4 ms·

My personal and business banking is done at Chase. I've found them to be fantastic and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very h

by aneth4 14y ago

My personal and business banking is done at Chase. I've found them to be fantastic and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees. I know everyone loves to bag on big banks, but Chase has been great. Bank of America is another story - their website barely works. That said, I highly recommend anyone with significant assets open a bank account in a foreign country where seizing assets is much more difficult. Keep a reasonable sum there and know how to transfer the rest quickly if you fear legal action.

gcb0 14y ago
> and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees shouldn't they not have useless fees to begin with?
- jmj42 14y ago
  I'm not sure the fees are _necessarily_ useless. Banking is a service, and services cost money to provide. I suppose an argument can be made that the fees are higher than they need to be, but then, banks aren't non-profit entities either. As for me, I've been a Chase customer since 2004 when they merged with Bank One, and a Bank One customer since 1990. I've tried a few local and regional banks, and brief stint with BOA as Bank One didn't have any branches in San Jose circa 2002. I've been quite happy with my Bank One/Chase experience to date. Far more than any other bank if tried.
  - gcb0 14y ago
    an uncle that worked too long on banks used to tell that when he started, he would be writing mainframes applications to calculate the 'cost' of a client for the bank. Basically, the bank would give the service as an investment to get the client money, and make money investing that money. At some point banks started to charge for services and nobody could live without banks anymore, so he was writing cliper86(?) scripts to discover the 'profit' of a new client.
- aneth4 14y ago
  They are not useless fees. They are how the bank generates revenue so it can at least break even on tiny accounts. Just the regulatory burden of an empty bank account is $100-$200/year, so they need a way to recover that. In general, if you do enough business, there is a way the bank can do that without charging fees, but you need to set your accounts up right.
ImprovedSilence 14y ago
Any recommended foreign banks?
derekja 14y ago
If you do this, PLEASE make sure that you are aware of current IRS regulations regarding foreign bank accounts. When I moved to Canada a few years ago this all got rather hairy and ensnarled. They keep introducing new requirements as well - my Canadian retirement savings account was re-classified as a foreign trust which necessitated additional filings. Good advice, but mind the details.
chris_wot 14y ago
Rather than repeat myself, I'll just link to the comment I made about the rules that relate to civil forfeiture and Interbank Accounts for non-U.S. financial institutions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215598 Beware!
- infinite8s 14y ago
  I think he was talking about keeping assets in a foreign location, not opening a domestic account in a foreign headquartered bank. Of course, you still have to report any foreign assets to the IRS if the total is greater than $10,000.
joe_the_user 14y ago
Yeah, It sounds like the "problem entity" is the state government of Massachusetts. Given the power the US government, as a whole, has arrogated to itself lately, one just shouldn't expect that having the letter of the law on your side will protect you in any meaningful way once the state decides it wants your stuff. Just staying out of its way may be the best policy if this is at all practical. I had a similarly insane bill from another state tax board and I count my lucky stars it never came to a full dispute. Fortunately all I had to do was call them and explain the situation. I wouldn't expect that would work for everyone.
dubfan 14y ago
managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees If their fee structure is so complex you need help from employees to get around it, they aren't "great".
- aneth4 14y ago
  Not so complex, but I prefer a helpful employee to reading through account brochures and figuring things out myself. Basically I just needed certain types of accounts that reflected the level of transactions I was doing, and to make sure my personal and business accounts were linked.
SeanLuke 14y ago
> My personal and business banking is done at Chase. I've found them to be fantastic and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees. I know everyone loves to bag on big banks, but Chase has been great. Bank of America is another story - their website barely works. Nice try, Jamie Dimon.

by aneth4 14y ago

gcb0 14y ago

> and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees shouldn't they not have useless fees to begin with?

jmj42 14y ago
I'm not sure the fees are _necessarily_ useless. Banking is a service, and services cost money to provide. I suppose an argument can be made that the fees are higher than they need to be, but then, banks aren't non-profit entities either. As for me, I've been a Chase customer since 2004 when they merged with Bank One, and a Bank One customer since 1990. I've tried a few local and regional banks, and brief stint with BOA as Bank One didn't have any branches in San Jose circa 2002. I've been quite happy with my Bank One/Chase experience to date. Far more than any other bank if tried.
- gcb0 14y ago
  an uncle that worked too long on banks used to tell that when he started, he would be writing mainframes applications to calculate the 'cost' of a client for the bank. Basically, the bank would give the service as an investment to get the client money, and make money investing that money. At some point banks started to charge for services and nobody could live without banks anymore, so he was writing cliper86(?) scripts to discover the 'profit' of a new client.
aneth4 14y ago
They are not useless fees. They are how the bank generates revenue so it can at least break even on tiny accounts. Just the regulatory burden of an empty bank account is $100-$200/year, so they need a way to recover that. In general, if you do enough business, there is a way the bank can do that without charging fees, but you need to set your accounts up right.

ImprovedSilence 14y ago

Any recommended foreign banks?

derekja 14y ago

If you do this, PLEASE make sure that you are aware of current IRS regulations regarding foreign bank accounts. When I moved to Canada a few years ago this all got rather hairy and ensnarled. They keep introducing new requirements as well - my Canadian retirement savings account was re-classified as a foreign trust which necessitated additional filings. Good advice, but mind the details.

chris_wot 14y ago

Rather than repeat myself, I'll just link to the comment I made about the rules that relate to civil forfeiture and Interbank Accounts for non-U.S. financial institutions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215598 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5215598 Beware!

infinite8s 14y ago
I think he was talking about keeping assets in a foreign location, not opening a domestic account in a foreign headquartered bank. Of course, you still have to report any foreign assets to the IRS if the total is greater than $10,000.

joe_the_user 14y ago

Yeah, It sounds like the "problem entity" is the state government of Massachusetts. Given the power the US government, as a whole, has arrogated to itself lately, one just shouldn't expect that having the letter of the law on your side will protect you in any meaningful way once the state decides it wants your stuff. Just staying out of its way may be the best policy if this is at all practical. I had a similarly insane bill from another state tax board and I count my lucky stars it never came to a full dispute. Fortunately all I had to do was call them and explain the situation. I wouldn't expect that would work for everyone.

dubfan 14y ago

managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees If their fee structure is so complex you need help from employees to get around it, they aren't "great".

aneth4 14y ago
Not so complex, but I prefer a helpful employee to reading through account brochures and figuring things out myself. Basically I just needed certain types of accounts that reflected the level of transactions I was doing, and to make sure my personal and business accounts were linked.

SeanLuke 14y ago

> My personal and business banking is done at Chase. I've found them to be fantastic and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees. I know everyone loves to bag on big banks, but Chase has been great. Bank of America is another story - their website barely works. Nice try, Jamie Dimon.