HapiMoney

Or if you don’t have BoA, dump your Wachovia, Wells Fargo, et. al. accounts where you are saving money at abysmally low rates for below average customer service and ATM fees. It’s insane how much control these guys have of your money.

Where should you put it instead? Try your brokerage account. My Schwab Account has free checking, an ATM card which REIMBURSES me for all fees (yes, no fees), and pays a better interest rate…plus, I can see all of my investments from one dashboard.

Why do I use my BoA account? For the convenience of depositing checks, and that’s it. Switch to your brokerage and you will save a ton on fees and start actually earning interest.

-EDIT-

Not 2 days after I posted this, did BoA charge my account a monthly maintenance fee.  When I signed up for the account, I was told there were no monthly minimums, but apparently this is only applicable if you do direct deposits to the account at least once a month.  Since I switched up my direct deposits to my Schwab account, BoA felt a little threatened . Luckily, calling and complaining led to the cancellation of the fee (lesson: always call and protest fees).

I also learned that Bank of America doesn’t have this requirement on all MyAccess checking accounts created online. Since I have MyAccess checking, I simply asked for them to waive all future fees. In typical bureaucratic fashion, the only way for me to insure that there are no monthly minimums are for me to create a new account online and cancel my old one. Talk about horrendous customer service.