I recently switched banks. I went from Wells Fargo, who I had been with since 2002, to State Farm Bank. Let me guess, you probably didn’t know State Farm even had a bank? The reason why I left Wells Fargo? Fees! Their fees are outrageous! I had two checking accounts with Wells Fargo and after so many years I couldn’t keep track of which bills were coming out of which checking account. The simple solution would have been to close one checking account, which I tried to do. My bank representative convinced me to keep the second account, and the problems continued. I will say this about Wells Fargo, they are good about working on the fees with you! Every time I was zapped with an overdraft fee, I always e-mailed or called them and 70% of the time, they would waive one of the fees or meet me half way. On top of overdraft fees, I would get zapped $2.50 if I didn’t use a Wells Fargo ATM. Example, say I’m at the gas station and need to pull out $20, the typical ATM fee is $2-$3. I’m OK with that. After that, Wells Fargo charges another $2.50! So I end up paying around $5 to pull out a $20 bill! After all these years with Wells Fargo, I was eventually ready to part ways with them.

I can honestly say, I am much happier with State Farm! To start off, I only have one checking account with them. I will not make that mistake again. Secondly, their overdraft fees are cheaper by $10! Not that I am overdrafting anymore, but this use to be an issue for me. Here are the things I’m most excited about with State Farm Bank:

• UNLIMITED ATM reimbursements. What this means, is no matter how many ATM’s I stop at, State Farm Bank will give me back all those fees. I no longer have to pay any money to pull out cash!
• Deposit checks with my Android smartphone. Who likes running to the bank and waiting in line to deposit a check? Not me! I can now take my Android smartphone, endorse the check, take a picture of the front and back of the check, and the money deposits into my account! Don’t worry iPhone fanboys, State Farm as an iPhone app too.
• I can also scan a check in with my scanner and deposit the check via their website too.
• Higher interest on my checking account.

A little bit of advice if you’re thinking about switching banks, it can be a long and tedious process. It took me also 2-3 weeks to switch banks. I had to stop and think about all my bills that come out automatically, write them down, and eventually switch them over to State Farm Bank. I also had to update my direct deposit at work. Then, I eventually had to make the trip into Wells Fargo and sit down with a banker who tried to convince me to stay.

I’ve provided State Farm Banks link in the first sentence of this paragraph. Feel free to check them out! So far I give them an A rating. Wells Fargo, C rating.