vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
I've had some time to investigate this and so I will answer my own question, as it may be of help to others. One of the first things to do is examine all bank statements, as this may reveal in-goings and out-goings from a previously unknown source. Secondly, get any mail redirected. Unfortunately, mail redirection is far from perfect in the UK but at least it increases one's chances of uncovering an unknown asset. Lastly, there is Landmark FAS who will do a search for a fee of around £175.
Banks, the big ones, have shareholders and the board to answer to.  Credit Unions have members and the board to answer to.  You become a member by joining a CU. Banks' prime objective is profit maximization, a credit union's prime objective is members' welfare.   Personal experience: I didn't mind that the banks charge fees, what was frustrating was keeping up with the policy changes.  Have X amount to avoid Y fees.  Once you fulfill that, do something else to avoid some other fees.  You miss one notice and you'll pay dearly!  This constant jumping of hoops was enough to switch. Not saying CUs don't change rules, but in my opinion, not as frequently as big banks.  On fee, for instance, my overdraft with my CU is $5.  With BofA it was something like $35 before regulations put a cap on such ridiculous fees.
All banks allow online banking. HSBC is reputed the most international traditional one.  That said, opening a bank account in a 100% online bank would get you to near 0 cost, and is probably the preferred option. Every online bank is very similar to each other, so I won't make any recommandation here. Exemples are ing-direct, boursorama, Fortuneo. I'm afraid none offer english service, and it might be difficult to get in line with a decent english speaker. All theses banks will likely offer a gold/premier mastercard/visa, so travelling will not be an issue. The fees should be <2% for foreign currencies (it vary slightly), and <3€ if you use the ATM in none euro ones.
"BoA used to do this too (probably still do). I opened an account at BoA and got low one month, and then a friend of mine cashed a $50 check that I'd given him months prior (that he said he would never cash because ""your money is no good here""). That freaking $50 check cost me hundreds of dollars. They charged me the overdraft fee, a bounced check fee, and then ran the fucking thing through again to see if it would cash when they knew it wouldn't, so I ended up with all the fees doubled!   I closed my account after that, and 2 months later, I got a notice that my account had a negative balance of more than $100 because they had charged me the monthly fee for the checking account after I closed it, and since the account was empty... buttfuckbybankapalooza."
Depending what country you are from, there may be better alternatives to transfer money internationally. Opening a bank account is complicated, costs money, and international bank transfers are remarkably expensive.
Of course you can. My assumption is you are/will be in UK. I am a student from outside the UK and I am about to start studying at a   UK university/college/school. How do I choose which bank is best for me? You should be able to open a ‘basic bank account’ with a number of different banks. A ‘basic bank account’ provides easy access to banking facilities for adults in the UK. Additionally, some banks offer a bank account tailored specifically for your needs as an international student. There is a table on pages 6 & 7 of this leaflet that has a list of basic accounts and other accounts that may be suitable along with brief descriptions of some of their features.   Most banks don’t ask you to pay in any money to open a basic account. You should look around to see which bank and account suit you best and then visit the local branch of the bank you have chosen. You may also be able to get other types of account, as detailed in the next section. Please speak to a bank Go through the source I have linked. It is a bit old, but has relevant information for you.  SOURCE
Check with a small local bank or credit union, they might offer better terms. That said, my local credit union still charges $6/month for a checking account if you don't have a direct deposit into it.
Shop around for a bank that offers lower/no fees for this operation and move your account there...  or, yes, change where the direct deposit is routed... or move these accounts into a single bank so it's an internal transfer rather than ACH. Or ask the bank whether there is another way to arrange this which doesn't cost you money. (It costs me nothing to move money within my credit union, whether manually or on a scheduled basis. It costs me nothing to have them send funds to another entity from my checking account. Specific example: Pay comes into my savings account. On the 27th, an automatic transfer moves the cost of a mortgage payment from savings to checking. On the 30th, an automatic payment sends that to my mortgage in another bank. No fees on any of this, 100% reliable.)
Wells Fargo.  They have an account called PMA, an umbrella account for checking, savings, mortgage, and brokerage accounts.  It would cost $30/month, but I never had to pay because I have a rollover retirement account that is enough to waive the fees.  They count all accounts, including mortgage, which I used to have.  Oh, and no restrictions.  An added advantage is there are no fees for any of the accounts, nor for some other things, like bank checks, outside ATM fees, etc.    I'm in California, so I don't know if the same deal exists in other states.  But if you qualify for the free account, it's pretty good.  Actually, most of my investments are Vanguard funds.  And I have another rollover account with Vanguard, and never pay fees, but I only buy or sell from one Vanguard fund to another, and rarely since I have targeted retirement funds that are designed to be no maintenance.  For some reason, I trust Vanguard more than most other funds; maybe because I like their philosophy on low-cost funds, which they started but are now getting more popular.
"This is unfortunately the truth, and I spend a lot of time with my clients trying to help them through this process.  One of the key metrics that banks judge themselves on is ""products per household.""  The more things you have attached to them, the less likely you are to leave, and they deliberately tie you in with more and more services, e.g. direct deposit, billpay, debit cards, credit cards, etc.  If you want to switch but are held back by the daunting task of all the stuff you need to do, it's easier than most people think, and bankers at those smaller banks who are getting your accounts should be more than happy to do about 80% of the work for you.  *The other 20% can only be done by you personally due to privacy laws, but your banker can guide you through that too.  A prime example:  A customer of mine wanted to switch, but he didn't want to go to the old bank to actually wait in line and go through with the nonsense of actually closing the account. I see that anxiety over confrontation a lot, by the way.  So I have saved on my desktop a form letter is a simple request by the customer to close their account at 2B2F bank.  They sign it, I notarize it, and send it off to the branch.  The branch of receipt has to close the account per the request.  Before we send that letter, we get everything set up with the new bank, draw the old one down to $10 or so, and give instructions to the old bank to remit a check payable to the customer and mail it to me.  Then the old account is closed, and I just deposit that nominal amount into the customer's account.  The customer literally never has to set foot in the old bank again.   The unfortunate thing is that not everyone knows that these kinds of things are even possible: that your banker should help you with this stuff, or that you can do pretty much everything remotely.  Plus, if you look at the smaller banks and CUs these days, they have eliminated the need or ubiquity (i.e. ""but their ATMs are everywhere!"") because a good bank or CU will never allow you to get charged to get your money, they will give you the direct line and email address of your branch manager, and a lot of places have mobile apps that allow you to deposit checks remotely."
I'd worry about being robbed or losing the money en-route. Is it likely? Probably not. But wow, I wouldn't want to lose serious money in one shot. I have fond memories of the time I was serving as treasurer for a non-profit organization and I was taking $30,000 in contributions to the bank. As I walked across the parking lot with all that money in my brief case, I thought, I would really hate to be robbed right now. When I've moved long distances in the past, I've simply written myself a check from my old account and then deposited that amount to my new account. These days I presume I'd do an electronic transfer. I live in the US so I don't know what the conventions are in Europe, but around here, 5% would be an outrageous fee. I once paid $20 for an electronic transfer of around $3,000, and I considered that an excessive fee. I can understand the bank charging a few bucks, but. I'd check around if there are not other banks with more reasonable fees.
"In answering your question as it's written: I don't think you're really ""missing"" something. Different banks offer different rates. Online banks, or eBanking solutions, such as CapitalOne, Ally, Barclays, etc., typically offer higher interest rates on basic savings accounts.  There are differences between Money Market accounts and Standard Savings accounts, but primarily it comes down to how you can access your cash. This may vary based on bank, but Ally has a decent blurb about it: Regular savings accounts are easy to open and, when you choose an   online bank like Ally Bank, you tend to get interest rates that are   more competitive than brick-and-mortar counterparts, according to   Bankrate.com. Additionally, as a member of the FDIC, Ally Bank gives   you peace of mind knowing that the money in your Ally Bank Online   Savings Account is insured to the maximum allowed by the law.  Money market accounts are easy to open, too. And again, online banks may   offer better rates than traditional banks. Generally, you have a bit   more flexibility of access with a money market account than you do   with a savings account. You can access funds in your Ally Bank Money   Market Account through electronic fund transfers, checks, debit cards   and ATM withdrawals. With savings accounts, your access is limited to   electronic funds transfers or telephone withdrawals (and in-person   withdrawals at traditional banks). Both types of accounts are subject   to federal transaction limits. Here's a bit more information about a Money Market Account and why the rate might be a little bit higher (from thesimpledollar.com): A money market deposit account is a bit different. The restrictions on   what a bank can do with that money are somewhat looser – they can   often invest that money in things such as treasury notes, certificates   of deposit, municipal bonds, and so on in addition to the tight   restrictions of a normal savings accounts. In other words, the bank   can take your money and invest it in other investments that are very   safe. Now outside of your question, if you have $100K that you want to earn interest on, I'd suggest looking at options with higher rates of return rather than a basic savings account which will top out around 1% or so. What you do with that money is dependent on how quickly you need access to it, and there are a lot of Q&A's on this site that cover suggestions."
Why not yet phone up the old bank, or log onto the internet banking and do a transfer to the new account.    You may first need to transfer from the saving account to a current account with the same bank.  (I have never had a problem doing this, but I do live in the UK)
Banks work pretty hard to make themselves a big part of your life with bill pay, auto-deposit, loans and other services.  You need to carefully unwind each one and be on the lookout for fees.  If you close a savings account, will your checking account suddenly have fees?  If you stop auto deposit, will there suddenly be a fee? Do you have a business that deposits money?  A Google Ad sense account?  PayPal or the equivalent?  These all might be tied to your bank accounts. Wait a couple of months, leaving enough cash in the old back to prevent fees if possible.  If two months go by and there isn't any activity on the account, you can probably close it. After you are sure all the written checks have cleared, go to the back and get a counter check for the balance of the account.   You could alternately just write yourself one more check for the remaining balance and call the bank to close the account.  You could electronically transfer the funds if you wanted too.  HOWEVER, it is important to be careful of the timing, the last thing you want to do is write a check or transfer the money after the account is closed. (per Dilip Sarwate) If you do the check and phone call thing, make sure you do it in a short enough period of time that you don't incur a fee. Having and closing regular bank accounts won't have any tax implications in the US.
First, if you live in/around a reasonably populated urban area, and you're in the United States, I can't see why you would choose to bank with Chase, B of A, or another large commercial bank. I think you would be much better served by banking at a reasonably large credit union. There are many differences between banks and credit unions, but in a nutshell, credit unions are owned by the members, and operate primarily to provide benefits to their members, whereas a bank is owned by the shareholders, and operates primarily to make profits for the shareholders (not to benefit the customers). The banking industry absolutely hates the credit unions, so if you've ever been nickeled-and-dimed with this fee and that charge by your bank, I have to ask why you're still banking with a company that irritates you and/or actively tries to screw you out of your money? I live in California, and I've banked at credit unions almost exclusively since I started working nearly 30 years ago. Every time I've strayed and started banking at a for-profit bank, I've regretted it. For example, a few years ago I opened a checking account at a now-defunct bank (WaMu) just for online use: eBay and so forth. It was a free checking account. When Chase bought WaMu, the account became a Chase account, and it seemed that every other statement brought new fees, new restrictions, and so forth. I finally closed it when they imposed some stupid fee for not carrying enough of a balance. I found out by logging in to their Web site and seeing a balance of zero dollars; they had imposed the fee a few statements back, and I had missed it, so they kept debiting my account until it was empty. At this point, I do about 90% of my banking at a fairly large credit union. I have a mortgage with a big bank, but that was out of my hands, as the lender/originator sold the mortgage and I had no say in the matter.
I'd say it's a limitation of your bank. Every bank I've ever used had instant transfers between accounts at the same bank.
Mainly because they can.  Yes, there is a cost for banks to execute such transactions, and yes, there is a cost to cover the implied risks, but it is far from 3 or 4%. There are banks that charge a flat rate of less than 30$ (and no percentage), so for larger amounts, it is worth shopping around. Note that for smaller amounts, which are the majority of personal transactions, that is probably about as, if not more expensive, than paying 3% - below 1000$, 3% is less than 30$. So charging a percentage is actually better for people that want to transfer smaller amounts.
The Livret A is a very specific product. It's tax-exempt and would historically not be available through regular banks. Commercial banks can now offer it but they only collect the money on behalf of the Caisse des dépôts (CDC). The CDC then pays interest to the savers and a commission for the bank. The commission is baked into the system, not charged to the customer directly but since the interest rate is set centrally, banks cannot compete on that. So this is risk-free money for them (but on the flip side it does not help them meet capital adequacy requirements). Other savings account or products have different rules. Another angle to consider is that a livret A was historically very attractive for consumers (and was certainly perceived as such) so that many people would have a checking account at a regular bank and another account at the Caisse d'épargne or the Banque postale just to open a livret A. For commercial banks, the alternative therefore isn't having your money on your checking account vs. your livret A or another savings account, it was having your money on a livret A they administer vs. seeing you run away to another institution. There is also a cap on the livret A and you're not allowed to save more money by opening several of them at different banks. At the same time banks have been complaining that the decrease of the interest rate (and consequently of their commission) makes the whole scheme a lot less interesting for them. For what it's worth, I recently (re)opened a bank account in France after living abroad for a long time and the customer advisor did not seem particularly interested in pushing a livret A.
I would strongly suggest you select an answer: all the above two cover everything I can possibly recommend, but perhaps my perspective as a person who was exactly in your shoes a year ago might appeal to you more. My first bank was Chase, and they usually give out a free checking account to students that come with leaves of 100 checks. Unfortunately, I was 24 at that time, and the max possible age to qualify was 23 or 21. Paying $25 for any number of checks was a big deal for me as I had no job, and transportation and rent was costing me $1k/month anyways. I came here and asked questions: lots of them. MrChrister, God bless his soul, recommended credit unions to me. I never knew they existed. A year later, I am a proud member of 3 CUs: I recommend Alliant, DCU and SchoolsFirst: I am their member and very proud of it!
"I've looked around for a while and found one at Broadway Federal Bank. I opened one up last year and will most likely be renewing it if the rates stay fairly competitive. Here are the features: I think it's a great alternative to a savings account because the ability to withdraw at any time defeats the purpose of ""saving"". By getting penalized to withdraw with this CD, you are discouraged from withdrawing and hence, actually save. The biggest downside is that they are a fairly small community bank and only have branches in Los Angeles. They also only have three branches in total and do not have ATM's that you can make deposits into aside from the ones outside of their branches.However, you can open an account online and and make electronic deposits. Hope this helps.I included their website below. www.broadwayfederalbank.com"
I'd like to take a moment to point out:  I cannot find a bank that charges customers with a checking account fees for withdrawing from an atm owned by that same bank. It is a cornerstone of most banks now to encourage online and atm banking. You should definitely research the validity of the claim that you're associate cannot withdraw from their own account through their own bank's atm without fees. A second scenario I can think of, is that this person uses a bank that does not operate in your region.  Then they cannot find an atm owned by their bank.  If this is the case, they should simply go to the bank the check is drawn on, and cash it there.  So far I only know of Chase bank charging non-Chase customers to cash a check drawn on a Chase account (this is a crap policy that makes me hate that bank). **disclaimer - I am not familiar with all banks, but a quick Google search of banks that operate in your region should reveal which ones if any charge their customers for use of their atms.  you may or may not find the check cashing charge policy without attempting to cash the check.
As long as your bank does not have any limits on the number of transactions per month you should be fine. The danger would be theft while you had the money before depositing into the new account. I would expect that your new credit union could do a wire transfer for you. It might cost you a few dollars but it would be safer and probably faster.
I'm looking for another one right now. Here's what I've found: Los Alamos National Bank (www.lanb.com) has tokens ($5?), but I think they only open accounts for New Mexico residents. I've had one for several years. USAA Savings Bank (usaa.com) has tokens ($5 or free, I don't remember). I'm pretty sure you do NOT need to be a USAA member to open an account. I've had one for a couple of years. Several banks (Frost Bank, American National Bank of Texas, Amegy Bank, and probably many, many more) offer them as part of their Treasury Management accounts, meant for big businesses and charged for accordingly. Happy State Bank (in, where else, Happy, Texas) has a web page saying they have them but their services charges were more than I wanted to pay. ClearSky Bank (an Internet bank started by Chesapeake Bank) claims on their web page to have them but I haven't verified that yet. Still looking...
I work at a large bank, that isn't too unusual although a lot of banks are moving to fee-free basic accounts and upping their fees on other specific transactions. For example, my bank did away with minimum balance requirements to waive a monthly service fee, but we started charging $2/month for paper statements and upped our out-of-network ATM fee by 50 cents.  Would like to point out that most financial institutions will reorder your transactions slightly for the purposes of accounting. It is much easier to run all transactions in big batches at the end of the day than individually as they come in. Required disclosures you receive upon account opening explain the exact order but most banks do all credits (money in) first and then debits (money out) like checks, debit cards, and ACH payments after. If you overdraft you can usually avoid a fee if you make a cash deposit before the end of the business day as the cash will go into your account before your purchases are debited.  OCCASIONALLY this accounting-based reordering will result in additional fees but that is not the intended purpose of reordering them. And I would always refund any incurred fees that happened due to accounting-based transaction reordering.   What Wells Fargo is doing has been illegal since 2008 and their continued appeals are hoping to get the ruling overturned so they won't have to pay out restitution to affected customers. It's frankly despicable.
The other answers in this thread do a fine job of explaining the economic situation that banks are in. In addition to that information, I would like to point out that it is not hard to avoid a monthly fee for Canadian bank accounts. Usually this involves keeping a minimum balance of a few thousand dollars at all times. Actual examples (as of Dec 2016) for the lowest tier chequing accounts. Includes information on the minimum balance to waive the monthly fee, and the monthly fee otherwise:
I think you wrong about this. There are two problems I see with your example.  * When you created something which costs $150 you have increased the amount of money in the world from $200 to $450 because money is the storage of value.  * After the first transaction you have said that you have $250, which presumably means the money in the bank. However, at a later point when you go to the bank demanding $500 you only consider physical notes to be money. The bank at this point could give you a check book and if you wanted to spend it would simple credit the other person $500 and remove that amount from your account. In addition, the bank could always repossess the items you have sold to the other person and give them to you in lieu of physical money.