Saturday, March 29, 2008

Kudos

Our upcoming move has necessitated a lot of changes and upheavals. One of them is that we will have to change banks. Ages ago when I was in college and dependent on my parents for money I opened a Washington Mutual bank account. The homey credit union that I had been using beforehand did not have branches in Utah where my parents had moved to.

However opening the account in the great state of Utah ended up having unforeseen consequences. For some very mysterious reason the accounts opened in Utah do not play nice with the rest of WaMu's computers. So, when we moved to California we could do a lot of basic banking, but more advanced stuff like ordering checks necessitated a phone call to the Utah 1-800 number. A hassle but doable. However, moving to Kansas means that the nearest branch to us would be in Texas. We toyed with the idea of doing everything online, but decided we would rather have a bank that we could actually visit if we needed to.

Enter US Bank. They have a ton more locations and all the things that we need in a bank. I was also very impressed with their customer service. We had to take the kids with us while we were setting things up. I knew that two active boys could be a handful, so I was not too thrilled with the idea. No sooner had we sat down with the boys and were starting the process a person comes up with a large stack of stickers for the boys. That stack of stickers kept the boys entertained for the majority of the time we were there. It was great! I am looking forward to a more friendly banking experience.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We like the US Bank in Fortuna. Very friendly and have offered the best interest rates on CDs. Also, they've helped us keep track of Grandma's accts. Actually can understand their monthly statements.
diana

Mean Mommy said...

Good choice. I did the same thing...opening a WM account when I went to college. It was not my favorite bank ever, and we closed the account when we moved away from Utah.

I do like my credit union, but I guess a national bank chain works better when you're moving around, huh?

Damselfly said...

Ew, banks. I try to avoid them when I can...

Anne/kq said...

We have had similar WaMu issues, having opened an account in TX then moved to CA. It does not make sense to me.

We have since switched most of our banking to ING. We only keep WaMu around for a few small functions, all our "real" savings and such are in ING.

WaMu's loss!