General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Should Ally Bank Penalize Me for 6 Months over a $1.63 Mistake? [View all]rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)from a consumer perspective. The question is whether ownership and regulatory differences make them better in an objective sense, presumably by removing the profit motive and adversarial relations between institution and customer. Both enjoy a broad monopoly on consumer financial services in exchange for supposedly tight regulation as a public good.
As you say there are good and bad credit unions. They can be ideal for many consumers. But for many they are not the only rational choice. The idea that if consumers just knew about credit unions the banks would be in trouble is not realistic in practice. Consumers choose banks for reasons other than inertia.
I live where I could join several credit unions, including my employers'. Instead I have accounts with three commercial banks for different purposes. I'm not dumb. It's my money. I did a cost/benefit analysis.
Anyway my daily retail bank in NYC has been TD for years. I travel a lot and have various needs they meet much more cheaply and efficiently than the other major retail bank where I keep a backup account, again for specific reasons.
The idea of using an online only bank for a primary daily account strikes me as hardly worth a few fees or a few basis points of interest in this interest rate environment with low inflation. Banking is a service. One way or the other you pay for it. There are many options.
OP: your power over Ally is to tell them you're closing your account and then do it if they don't charge back the fees you say are unfair. They have no power over you greater than your power of walkking away. It's a competitive industry. Use real cost numbers. Banking costs money. Get what you pay for.
If you do, and want a regular working-class and decidedly customer-friendly attitude, all-over NYC (and many other areas) bank with great hours and a pet friendly policy and lollipops for the kids, that has never once screwed me over in years now (I routinely need to do international interbank transfers, for goddess' sake) and is backed by a Canadian company (important to me also for various reasons), I recommend giving TD a look.