I've had an e-trade Complete account for years. They do refund every single ATM fee I've ever had. I think there's some limit on it, but I've never hit it...

USAA always refunds my ATM fees, with no minimum balance or other requirements. I think it's up to $15 a month they'll refund, but I've never run close to that. If you're hitting the ATM 4+ times a month, you should probably rethink your finance strategy.

I use etrade for mostly everything, they have the best customer service they refund my atm fees, and it is just easy to use. BoA just acts as my local way to fund my etrade account, stuff is depositied into the BoA, and then I transfer it right to etrade.

I think a lot of smaller banks tend to offer this sort of thing in an effort to attract money from people who otherwise would opt for a bank with a larger fleet of ATMs. I had a friend in college who had an account with a little bank in Texas and they refunded ATM fees up to some limit ($10 or $15 I think).

For all those in the PA Area.. it's called one thing... WaWa.

listen, i don't need you telling me i've got a problem, man. i'm trying; but it's just so hard to resist that little yellow guy doing the cart-wheels. in fact, it's well worth the $1.50 + $2 BoA fee to see that little blob do its thing.

@enm4r: "If you're hitting the ATM 4+ times a month, you should probably rethink your finance strategy."

Why do you say that?

In my mind *the* benefit of ATMs is that you don't have to carry around a pile of cash -- they're ubiquitous -- when you need cash for something you just get it.

I just signed up for Schwab's (http://www.schwab.com) checking account. No minimum balance, they refund your ATM fees (at the end of the month, but still) and they pay 4.25% interest. I've had them about three weeks, now, and haven't had any problems. They want you to sign up for a brokerage account at the same time, but you don't have to use it, or put any money in it.

K

ROCJESTER - WaWa is not fee free for everyone. The ones in my area (South Jersey) are only free for PNC bank users. They (PNC) don't charge a fee, but my bank (Wachovia), still does.

My best bet for fee free transactions is to get cash back at the store. If you don't need to make a full run to the store, but still need cash, run to a CVS and buy something small that you do need, and get some cash back. Granted it's not a free (as in beer) transaction, but if you're getting something you need anyway, it's close enough.

USAA Savings Bank also offers monthly reimbursements of all ATM fees (up to ten times or $15 a month) from all networks. Great online banking and fee-free bill paying services too.

Only downside with USAA for banking is that you have to be eligible for USAA membership (either active duty or recently discharged military or uniformed service member or child of a member).

@j-o-h-n:

Do you spend enough cash that you need to get more of it MORE than once a week? I wouldn't consider a week's worth of cash to be "a pile"

The grocery store is closer than my bank. Just buy a $2 something you need anyway, get extra cash, put cash in your pocket. No extra charge on the atm card.

yeah, can we stop with all of the USAA recommendations, and stick with bank accounts that can be opened by anyone?
k, thx.

@cbell: Why oh why did my dad go into firefighting instead?

I agree with Toaster71. Cash back from a debit transaction is the way to go. You can't get charged for it (as far as I know), and you can ask the clerk for any combination of bills that you need (instead of the default $20's you get from the ATM).

The ETrade checking account requires a $5000 minimum balance to avoid a $15 monthly fee. I think the more optimal strategy is to open up a checking account at your closest bank - one with a low minimum balance to avoid fees - and keep the minimal balance required to a) avoid the low balance fee and b) perform normal checking account duties: pay bills, deposit checks, and withdraw money. Transfer the rest to a high yield savings account or money market account that offer rates higher than ETrade's 3.25%

I hope banking in the US will level up to what it is in most of Europe. A single type of account, no fees on Visa or Master card (even abroad). And free online banking. The only expense I have (except loan interest) is 250 NOK yearly VISA / Master cardfee.

@any such name:

If you live in Bexar county, you're eligible for the banking portion of USAA regardless of lack of military affiliation.

I think other banks are starting to get on the ATM fee refund bandwagon. USAA has been doing it for quite some time now. Oh yeah, you can also instantly deposit checks at home with a scanner. I don't think other banks do that b/c I haven't seen it advertised on TV.

Commerce Bank will refund your checking account ATM fees if it has a balance of $2500 or more.

i bank with USAA and the atm refund fee is only valid when using an actual bank atm machine, if you goto burger king and they charge you a 99 cent atm fee, that isnt refunded. just the ones where you pull out cash in 20 dollar increments

Commerce Bank (MO-IL-KS area) doesn't charge you to use another bank's ATM 3 times in a month. The other bank can still charge you their fee, but at least if you need some cash and you're not near a Commerce ATM, you're not getting hit with fees from both banks.

@Hawk07: I don't think many other banks are willing to accept the risk involved with deposit@Home like USAA is.

Obviously most banks aren't even willing to incur the risk of allowing you access to your own money the day the transaction posts, they aren't going to even go near a program like deposit@Home... If I were the general population, I'd be fighting for same day access to funds before I fought for depositing checks via my personal scanner.

I currently have an account with a Northern California bank called The Mechanics Bank. They offer unlimited refunds on ATM fees that are charged by other banks in the states and around the world. here's the link. www.mechbank.com

Great thing for New Yorkers. So many times you get caught at a cash only restaurant/bar, or end up in a neighborhood that you don't know or in a place without any recognizable banks around.

Commerce Bank refunds but they don't do it until right before your statement comes out so you can wait up to a month before your checkbook is balanced again.

i really love commerce bank. i love their hours. i love the service. they rock my world, as much as a bank can possibly do that. and i swear nobody pays me to say that either.

The other thing that I've noticed is that at Giant (if there are any in your area) they let you type in the amount manually on Cash back. It's cool because the ladies always get mad when I ask for $1.78 in cash back... :-P

@any such name: Don't be a USAA hater. I didn't ask RCSFCA to not recommend Northern Cal bank even though I don't live in Cali. For those who qualify, USAA is probably the best all-around bank. For those who don't, skip over those recommendations.

I'm a big fan of E*Trade. I've always gotten right through when I've had an issue, their mortgage people were a pleasure to deal with (though they didn't have the best rates due to builder promos), their stock commissions aren't too bad for moderate traders, the transfers from one account to another are instant (which is handy if you've got a 5% savings account with them), their Bill Pay works really well for those idiots that don't take online payments (City Utilities and Waste Management). I've got a local WaMu for check deposits but otherwise it's E*Trade all the way.

@consumeristReader: There's a bunch of ways around the fees. Making a 200$ direct deposit monthly is the easiest.

My bank's been offering this for . . . almost a year, I think. We get 4% interest, ATM fees refunded, no minimum balance. The only catch is that we have to use direct deposit (which I prefer, anyway), and can't pester the bank employees face-to-face more than three times a month. If you have direct deposit and ATM fees refunded, there's really no reason to go in, anyway.

Around here, we have Credit Unions (but I guess they're not allowed in some locales?).

Most of the time, if you can figure out where a local credit union is, their ATM won't charge fees to withdraw cash, even if you're not their customer.

But credit unions seem to be the Google of the banking world, in my experience...they try not to be evil.

I'm seconding the recommendation for Schwab. I've had them for a couple months now and they're great. As has been said, they have no minimum balance for the checking account and they pay good interest. I have the brokerage account with them too, it's good. Their customer service is excellent as well. A day or two after you sign up you'll get a call from a Schwab concierge asking if you have any questions and they offer to show you some important and useful parts of the site. I had to call about a linked account issue a few weeks later and I was on hold for maybe a minute before getting an actual American that was very helpful and resolved my issue very quickly. I'm loving Schwab.

@PhilK: I have an ETrade checking account with lower minimums and interest yields. My account used to have unlimited ATM refunds but they discontinued it. Fortunately I live right by an ETrade ATM. I have been with ETrade long before they were ETrade. ETrade bought out Telebank to start ETrade Bank.

ETrade is a mixed bag. Their website is pretty good. But quite frankly, their customer service is the worst. Google 'ETrade sucks' and read the vitriol. Customer service call queues averaging 30 to 45 minutes. No joke. I never call unless I am by a speaker phone so I can keep busy while I wait.

@consumeristReader: Actually, the $15 is waived if you have a direct deposit of $200 or more in a given month:

A $100 minimum deposit is required to open a new account. Account holders must maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $5,000 to avoid a $15 monthly fee. This fee will be waived if the account holder 1) sets up a direct deposit of $200 or more per month

@SlyBevel: Around here (Atlanta was pretty much the place where ATMs charging their own fees started, with Bank South, now part of BofA, starting the trend), even the credit unions surcharge unless you have an account at another CU or a smaller or Internet bank that's part of a surcharge-free network (Allpoint, etc.) :(

@dmolavi: If you have a checking account with "Crown" in its name, Wachovia waives their fee on the first two non-Wachovia ATM withdrawals in a statement cycle.

@Steel_Pelican: Some banks charge for POS transactions, but they're in the small minority.

@alpha: Lunch, 5 days a week for starters. Sure, I could just grab $50 on Monday, but in my experience if it's laying around in my pocket it would just be spent on other nonsense by Wednesday.

Is this actually a good deal?

If you put $5000 in a high yield (5%) savings account, you would get $250 in interest.

If you put $5000 in this etrade account, you get $162.50.

Effectively you're losing out $87.50.

Let's assume the average ATM transaction is $2. You'd have to make 44 atm withdrawls a year to break even.

Does anyone actually go to the ATM 44 times a year?

TD Waterhouse (TD Ameritrade) also offers ATM reimbursement for their online checking account. As with all online saving accounts, you can't do deposits in person, but if you're used to direct deposit or by deposit by mail, it's a good deal.

@dtc: "Does anyone actually go to the ATM 44 times a year?"

Yeah, every saturday on the way to the farmer's market. That comes out to 52 times a year. Is that bad?

@j-o-h-n: If taking out $10 a day is the way you've developed to curb extra spending, that's great for the bottom line.

However, I still feel as though there are many more efficient ways at going about business. If you're saying you'll just spend it anyway, does that mean you're just wasting the extra change from every lunch? Seems implied. Would a debit/credit card work more in your favor by allowing you to save that difference everyday?

I would still say your practice is far from the norm. If you tried to tell me going to the ATM 220-240 times a year was not only in your best interest, but the easiest way for you to save, I'd laugh.

@dtc: Oh man, i probably go to the ATM 44 times a day. Do either Schwab or eTrade offer online bill-pay and a check card? If so, I'm sold. Bye-bye BoA.

>>Oh man, i probably go to the ATM 44 times a day.

Holy cow. I think I went to the ATM once. Last month.

Just take out more cash each time you go. I take out at least $200.