4 ms·

I am so done with this bank. Does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement?

by o0-0o 4y ago

gnicholas 4y ago
What is left of "this bank" if it is owned by another bank? My understanding is that the shareholders were wiped out and the senior management will be different. I am not at SVB but was considering whether it might make sense to have a second account there, for FDIC-spreading purposes. I have the same knee-jerk reaction as many people, but on second thought I wonder if this is irrational.
- thedougd 4y ago
  Looking at this transaction, I don’t expect the SVB employees to keep their jobs with the exception of those who staff the branches. You’re already at a new bank.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
CalChris 4y ago
https://mercury.com https://mercury.com
- bushbaba 4y ago
  Why shouldn’t I use this for personal banking. Sounds great
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    > Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust®; Members FDIC.
  - SebRollen 4y ago
    Betterment's Cash Reserve[1] might be of interest to you. It's a similar concept, where they spread your deposits among multiple program banks to give you a higher level of FDIC insurance. [1]: https://www.betterment.com/cash-reserve https://www.betterment.com/cash-reserve
- udevrandom 4y ago
  I was* a Mercury customer for >1 year, and their product really is excellent. It behaves reliably, has good features. After SVB they enhanced their existing deposit insurance to spread your money across more bank accounts, giving you effectively $5MM of insured deposit coverage. Setup was a snap with them too. Generally, if Stripe etc claimed the money was on the way, Mercury's app already saw the funds and made them available by the time I received the Stripe email. Underneath the hood its Evolve Bank and Trust (or at least my bank account was).. Mercury is merely the smart software layer on top of the actual bank account they open on your behalf behind the scenes. * The only slight negative is that they did terminate my account last week - they immediately suspended all in/out transactions with no warning, and said they'd either wire or cut me a check to get my balance out in a few weeks. I think it's because I asked their support a question about bringing one of our other much larger businesses across and so asked some ACH related questions which probably spooked them due to lack of understanding. I'd use them again quite happily in other businesses though.. just be mindful if they do shut you down you might find yourself unbanked for a period of time... and the wire to get your funds out if they suspend you requires manual approval by someone in Mercury Compliance. The account in question is a SaaS for Franchisor Operations and Franchise Compliance, so we're usually considered quite low risk.. I regret losing my Mercury account, as the alternative (RelayFi) is 'good' but not as good unfortunately.
  - exhibitapp 4y ago
    I wouldn't call this a slight negative
    - blitzar 4y ago
      Sounds like at least a medium sized negative to me.
  - jlangenauer 4y ago
    What the hell? This isn't a slight negative, it's a compelling reason to avoid them completely. A low-risk SaaS business has their account terminated for no reason at all? Good lord, that's not what you want in a bank.
  - 4y ago
arynda 4y ago
If you want an actual startup-oriented bank that has their shit together (e.g. they employ sweep accounts and by default you have $5M of FDIC insurance), mercury.com has been excellent. Great tech, great UI/UX, great app, transfers are free (ach, check, domestic and intl wires), instant virtual cards, physical if you need it, finely-grained spending limits, etc. They're awesome.
- kasey_junk 4y ago
  Worth noting mercury is not a bank. They are a tech partner that primarily banks with Evolve. That shouldn’t dissuade anyone from using them and I have no experience or opinions whatsoever about them. Just mercury isn’t a bank.
nostromo 4y ago
Just pick a too big to fail bank and keep your personal deposits under 250k per account. So, Chase, Citi, BofA.
- toast0 4y ago
  If your deposits are below the insurance limit, there's no need to deal with a too big to fail bank. Better to go somewhere where interest and service are available.
  - throwing_away 4y ago
    There is because people couldn't get access to their money while they were sorting it out.
    - notch898a 4y ago
      It wouldn't surprise me if FDIC can act quicker in taking over a small bank than a large one, though.
    - sitic 4y ago
      "Historically, the FDIC pays insurance within a few days after a bank closing, usually the next business day, by either 1) providing each depositor with a new account at another insured bank in an amount equal to the insured balance of their account at the failed bank, or 2) issuing a check to each depositor for the insured balance of their account at the failed bank." https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/faq/ https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/faq/
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    I do my day to day banking with a too big fail bank. The service is excellent.
    - fifticon 4y ago
      And I wonder if this excellent service will continue, once there are only 3 banks left.
gen220 4y ago
A notable option might be one of the many Massachusetts banks affiliated with the DIF, that have unlimited deposit insurance beyond the $250k FDIC limit [1]. Curious to hear if anybody else has gone this route, and what your experience has been. [1]: https://www.difxs.com/DIF/DIFMemberBanks.aspx https://www.difxs.com/DIF/DIFMemberBanks.aspx
- bushbaba 4y ago
  Dif has just 500 million in assets according to their faq. That’s not enough to prevent a SVB magnitude event
codetrotter 4y ago
Stop having lots of money in bank accounts. Place the money in other forms of assets.
- herpderperator 4y ago
  Take a look at what happened to SVB when they did that.
  - WJW 4y ago
    How would you be subject to a bank run as an individual? Do you hold deposits for others that they can withdraw at any moment?
    - Sargos 4y ago
      > Do you hold deposits for others that they can withdraw at any moment? Yes you do actually. There are many withdrawal events such as taxes, medical expenses, vehicle repair, and others that you need to provide liquidity for in short notice. If your funds are locked into treasuries or other assets that have a low current value relative to their final worth like SVB then you will have to sell them at a loss which might ruin you financially. Unfortunately there's no FDIC for individuals.
      - WJW 4y ago
        > there's no FDIC for individuals. Yes there is, it is called "insurance" and is readily available from a variety of providers. It is meant precisely to turn unexpected high cost expenses into more predictable expenses over time.
      - anotherman554 4y ago
        "If your funds are locked into treasuries or other assets that have a low current value relative..." That's why it's a good idea to pay attention to the term of the bond. You can buy short term treasury funds with yield to maturity of around 30 days. These aren't capable of having low current value compared to final worth. You can also save a little extra money and be capable of taking the risk of a longer term.
nathias 4y ago
bitcoin
- qwytw 4y ago
  Copper futures
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
balderdash 4y ago
If you have more than $250k use a brokerage account, with linked checking account. And hold a simple laddered t-bill portfolio in the brokerage account, you get the $250k fdic insurance on the bank account portion, the sipc on the brokerage portion + excess of sipc insurance coverage (you have to research this, but should cover all but the biggest institutions) + asset segregation (you ostensibly own the bonds and they should not be co mingled). E*trade example below https://us.etrade.com/l/f/asset-protection https://us.etrade.com/l/f/asset-protection

I am so done with this bank. Does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement?

by o0-0o 4y ago

I am so done with this bank. Does anyone have a recommendation for a replacement?

What is left of "this bank" if it is owned by another bank? My understanding is that the shareholders were wiped out and the senior management will be different. I am not at SVB but was considering whether it might make sense to have a second account there, for FDIC-spreading purposes. I have the same knee-jerk reaction as many people, but on second thought I wonder if this is irrational.

thedougd 4y ago
Looking at this transaction, I don’t expect the SVB employees to keep their jobs with the exception of those who staff the branches. You’re already at a new bank.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

CalChris 4y ago

https://mercury.com https://mercury.com

bushbaba 4y ago
Why shouldn’t I use this for personal banking. Sounds great
- shapefrog 4y ago
  > Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust®; Members FDIC.
- SebRollen 4y ago
  Betterment's Cash Reserve[1] might be of interest to you. It's a similar concept, where they spread your deposits among multiple program banks to give you a higher level of FDIC insurance. [1]: https://www.betterment.com/cash-reserve https://www.betterment.com/cash-reserve
udevrandom 4y ago
I was* a Mercury customer for >1 year, and their product really is excellent. It behaves reliably, has good features. After SVB they enhanced their existing deposit insurance to spread your money across more bank accounts, giving you effectively $5MM of insured deposit coverage. Setup was a snap with them too. Generally, if Stripe etc claimed the money was on the way, Mercury's app already saw the funds and made them available by the time I received the Stripe email. Underneath the hood its Evolve Bank and Trust (or at least my bank account was).. Mercury is merely the smart software layer on top of the actual bank account they open on your behalf behind the scenes. * The only slight negative is that they did terminate my account last week - they immediately suspended all in/out transactions with no warning, and said they'd either wire or cut me a check to get my balance out in a few weeks. I think it's because I asked their support a question about bringing one of our other much larger businesses across and so asked some ACH related questions which probably spooked them due to lack of understanding. I'd use them again quite happily in other businesses though.. just be mindful if they do shut you down you might find yourself unbanked for a period of time... and the wire to get your funds out if they suspend you requires manual approval by someone in Mercury Compliance. The account in question is a SaaS for Franchisor Operations and Franchise Compliance, so we're usually considered quite low risk.. I regret losing my Mercury account, as the alternative (RelayFi) is 'good' but not as good unfortunately.
- exhibitapp 4y ago
  I wouldn't call this a slight negative
  - blitzar 4y ago
    Sounds like at least a medium sized negative to me.
- jlangenauer 4y ago
  What the hell? This isn't a slight negative, it's a compelling reason to avoid them completely. A low-risk SaaS business has their account terminated for no reason at all? Good lord, that's not what you want in a bank.
- 4y ago

arynda 4y ago

If you want an actual startup-oriented bank that has their shit together (e.g. they employ sweep accounts and by default you have $5M of FDIC insurance), mercury.com has been excellent. Great tech, great UI/UX, great app, transfers are free (ach, check, domestic and intl wires), instant virtual cards, physical if you need it, finely-grained spending limits, etc. They're awesome.

kasey_junk 4y ago
Worth noting mercury is not a bank. They are a tech partner that primarily banks with Evolve. That shouldn’t dissuade anyone from using them and I have no experience or opinions whatsoever about them. Just mercury isn’t a bank.

nostromo 4y ago

Just pick a too big to fail bank and keep your personal deposits under 250k per account. So, Chase, Citi, BofA.

toast0 4y ago
If your deposits are below the insurance limit, there's no need to deal with a too big to fail bank. Better to go somewhere where interest and service are available.
- throwing_away 4y ago
  There is because people couldn't get access to their money while they were sorting it out.
  - notch898a 4y ago
    It wouldn't surprise me if FDIC can act quicker in taking over a small bank than a large one, though.
  - sitic 4y ago
    "Historically, the FDIC pays insurance within a few days after a bank closing, usually the next business day, by either 1) providing each depositor with a new account at another insured bank in an amount equal to the insured balance of their account at the failed bank, or 2) issuing a check to each depositor for the insured balance of their account at the failed bank." https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/faq/ https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/faq/
- shapefrog 4y ago
  I do my day to day banking with a too big fail bank. The service is excellent.
  - fifticon 4y ago
    And I wonder if this excellent service will continue, once there are only 3 banks left.

gen220 4y ago

A notable option might be one of the many Massachusetts banks affiliated with the DIF, that have unlimited deposit insurance beyond the $250k FDIC limit [1]. Curious to hear if anybody else has gone this route, and what your experience has been. [1]: https://www.difxs.com/DIF/DIFMemberBanks.aspx https://www.difxs.com/DIF/DIFMemberBanks.aspx

bushbaba 4y ago
Dif has just 500 million in assets according to their faq. That’s not enough to prevent a SVB magnitude event

codetrotter 4y ago

Stop having lots of money in bank accounts. Place the money in other forms of assets.

herpderperator 4y ago
Take a look at what happened to SVB when they did that.
- WJW 4y ago
  How would you be subject to a bank run as an individual? Do you hold deposits for others that they can withdraw at any moment?
  - Sargos 4y ago
    > Do you hold deposits for others that they can withdraw at any moment? Yes you do actually. There are many withdrawal events such as taxes, medical expenses, vehicle repair, and others that you need to provide liquidity for in short notice. If your funds are locked into treasuries or other assets that have a low current value relative to their final worth like SVB then you will have to sell them at a loss which might ruin you financially. Unfortunately there's no FDIC for individuals.
    - WJW 4y ago
      > there's no FDIC for individuals. Yes there is, it is called "insurance" and is readily available from a variety of providers. It is meant precisely to turn unexpected high cost expenses into more predictable expenses over time.
    - anotherman554 4y ago
      "If your funds are locked into treasuries or other assets that have a low current value relative..." That's why it's a good idea to pay attention to the term of the bond. You can buy short term treasury funds with yield to maturity of around 30 days. These aren't capable of having low current value compared to final worth. You can also save a little extra money and be capable of taking the risk of a longer term.

nathias 4y ago

bitcoin

qwytw 4y ago
Copper futures

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

balderdash 4y ago

If you have more than $250k use a brokerage account, with linked checking account. And hold a simple laddered t-bill portfolio in the brokerage account, you get the $250k fdic insurance on the bank account portion, the sipc on the brokerage portion + excess of sipc insurance coverage (you have to research this, but should cover all but the biggest institutions) + asset segregation (you ostensibly own the bonds and they should not be co mingled). E*trade example below https://us.etrade.com/l/f/asset-protection https://us.etrade.com/l/f/asset-protection