banking when full timing

Any chartered bank can operate anywhere in the US if not globally - with the exception of a sanctioned country. So in short, any bank will do. The trick is to find one that has interfaces and customer access that is user friendly. Most of the major banks do this pretty well; Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, BOFA, PNC etc. But don't rule out small banks. Diversification across products and linking them to the same customer profile is often a challenge for large banks, but it looks pretty seamless to the consumer, until you have to be transferred to one area for mortgage, one area for cards, one for checking, etc. But once you get it ironed out and set up they all work pretty well. We manage everything on line. I haven't had to step into a branch in over a year. Don't plan on it either. Direct deposits, direct debits for all payments, etc.

Our goal in retirement was to travel 90% of the time although Covid has slowed that down to more of a distancing in the trailer program. Either way we needed to do banking away from home. We set up all of our recurring bills to direct debit a credit union account in which we keep minimal money. To get cash on the road we opened an account with Ally Bank which was recommended by a personal finance magazine. At the time, they advertised many free ATMs and up to $10 per month of refunded bank ATM fees. We found the free ATMs to mostly be in stores with limited amounts of cash available per transaction--It didn't seem effective to me to make a special trip to a free ATM to get a little bit of cash. While using bank ATMs worked at first, soon the Ally card processor started blocking the transactions as potential fraud even though we were using the same ATM repeatedly with no real fraud. That got to be so annoying that we dropped Ally and went back to Chase (who has a strong presence around our land locked house and in the Eastern US) for our cash needs . In the days of Covid we have found that using charge cards frequently has dramatically reduced our cash needs so we hit a bank ATM for a big chunk of cash when we run low. We'll pay a bank fee someday if necessary, but it hasn't been yet. We maintain 5 charge cards in case one gets locked and never (as said above) use a debit card for anything but cash from an ATM because a hacked debit card can lock up your bank cash for several days. Note: your experience with Ally may be different; in our experience Ally just wanted to blame their third party card processor instead of actually fixing the problem.

Our main bank is Chase. When we travel in the Western US there are almost no Chase banks outside of major cities. We also have a Wells Fargo account. The WF account makes it easy to get cash on the road without having a limit or paying a fee.

Most of the time that is no big deal and there is little reason to visit an actual bank while traveling. Over the years there have been several exceptions.

While full time traveling my wife and I had all our credit cards and IDs stolen. We got new cards and cash at a local WF branch and they helped us with the logistics needed to get new driver's licences, etc.

Another time I got a substantial amount of cash to do some bargaining for native American jewelry.

Another time I had credit card issues. One card expired. One card had been in use for several years and became brittle and cracked in two. The third card failed because the issuer had a fraud alert issue and decided the card needed to be inactivated and replaced. Turns out I did not need cash but instead I went to a WF branch and picked up a debit card.

Another time I visited relatives and stayed in a local RV park for a couple of weeks. It was a small, private park that would not take cash or credit cards. I had to pay with a cashiers check. The WF branch across the street made that easy.

We utilize USAA. Don't need a stick and bricks location. Cash checks with a phone app and all ATM fees are reimbursed.

BofA has always travelled well with me except a cash advance needed in Russia some years ago. American express came through but they are not really a bank.

Chase I will avoid at almost any cost due to an agreement dispute. NYAG told them to stop the illegal fees but I had moved on before this got straitened out. Never again.

Wells Fargo has loaned me some money but they are not very organized to get it right the first time.

DD uses US Bank and I have some experience with them. I would go with them as an alternative to BofA.

The reason I created an account at BOA in the first place was that they have more ATMs in the areas that we travel than anyone else. But i use my local Credit Union to epay all the bills and use the BOA as a backup account if i run into a problem (which hasnt occurred).

Talk with your local bank- tell them what you want to do and get their insight. I bet theyll be very helpful. You can make most anything work as long as you can connect to the internet imo.

Been with BOA since the late 70's
NEVER a glitch/issue with any of my accounts

When we went FT...set up On Line Banking/Billing
Repeating billing was set up for Auto Pay
Life became so SIMPLE

Set up ALL ALERTS on Accounts/CC/Debit Etc
Within 10 minutes of ANY activity I get an Alert (text/email/phone---your choice)

Now back in S&B and never changed anything
SIMPLE.....


*Prior to going FT set up account with Wells Fargo
They screwed it all up!!
Ended up closing the account and having to wait over 2 weeks to get funds BACK
Wells Fargo....sucks!

jdc1 wrote:
B of A? Hahahahaha. Use US Bank. They were solvent enough to not need to be bailed out.

BoA didn't 't need the bailout - they took the money so that everyone was covered. They bought Merrill Lynch when it collapsed. Can find branches just about everywhere. 16+ yrs with them, never a problem with coverage. We have 2 CCs with them as well as a Chase and Discover Card, plus our Apple Card. Get and use the wallets on your smartphone, reduces a lot of hassle. Really essential to have extra credit cards because you can assume every once in a while one will be compromised. We even had one compromised when we went from Maine into Canada and the Maritimes. BOA froze it, we had other cards to use for fuel, etc., plus the BOA debit card worked at Scotia Bank for ATM withdrawals of cash. When we got back, we called BOA and told them we were in Bangor - next day went into the local BOA branch and our new card was waiting for us.

obgraham wrote:

navigator2346 wrote:
. We also carry a couple thousand in travelers checks plus a thousand in cash.

I'm curious: have you used those travelers checks any time recently?

The DW organizes group trips. Occasionally, she has someone insist they need travelers checks...it's a far bigger hassle trying to get them cashed than just hitting an ATM (if it's big dollar, usually people put it on a credit card). Usually, you have to go to a bank and actually go in and explain to a teller what you have.

We use our Credit Union. They have a page with participating Credit Unions where we can use the ATM free across the country. If we need a cashiers check or some other big withdrawal, we call them up and they give us a local credit union that can do it but that's maybe once a year...if that often.

Everything else is done online.

B of A? Hahahahaha. Use US Bank. They were solvent enough to not need to be bailed out.