I've been using Chase Bank since I moved to Texas in 1998. Because my employer also uses them, I get a "friend of the family" account with a lower minimum balance. Also, there are Chase ATMs just about everywhere.

Chase had been charging me $5/month to use Quicken services. Recently, they changed things around. The monthly fee is the same, but they've added this weird "processing time" business. If I write a check to you, payable on say October 10, they'll take the money out of my account on October 2. Thereafter, the money is in some weird sort of limbo until you cash the check. Beforehand, the money stayed in my account until you cashed the check. This is really unacceptable. What if you never deposit the check? Will I ever find out about it?

Anyway, this now has me pondering switching to a different bank. I know there are several "internet banks", but the two I just poked at randomly via Google (bofi.com and netbank.com) don't seem to support Quicken. All of my retirement stuff is at Fidelity, and they offer free Quicken downloads and free(*) BillPay through their web site. You can also get an ATM card, you can write checks, and all of that. And, I suppose for the occasional weird service for which you need a physical bank (e.g., getting your signature "guaranteed", which is one step fancier than "notarized"), Fidelity has bricks-and-mortar stores. About the only thing that Fidelity doesn't seem to offer is a proper credit card. They do offer a Fidelity-branded MBMA MasterCard, but the branding is only skin deep. Fidelity (and the other Internet banks) even offers to reimburse ATM fees, subject to various limitations that cap their payout.

So... do I really want to ditch my local bank? Would I do better to keep everything with Fidelity, where I'm entirely happy with managing my retirement funds, or would I do better to go with one of these Internet banks?

Some digging around on the Internet turned up some interesting threads. Larry Lessig was unhappy in 2003[/url] and blogged that he wished that Amazon.com would become a bank. There are numerous recommendations for USAA and also one recommendation for Wachovia. I went digging a little deeper. Wachovia offers Quicken support for free, but they don't waive fees on non-Wachovia ATMs. I'm apparently not elgible for USAA as neither I nor my spouse have any involvement with the U.S. military nor did our parents.

Thoughts?

(*) Free if you've got a big enough account or are an active trader, otherwise $7/month.

The last two 'banks' that I was involved with were actually credit unions (wikipedia). I don't pay that close attention to the details, but my general feeling of trust toward my financial institution is much higher these days.
My $0.02 FWIW

I've banked with Wachovia since well before First Union bought them and co-opted the name. I would have suggested Wachovia as a good bank before then. I would not recommend them now. However, if you have specific questions about their services, I can probably give you some first-hand experience.

My advice would also be to find a mid-size credit union that you're eligible for and use them. They're usually very responsive banks. Big credit unions might as well be corporate banks, so I wouldn't generally suggest one of them.

There are apparently two credit unions that I'm elgible for. One of them flat-out doesn't support Quicken and the other is apparently dropping its support now that Quicken no longer supports QIF files. These credit unions aren't terribly high tech...