USABancshares.com
Written: Jun 26 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Web Site Experience: |
 |
|
| Web Site Load Time: |
|
|
|
Pros: Mastercard debit-card, first $5 ATM fees reimbursed, pay your bills online, and earn interest.
Cons: $5.00 fee for balances under $300.00
The Bottom Line: As long as you have no problem with keeping a minimum of $300 in your account, this could be just what you are looking for.
|
|
|
| kelly60's Full Review: USABancshares.com |
I first opened my account with USABancshares.com in order to take advantage of the online bill payments and the Mastercard debit card they were offering. Since there were no fees associated with my account, I figured that I couldn't possibly lose with this type of an account.
Setting up the account was fairly easy. All you need is $1.00 to open your account, so I opened mine with $5.00 figuring that if I started small and there was a problem I wouldn't lose much this way.
When my debit card and the paperwork arrived, I was told that to activate my debit card, the first transaction needed to be done through an ATM machine. Since I didn't have the necessary $20 in my account though, I couldn't use it right away.
I sent a check from my Credit Union account to be deposited in the USABancshares.com account, and waited a few days for it to arrive. Approximately one week later, it was credited to my account. I attempted to withdraw the $20 in order to activate my account, but the ATM machine refused my attempts. I kept getting messages saying that I did not have sufficient funds in my account.
I did use one of my 50 free checks that came with the account though, just to be sure that I could actually gain access to my funds. I wrote a check for $5 of what I had in my account, and went about my business. It wasn't until later when I got a call from the store that I discovered that my check had bounced.
Upon calling customer service at USABancshares.com, I was informed that if I read the fine print I would have known that any funds deposited into the accounts of a new member were not available for at least 10 days from the date of the transaction. Since I was a new member, my funds were not yet available and would not be for a full 17 days after I originally sent the check to them.
Feeling rather foolish for not reading the fine print closer, I walked into the store and paid them the $5 for the check, plus an additional charge of $25 for their fee. Needless to say I was not happy about this, but I guess I learned my lesson from that experience. I didn't make that mistake again.
One thing I like about this service is that you can set up accounts and pay your bills online, saving you the time and effort of sending them out yourself. You can set the accounts up for a one time payment, or regularly scheduled payments. This is a convenient way to be certain that your bills get paid on time.
I set up payments for my electric and phone bills, my trash removal, and my rent payments. In the event that the funds are not in your account on the day the payment is scheduled, they will try again for a couple of days to see if the funds are there yet. I found this out when I sent my deposit to them and it hadn't arrived on time. My payments are scheduled a few days before they are actually due so the payment was still on time.
The interest you earn on your checking account is 2.50% which is a fair amount for a checking account. There are no fees for online bill payments, incoming wire transfers, telephone access, or wireless access. There is no monthly fee for accounts with a minimum average daily balance of $300, although they have begun charging $5.00 if your average balance drops below that amount. They even reimburse you for the first $5.00 of ATM fees each month.
Altogether, I have enjoyed my experiences with USABancshares.com, although you may do better elsewhere if you do not plan to keep the minimum $300 average daily balance in your account. If you do have the money to eliminate the monthly fee, this would be a good choice for you.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
kelly60
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Kelly
Location: Northern Michigan, USA
Reviews written: 364
Trusted by: 247 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.