of people into one package. Their
quoted rates are a maximum; it declines the more money you have with
them.
I'm very fussy. (Score:2)
I think the sign-up process is a good metric for how the bank manages its customer relationships. I think that doing business over the phone is a bad idea as there is too much opportunity for confusion and misunderstanding. Furthermore you don't get a record of what was said when you conduct business over the phone.
If they are truely an on-line web-based bank then they should be able to process my application (at least enough to email me forms to sign) on-line. While they may offer many other ways to do banking (probably a good thing!) I'm only interesting in on-line banking and if they can't support that well I'm going to keep looking until I can find someone who can. Currently I'm with a bank that doesn't satisfy me, but I'm not going to put in a lot of effort until I'm confident another bank will satisfy me.
Re:I also use Security First. (Score:1)
Re:Security First Network Bank (Score:2)
With that being said, I've used sfnb since I worked there and absolutely love it! Unlike traditional banks with an internet branch, sfnb is ready and quite capable in dealing with issues that the remote bank patron has. Envelopes to mail your checks in have the postage paid, almost everything can be done through the web site (except change of address...kinda annoying) and the support staff (email and telephone) is both informed and speedy. Another thing I really like is that sfnb has never blamed any problem I've had on the fact that I'm running linux. They are truly platform neutral and you can access their stuff on any SSL-enabled, standards compliant browser.
You can choose to get your statements mailed to you or just view them online (my preferred method). SFNB actually had to get some banking regulations changed to allow them to _NOT_ mail you a statement every month.
Take it for what you want, I am a former employee so I may be partial to them...but I really haven't found anyone else who is really taking advantage of all the things a bank on the internet can offer like sfnb is.
Now, if they only had a WAP interface...
Ryan
Re:I have heard (Score:2)
they do better if you are successful, but they always get paid.
"You guys a couple of bookies!"
Re:I've been happy with NetB@nk (Score:1)
As I understand it, ATM Deposits are not allowed across state lines due to some law somewhere. At least, my old bank told me that. Not that I couldn't do it (I did try it a couple of times and it worked okay), but they said I wasn't supposed to do it.
Since the bank must be based somewhere, you'd probably be crossing state lines.
Of course, I moved to Alabama a few months ago, and as far as I can tell, ATM deposits aren't allowed at all in this state. Haven't found out why yet..
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I'm switching to American Express (Score:1)
Re:Security First Network Bank (Score:1)
I address this issue by having my pay check direct deposited to a local bank with lots of ATM's, and then setting up an automated transfer of money into my SFNB account. I leave a little bit of money in the local bank so that I can get easy access to cash, then transfer most of it to SFNB so that I can pay bills, earn lots of interest, etc.
SFNB Kept losing my documents (Score:1)
So I decided that I didn't want to trust my meagre savings to someone who couldn't keep track of a few pieces of paper.
I went to NetBank.com instead - its adaquate rather than stellar.
Re:I also use Security First. (Score:2)
Or you could find a local bank that offers free checking accounts. Usually this means that you don't generate any interest, but you don't pay for any of the services. Then set up an Automated Clearing House with SFNB. They will happily transfer, for free, money from your local account to your SFNB account on a regular basis.
I do essentially this. I direct deposit all of my pay checks to the local account. Then, I set up an ACH with SFNB to transfer all but a small amount on a regular basis (that coincides with receipt of my pay checks). The money that's left over, doesn't generate any interest but I can withdraw it from the any of the local bank's ATMs without incurring fees. The bulk of my money then goes to SFNB and I can get all the neat services that they offer.
Re:One Stop Financial Management is a trap (Score:1)
Fool.com (Score:1)
Review of banks/brokers at Gomez... (Score:3)
They rated my bank (SFNB [sfnb.com]) as one of the better banks overall, and I've really been happy with them so far.
Re:I also use Security First. (Score:1)
It sounded like the original poster was expecting stock trades through the "on-line banking". I don't think of day-trading as "banking", but definitions of such things are probably regional or generational. (At 42, I'm elderly online).
Get cash back when you buy groceries (Score:2)
Deposits are still a real pain. Pay is automatic deposit, but other checks have to be mailed in.
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Forbes website survey (Score:1)
Re:What are -you- looking for? (Score:1)
A few years back, I was helping a foaf set up a modem in his Mac. None of the Mac programs were willing to even see the modem, but his Toronto Dominion OLB program was willing to dial up and do everything it was supposed to. All from within the MSDOS emulation box. Not being a Mac expert, I threw up my hands at that point and we all went out drinking.
Re:Security First Network Bank (Score:1)
building their own improved interface) for bill payment, bill presentment, etc. The interface they have is fairly nice. It's cool to
be able to tell it "Ok, every month pull down my phone bill and if it's not over X dollars, pay it automagically." They have a nice
system for statement download for checking, savings, and credit cards. They have a section for brokerage services, but I don't use
it so I can't comment on it. Personally, I'm happy with them. If for no other reason than when I call their tech support, I usually
get someone clueful.
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I use First Union and am totally happy with their system. They need a few interface improvements but overall it is a very slick interface. All my bills are paid automagically and the checks arrive when specified. I used to use Quicken for my services, but the turnaround on updating Quicken through First Union took like 5 days. In other words, look carefully at the turn around time that it takes your bank to update their online service. If it's not instant, then it takes the convinience out of online banking in the first place. For example, I can go around the corner, use the ATM, and when I get home my online checking balance is already updated
- jorge
My selections off the menu... (Score:1)
For analysis of stocks, I think the best is www.clearstation.com [clearstation.com]. They are very good on both community take and technical analysis. Yahoo [yahoo.com]'s stock pages are pretty good for fundemental analysis.
If you plan to be a heavy day-trader, take a look at CyberCorp.Com [cybercorp.com]. I haven't used them myself though.
The earlier comment about getting a good book and reading it is quite apt.
Re:One-stop? (Score:2)
I've been using them for a couple years now after a friend recommended them. I think these guys were the first real online bank. Everything is done through the web browser (encrypted of course.) I've been very happy with them. I was concerned that their service would go downhill when they were bought by the Royal Bank of Canada, but to this day I'm still very happy with them. Even dealing with them over the phone is pleasant --can you imagine that from a bank?
What's really wierd is they don't charge for most services either. I paid nothing when I opened my first checking account with them. They sent me all the checks, plus pre-paid first class envelopes for me to mail deposits in when necessary. I think they have done away with the pre-paid envelopes since then though
Then, just a couple months ago, they had a special offer for their interest checking account. Free. No minimum balance ($100 initial deposit to open it though--no biggie.) It was 6% interest until 2000 when it dropped to 1% or 2% (don't remember which.)
Downside: Last time I tried they still couldn't deposit third party checks. The person I talked to said they were working on this. Don't know the current status.
numb
SFNB gets thumbs up from me (Score:1)
Anyone tried Citibank's new F/I service? (Score:1)
fyi
There goes that idea
Re:I also use Security First. (Score:1)
I use Schwab [schwab.com] for handling investments. You might think it'd be annoying to have my money split up like that, but actually I hardly notice. Transferring money from one institution to another is just as easy as transferring between accounts within a single place. I have, on a couple occasions, found it useful to have local branch offices. Their online support is also excellent. I always get prompt replies to email, and more importantly, they even answer my questions (whereas most email support teams just send me the most appropriate irrelevant form letter).
Telebank (Score:1)
Online Services and Banking software. (Score:2)
Normal Banking:
Where do I get my ATM card, DEBIT card, Credit Card, etc. How do I manage my Checking and Savings accounts.These are all included in Normal Banking. I highly recommend Wells Fargo. They have branches everywhere on the west coast but I never use them. Their online banking system is EXCELLENT. Their customer service department is actually useful as well. Their online service allows you to download your account history into MS Money (evil) or Quicken (also evil).
Financial Software:
On your computer, it is nice to track your finances with charts, investments, etc. which allow you to keep a close (private) eye on whats going on. It also makes taxes a lot easier. Scheduled payments are also nice. The pain in the ass is that there are really only two products to let you do this, and they both suck, and they are both for windoze. They also make use of a modem which is a pain if you have already switched to a high speed internet line.
Stock trading / tracking:
Tracking your portfolio, doing stock research, and of course, trading, are all functions of online stock brokers. I have had experience with a few.
- Datek was very nice. Good interface, but not many special offers or goodies.
- WitCapital was also very good although their services lent themselves to assistance regarding IPO's and not much else. The site design was also so/so.
- Etrade has its share of success stories and nightmares. So far my experience with them has been a bit of both. Etrade has many bells and whistles and extra services. Thier site design is not great, but it is fair. Their customer service leaves MUCH to be deisired. Slow to respond to phone calls and slow to follow through on withdrawls, deposits, and transfers of cash. They are also slow in getting checks and there were several screw-ups in the initial sign-up process. I don't feel very comfortable with them although actual stock trading has been smooth.
- Moneynet.com is who I use for tracking my portfolio. The site design is nice and there is a lot of free information and news. Note that this is NOT a stock trading service. It is only a way to track assets, investments, etc. A lot of good resources here.
Conclusion:
I want either web based or net-enabled software (for linux) that easily allows me to track portfolio's and assets, as well as get news. I also need to be able to import downloaded account histories from multiple sources (usually in money or quicken format). I also need to be able to schedule bill payment automatically and not require a modem. I need to be able to reconcile this information for tax purposes. I also need to make stock trades and manage my bank accounts. If all of this were in one place, it would make my, and probably everyone else's, life a lot easier.
Just my 2 centavos. Hope this helps.
Mutual Funds as saving account (Score:2)
I hope this helps!
Re:Cash flow (Score:1)
been using datek for 2 yrs now. I have never had
any problems and they totally have the best
realtime tools.
I also have a dljdirect account and it is alright.
You can get in on some ipo shares through them,
but you get limited realtime quotes unless you
have more than $1M.
I use Datek for all of my realtime activity tracking.
quote.yahoo.com is by far the best for news and
overall portfolio tracking.
Getting cash from SFNB without using an ATM/fee (Score:1)
Your checking/money market account should come with an associated debit card. This uses the standard VISA network. Simply make take a cash advance on your "VISA" card. There is no charge for cash advances by any insitution that I am aware of, although there is usually a cap on the amount, it is also usually much higher than you could get from an ATM (or the same, $500), plus you can get it in the bills of your choice! What could be better?
I guess that using the VISA network only costs the end bank some tiny fee and they just don't care about it, and they figure your bank is going to ream you with charges for taking a cash advance (they usually do) on your credit card. There's no need to inform them that it is not a credit card -- as far as they are concerned, it is. In one place I told them it was a debit card and they didn't care. So.. have fun.
You're at the wrong site, dood. (Score:1)
Seriously, why would you ask us on slashdot this question? Asking hacker geeks for financial advice is like asking pill bugs for flying lessons!
--Charlie
Grey's clues (Score:1)
For me the ability to keep track of all my accounts, get the updates to them automatically over the internet, write checks all from one interface is a complete boon. Pretty soon I'm going to upgrade to Quicken2k and purchase PocketQuicken for my Palm. Can't keep more up to date on your books than that, IMHO.
My only problem is that more of the newer online banking institutions don't offer this solution *AND* that there were some open standard so there would be products other than Quicken and, IIRC, Microsoft Money to do it.
Open interfaces for Banking services (Score:1)
The web is an awful interface (slow, proprietary for each service) for doing stuff like paying bills and looking at graphs of account data. Some day you will change services and lose all your old data - you want your list of periodic bills, etc. to be local, not on their server.
Lots of folks mention downloading information in Quicken format. That may be the best we can do now, but we need a Linux program to process it. Surely there are at least some programs or spreadsheet macros (in gnumeric?) to deal with that for account data, but is there any open-source way to ask a bank to pay your bills?
--Neal
Re:Open interfaces for Banking services (Score:1)
no fee ATMs (Score:1)
Most USAA products are available to non-military (Score:1)
Re:One Stop Financial Management is a trap (Score:1)
I agree that the premise needs to be questioned.
One stop shopping sounds like a good deal for the business that gets it, but open standards that let customers shop around more easily for services sounds even better! The one stop I like to make is at my keyboard, proceeding from there to whatever financial institution suits the need at hand.
For convenience and a great place to start, a free checking account that allows bill payments without any fees makes sense (I use SFNB with satisfaction, but there are others as well). For savings here in the U.S., credit unions [ncua.gov] provide a better return than commercial banks. For anything else, well, you tell me; I'm still working on it.
The right tool for the right job is the way to go.
OnlineBanking: Best==Many (Score:1)
Re:In the long run.. (Score:1)
Gee that's too bad. You may as well go on and pay your higher fees to other FUD brokerages like Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab.
The fee difference is trivial unless you are trading every day. If you are, you are lost anyway.
Re:Banks and Software. (Score:1)
Hm. You listed three online banking companies and dissed two. Furthermore, the domain in which your home page resides is owned by that mysterious third company, FundsXpress.
I wonder who you work for.
And I wonder why you didn't admit it up front.
Try Canada Trust (Score:1)
Try Canada Trust... that's what I use and am very happy with them, they manage to do all the things you say above, plus other things like bill payments. And... on one page it lists the balances of my chequing account, my investment accounts, and my mastercard. Very, very convenient. And it doesn't cost much either.
Of course, there is a caveat (isn't their always?)... CT was just bought out by TD Bank and they have their own system so I am crossing my fingers that they won't screw things up too badly.
Re:I've been happy with NetB@nk (Score:1)
In general, good banking services but not so good in IT implementation.
The Good:
1) free bill pay.
2) 5% (5.13% APY) money market account (now it seems other online banks can top) that.
3) Customer Service is sufficient. I called 3 times (evening) and took me no time to talk to a real person.
The Bad:
1) No Quicken direct download (they have QFX file, but that's high stress work to import it). And the customer assistant told me not to expect it for first half of 2000.
2) Web page is, at least, uninspired and sometimes slow and buggy. internal web based mail system is HARD to use.
I'll drop Net@Bank if I can find a all-in-one investment account with free bill pay and quicken download. But for now it can take care of biz. The drawbacks are not bad enough for me to switch.
Re:no fee ATMs (Score:1)
Also in Publix I saw "Help wanted, full time / part time, stock option available". For 1/2 second I told myself to fill out an application.
Re:Security First Network Bank Sucks... Try X.com (Score:1)
Ok, I was also a little sold by 'lowest cost Standard&Poors fund' and generally just the simplicity of funds investment with them (and when I signed up, they gave me some pretty generous credit)
havent moved much money through x.com as yet, but its almost frighteningly easy to use, so far i've liked everything I've seen, and yes, the cool name certainly didnt make me want to sign up any less!
Re:no fee ATMs (Score:1)
he limit of up to $20.00 "cash back" from your debit card when making a purchase applies to any store that offers this service (again, no fee). Publix, Kmart, Target, Winn Dixie, wherever.
For a larger withdrawal, use the ATM in front of the Publix, though.
Or make several separate purchases of a pack of gum, if desperate. Or if you really like chewing gum.
I think I'll look into this. (Score:1)
My parents just got a mortgage through CT and had a great experience. They got a better rate on their mortgage by switching all their banking to CT. On-line banking is very important to them too but they aren't half as fussy as I am! I also know someone who is a manager at a CT branch and know they have pioneered some on-line banking stuff (in 1995 I got to demo their on-line banking website before it was available to customers).
A business I used to be a partner in used TD for its banking and we had a pretty bad experience with them, so this news that TD has purchases CT makes me nervous but I won't hold it against them.
Re:I wish Intuit/Quicken, Others, Banks, Brokers, (Score:1)
However, I have always believed that it is best for some of US to "Ride the Edge,
Never be happy with limited bandwidth.
Go read Personal Finance for Dummies (Score:1)
and the UK??? (Score:1)
Most of the high-street banks [natwest.com] have SOME kind of online-banking, but most of them require windoze software, or some [barclays.co.uk] of them have nice java software but it checks you're running windoze before letting you run it! (yes, there are hacks, but I'd rather not give THOSE kind of people my business)...
Egg [egg.co.uk] has a nice interest rate, and has done it The Way It Should Be Done with no java, just plain HTML, CGI, HTTPS... but they only allow you to pay out into your one or two nominated accounts, so you can't use it to pay bills, give money to friends, etc etc, and anyway, their security panics and locks you out if you dare to use the wrong capitalisation in any of the security questions.
marbles [getmarbles.co.uk] isn't a bank after all. anyone tried first-e [first-e.co.uk]? any good? what about any of the others?
I'm after something that will take my pay-cheque, and look after it, preferably earning a little interest. Something that will let me pay bills, pay money to friends, or transfer to other accounts. It MUST NOT make a fuss about me using any more secure OS than most of the rest of the planet. It should PREFERABLY not use huge java apps either, but I'd probably put up with java if it met all my other requirements.
Help! :-)
If you're near a military town... (Score:1)
banks are very happy if they can keep a customer when they move every 2-3 years, including overseas deployments. and staying with one financial institution makes my life much easier.
Get a cretid union! (Score:2)
The best banks are the tardiotnal credit union. I do my banking at the local gas station, by the phone, by snail mail, or the web. My particular credit union has never been within easy driving distance of their customers, so they are well setup for this situation. (They are for state hiway department workers, who live around the state despite the bank offices being near only near the state capitol)
It is harder to get in as you need to live/work in the right place, or be a relative of someone who is a member.
When my parents wanted to buy a car they call the credit untion, the person (I've never been on hold, the person answering the phone can hanlde my buisness, and I always get a person imeadiatly) who answered the phone said "For that model of car don't pay more then $x, we are putting $x in your checking account, when you buy the car send us the title." Now granted my parents have a good creit rating, but this service is nice, they trust members with the bank's money.
Also, savings interest rates are higher, loan rates lower. And of course the service is better.