Which bank should I go with - Wells Fargo or WaMu?

Question

I decided to get a checking account, but I wasn’t sure which bank I should go with. I was told that Washington Mutual was a pretty good bank, but Wells Fargo has a college student account thing, and I will be an incoming freshman in the fall. I was just wondering what you all thought, and what opinions you had on the matter.

Answer 1

Nice thing about Wells is that they are huge and not going to have issues like some smaller banks have had recently.

Thats a good and bad thing in my opinion.

You are just a number to them.  They will treat you ok, but you are just another customer.

I have never dealt with WaMu so I cannot speak for their service but from things I have heard they are pretty good.

I would also suggest looking at joining a credit union.  You can usually get better rates and a few other perks from them that banks might not offer.

Answer 2

It depends, somewhat, on where you are.  If you go to Bankrate.com and check thir Safe and Sound bank ratings, it will tell you how each bank is doing.  While each bank has branches nationwide, each bank is also "subdivided" according to states or regions with each subdivision being it's own separate entity under the national name "umbrella".  WaMu based in Utah has a 5 star rating but WaMu based in Henderson, Nevada has only a 1 star rating.  Wells Fargo seems to have 4 star ratings regardless of location. In either case, as long as you have less than 100K in the bank (250K for qualified retirement accounts) your money is protected by the FDIC.  Even if the bank should "fail", you would get you money within 3 days under federal banking law.

Answer 3

I don't like Wells Fargo at all . . . I would choose WaMu if those wher the only banks I had to choose from . . Prosperity Bank is my current bank I would not change