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Comment by greghinch | Hacker News Reader

No overdraft fees I guess is a good offer if you run into that a lot. Personally I much prefer Schwab's offer: no ATM fees, worldwide. I don't often (I think ever actually) find myself over-drafting my account. I do often find myself needing to withdraw cash, and in a wide variety of locations. It's nice to not have to worry about the $2-4 most charge, and even better when traveling internationally.

Go looks to have pretty good ATM coverage, but you can't beat no fee at EVERY ATM.

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In addition to the no ATM fee awesomeness, I want to add that my experiences with Schwab's customer service have always been great.

There was an issue with the web form when I was signing up for the account, and I wrote it off thinking I'd do it later. The next day they had someone leave me a voicemail with his direct number, and he finished the registration when I called him back. Nice.

And from issues with international money transfers to stolen cards to airline screw ups, I've always been able to get a real person on the line, and they've always been very helpful.

Never thought that I'd be this happy with a bank.

USAA has the same policy, too. They refund your ATM fees paid to /other/ banks, up to $15 a month.

Yea a friend was telling me about that. Schwab doesn't impose a limit (that I know of, I've max gone into the $30 range in fees in a month). Schwab also covers international fees, which I believe USAA does not.

I do think USAA is a great org as well, and if you need loans they seem to have some of the best rates, but for my needs Schwab works better

Unfortunately USAA limits mobile deposits to full members. That makes it tough to use as a checking account.

FWIW, my Schwab account has no overdraft fees, though of course I have to pay interest on any money I use from the overdraft account.

I'm having trouble accessing the GoBank site at the moment (might be my computer), but I can't see why I would prefer it to my Schwab account.

  No monthly fees
  International and domestic ATM fee rebates
  ATM card has no foreign transaction fee
  Mobile app for deposits
  Overdraft account (no overdraft fee)

Are there any special conditions needed to have a schwab checking account - or can anyone just sign up for one?

The only condition is that you have to open a brokerage account along with it (also free). You didn't even have to fund either account.

You need to be a permanent resident of the US.

http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking... has all the details.

I've personally been very happy with Schwab.

What sucks about ATM fees is when you get a ten-car pile-up. It's happened to me once or twice. Something big clears and then ten more little things clear and you get ten fees. My bank was pretty nice and reduced it to two fees last time it happened.

Reasonable banks just offer you a small line of credit. Then those 10 overdrafts cost you about $0.15.

I don't think there are very many reasonable banks in the U.S. though.

I've never been anything but pleased with Schwab. Their service over the phone is better than I've got from most banks in person.

Have similar from Fidelity. It's awesome!

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