[supermarine]

Community banks are usually worse than regular banks. Credit unions are better, but large banks (Chase, Wells Fargo, BoA, etc) have (usually) more offerings (credit card + checking + car + mortgage + investing) and are usually a lot more accessible for normal people. Also: big banks advertise.

[dsmithatx]

I haven't found this to be true. My credit union (for 10+ years) has never charged me any fees for checking and has had free online bill paying. They also gave me a great rate on my car loan. My previous credit union was very comparable. I had very bad experiences with BOA and Chase who hit me up with fees and made serious mistakes.

Once I tried to make two payments because i was late the previous month. They manually decided that I must of made a mistake and failed to make one of the payments (they assumed it was mistake and never notified me). As a result my insurance was cancelled and renewing my policy cost me around $1700. That was at BOA 20 years ago and I've used credit unions ever since. Since I was barley getting by at the time I had no recourse.

[delinka]

About two years ago, my credit union started taking lessons from national banks. Charged late fees on a two loan accounts that had never been late (auto-drafted payments from a direct deposit destination); charged me for a replacement debit card when I reported one stolen; can't figure out that "wiring money" is actually free and points me at a third-party service they've hired for transferring money between banks - there's a fee for that; converted my free checking account into a fee checking account without notice.

In all these cases, I could not get the fees reversed on the phone, but had to visit a branch in person, where the branch manager was indignant that I had the gall to rob the financial institution of their fees. I did get the fees refunded. And two weeks ago, I closed all my accounts with them.

I am fortunate to have a community bank that acts the way my credit union once did. The only quibble I've ever had with them is with the staff not knowing the rules on overdraft fees.

[hidenotslide]

I think outgoing wires are almost never free, maybe you are thinking of ACH transfers? The rest of the things sound unfortunate though, and potentially illegal in the case of converting to a fee account without notice.

Customer friendliness can vary a lot even within a bank/credit union depending on the customer and personal banker, since a lot of fee waivers are discretionary. E.g. if a banker has a fee waiver limit per month then they can help you at the start but not later in the month.

Part of the issue is that since rates have been so low, the traditional net interest margin of banks has been squeezed so they turn to fees to compensate.

[delinka]

The issue was indeed with ACH. My apologies.

[supermarine]

As I said: "Credit unions are better"

So, you have found it to be true.

[chipperyman573]

Not the OP but I read your statement as "community banks are bad, credit unions are okay but larger banks are the best". I believe GP is arguing that credit unions are the best and larger banks are just okay.