Return-Path: Received: from exxon-valdez.ft.cs.cmu.edu by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa00687; 6 Sep 91 14:03:49 EDT From: Christopher Maeda Date: Fri, 6 Sep 91 14:02:55 EDT To: bb-general@CS.CMU.EDU cc: bovik@CS.CMU.EDU Subject: local banks Reply-to: cmaeda@cs.cmu.edu Believe it or not, I've been banking at Mellon for over a year now and don't mind it at all. They have a fairly competent bank-by-phone center open until 11pm on weekdays. Free checking with electronic deposit and Mac cards that work in the Cirrus network (this was actually what made me go with Mellon). You should probably know that I consider the piddly rates for interest-bearing checking to be nothing but an accounting hassle and keep the bulk of my cash in so-called money-market mutual funds. Another plus about Mellon - their recent downslide seems to have made them eager to extend unsecured credit lines (provided you have a clean credit history). These are good for paying off credit card balances (if you have them) since the rates are much lower than credit card rates or for emergencies. To sum up, Mellon has been bureaucratic but competent. Dollar Bank also has no minimum balance free checking. You pay for check printing but that's it. Dollar is an S&L (oops, Federal Savings Bank) but very solvent when last I checked (they have corporate reports for the asking, at least at some branches). They also have pretty white MAC cards; everyone else's seems to be blue or green :-). -Chris