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| Author |
Message |
aruba
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Changing Banks
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Oct 1 16:06 UTC 1998 |
Grex currently pays an average of about $8/month in service charges for our
account at Michigan National Bank. Sindi Keesan recently told me that we
could get an account with no fees at Great Lakes Bank. She gave me a brochure
at the last board meeting, and it looks like it's for real and we really could
avoid paying any service charges at all if we move to Great Lakes.
I stopped by a Great Lakes branch the other day to ask for a complete
price list and find out if there are any catches. They told me the only
real catch is that there is a fee for depositing more than $100 in cash in
a single day. While that would be a problem for some businesses which
deal in a lot of cash, it is not a problem for Grex. We do get some cash
each month, but it usually totals less than $100, and I always buy it from
Grex for myself before making a deposit. (That saves me a trip to the
cash machine.) And if for some reason we got a huge basket of cash, I
could split it up and deposit it over a couple of days.
When I was at MNB yesterday to deposit the September receipts, I asked if
they could match the Great Lakes deal. The answer was no, not unless we
promise to keep a minimum balance of $3,000. While we usually have that,
our planned cushion is $2,000, so we would like to reserve the right to
drop down to it, I think.
So I'm entering this item to propose that we move our bank account and
save some money. I'd like to know if anyone can think of some catches I
might have missed asking about, and if anyone has any other banks they
think would be even better than Great Lakes.
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| 113 responses total. |
aruba
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response 1 of 113:
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Oct 1 16:30 UTC 1998 |
Here is the complete list of fees from the Great Lakes price sheet:
Monthly fee $0
Currency/Coin deposits (first $100 of 5%
currency/coin deposits per day free)
Inclearing items (debits), each item $.20
over 200 per month
Deposited items, each item over 100 $.20
per month
Minimum balance requirement $0
Minimum balance to open $100
Customer pays for check printing
(though they will pay $2.50 for our
old checks)
automated telephone service $0
coin ordered (rolled) $.07/roll
currency ordered $.30/$100
closed account fee $0
returned deposited items $5/item
stop payment requests $24 each
postdated check fee $24 each
overdrafts and returns $24 each
cashier's check $3/check
photocopy requests $5/copy
telephone balance requests $3/request
audit confirmation $10/item
collection items $25/item + 3rd party charges
garnishments, levies or attachments $40 each
served on GLB
wire transfers $5/incoming
$15/outgoing (domestic)
$40/outgoing (foreign)
wire notifications (incoming) $3 each
telephone trfers ($1,000 minimum) $3 each
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aruba
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response 2 of 113:
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Oct 1 16:46 UTC 1998 |
While we might someday deposit more that 100 checks in a month, we never have
to date. (I think the highest we've ever been is in the neighborhood of 50.)
Some of those unusual fees seem to be a bit higher than what we have now, but
who cares - we aren't going to be doing any wire transfers or anything like
that. I'll be sure to keep good records so I don't have to call and ask what
our balance is.
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albaugh
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response 3 of 113:
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Oct 1 17:45 UTC 1998 |
If the grexers handling the money and paying the bills find GLB at least as
accessible as MNB, there would seem to be little risk in changing banks, for
the minimal yet tangible benefit - $8/month - which amount to 1.x memberships.
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valerie
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response 4 of 113:
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Oct 1 17:46 UTC 1998 |
This response has been erased.
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janc
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response 5 of 113:
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Oct 1 17:48 UTC 1998 |
Sounds good. I think you should do it. I don't think you need a board
vote to do it.
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aruba
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response 6 of 113:
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Oct 1 18:01 UTC 1998 |
Well, I need to get people to sign the signature card, so I was planning on
waiting 'till the next board meeting in any case.
I don't think any bank requires you to buy checks from them. Our last batch
of checks for Grex also cost $6.20 including postage, and came from The Check
Store.
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mta
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response 7 of 113:
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Oct 1 18:23 UTC 1998 |
I concur with this proposal.
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dpc
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response 8 of 113:
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Oct 1 20:30 UTC 1998 |
This looks like a good deal, aruba!
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cmcgee
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response 9 of 113:
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Oct 1 23:22 UTC 1998 |
Thanks for doing all the checking aruba. Go for it.
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rtgreen
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response 10 of 113:
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Oct 2 05:39 UTC 1998 |
the only thing that sounds scary to me is the astronomical fee for cash
transactions. 5%! It seems backwards to me. That's legal US tender, and
should be accepted at par. checks actually require more processing, so
why do they charge for cash? My fantasy is that with cash they have to
credit your account immediately, but with checks, they get to invest the
money for a few days before they let you have access to it. Thank you,
Reg Q!
This doesn't mean I think we shouldn't do it, it's just my rant about the
screwed up priorities our economy has gotten us into...
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davel
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response 11 of 113:
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Oct 2 11:39 UTC 1998 |
At a guess, the hassle of counting it & the risk of miscounting it. (It can't
be counted just once or twice, either. Every time it goes from one drawer
to another...) I agree that 5% seems extreme. Possibly they're also
concerned about the chance that some of it's stolen or counterfeit, when
people deposit large amounts of cash on a regular basis?
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steve
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response 12 of 113:
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Oct 2 16:57 UTC 1998 |
I use Great Lakes, and they're record for screwing up is remarkable.
By that, I mean that they don't screw up much at all. A friend of Ken
Ascher who was a teller told us that on the average banks mess up one
in every 400 transactions. In all the time I've used them, I've only
found one screw-up. I like them as much as I like any bank. It sounds
like a good idea to move.
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keesan
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response 13 of 113:
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Oct 2 18:42 UTC 1998 |
They made one error since I have been there, and ended up sending me a notice
about it (fifty cents off in the addition, I think). In about 20 years.
I have made more errors than that in dealing with them (leaving without my
cash and coming back the next day for it).
But they may possibly rent out the names and addresses of their business
customers (junk mail lists) for extra profit - I know I get a small amount
of junk mail such as life insurance offers. Once or twice a year.
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aruba
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response 14 of 113:
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Oct 2 19:09 UTC 1998 |
I suspect that the 5% per cash transaction over $100 is to discourage
businesses which deal in a lot of cash from using this free account. I'm sure
they have some other account for operations like that. (Once again, this
won't affect Grex - we will never have to pay 5% of anything because we never
deposit any cash at all.)
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danr
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response 15 of 113:
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Oct 2 23:32 UTC 1998 |
fwiw, I've switched my business checking accounts over to Great Lakes and have
been very happy with the service. Go for it!
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lilmo
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response 16 of 113:
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Oct 7 03:04 UTC 1998 |
Ever since I learned that we paid so much in bank fees, I've been keeping my
eyes open for a deal like this. Let's do it!!
Does this change the calculus on credit cards?
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suzie
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response 17 of 113:
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Oct 7 03:53 UTC 1998 |
I use Great Lakes free and they've been pretty good. You have to ask
specially if you want to get your cancelled checks back.
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richard
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response 18 of 113:
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Oct 12 22:48 UTC 1998 |
If grex switches banks, it could open a savings account at the same
time. This way, it could have a savings account to divert a few
dollars every month that would earn more interest than the checking
account (if the checking is interest checking at all) The money
diverted to savings account would be earmarked for future hardware
purchases or specific longterm goals that grex wants to save for (like
a T1 connection or something)
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keesan
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response 19 of 113:
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Oct 13 01:57 UTC 1998 |
Savings accounts pay about 1% interest. Mutual funds pay maybe 3% for the
money market funds and are pretty secure.
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richard
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response 20 of 113:
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Oct 13 22:03 UTC 1998 |
grex invest in mutual funds? now there's an idea-- just need to find a
good fund where the market price doesnt fluctuate too much-- grex
should consult with a broker like Equitable or Prudential or something
to inquire as to the viability of opening a portfolio. Grex could do
something like invest $500, $100 in five different funds.
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lilmo
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response 21 of 113:
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Oct 14 00:20 UTC 1998 |
No, sorry, won't work, most likely. Very few (if any) mutual fund families
let you invest with so little $$ unless you are opening an IRA. Some banks,
however, also offer Money Market accounts. NationsBank, for example, is
paying about 4%, I think. (Oops, Bank of America.)
Schwab has some of the lowest minimums around, and you need $2,500 just to
open a portfolio, though individual funds have lower minimums. (Back to
mutual funds, here.)
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mdw
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response 22 of 113:
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Oct 14 07:10 UTC 1998 |
The stock market does not make sense for grex. You invest money in the
stock market if you are looking for a large return, and don't mind the
risk that you can lose all. Grex, on the other hand, is mainly looking
for a dependable place to stash a small amount of liquid capital; it's
much more important that it *be* there when grex needs it, than that it
produce a large income.
The only way I could see this changing is if somebody endowed grex with
a really large contribution -- enough so that it could be invested, and
that grex could live off the proceeds. Unless you know someone who is
planning to die soon and leave all their wealth to grex, I don't think
this is worth planning for.
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saw
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response 23 of 113:
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Oct 15 23:55 UTC 1998 |
Doesn't Grex have its 501(c)(3) (or whatever it is that makes donations to
you tax-deductible)? Maybe Grex could ask around to some of the local
companies for donations. After all, they would be tax-deductible, which
some companies require that before they'll make donations. Get a few pretty
good companies to donate some money and it'll all add up.
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lilmo
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response 24 of 113:
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Oct 16 03:17 UTC 1998 |
Re #22: I don't think anyone was talking about the stock market, except in
jest. *Money* Market funds, on the other hand, are *extremely* safe (not
FDIC-insured, but only 1 or 2 have gone bust in 25+ years; and there are
thousands). And they do tend to do MUCH better than savings accounts.
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