Looking for a good bank in the San Fran Bay Area
 

Anyone in the San Fran bay area recommend a good bank? I'm looking for a good bank that has atms all over and also has a good online banking system.

I like Bank of the West. The tellers know me and they don't charge nickel and dime me. They don't have ATMs all over the place though. For that you have to go to BofA or Wells Fargo. Both will hit you with enourmous fees for anything you try to do that's in the least bit unusual. My GF has WaMu and she seems to like it, but I don't know personally.

I have a WaMu account and my fleet account will soon be Bank of America. Great Western I believe is up north, but I can't speak of their online stuff same with WaMu.

Any of the large banks are probably your best bet for the moment until you can find a good home from the locals ;)

I second Bank of the West. Okay, they don't have ATMs everywhere, but there are enough; and in my area, they've put free-standing ATMs in towns where they don't actually have a branch.

Bank of the West is a consumer bank, which makes most of its money off small depositors, small investors, and small loans. So like Wax-off says, they don't try to nickel-and-dime you with fees, because that's not a way to make consumers happy. And if there's a problem of some sort, they don't automatically put all the blame on _you._ They try to work it out.

At any rate, after many years with Bank of America, I feel positively warm and fuzzy about Bank of the West. And yes, the online banking system is good.

Re: Looking for a good bank in the San Fran Bay Area
 

I can tell you in no uncertain terms to avoid Citi Bank. I've heard good things about Washington Mututal, and someday I'll probably get fed-up enough with Citi bank to migrate over to WaMu.