Traveling and Banking

Ally.com

This has proven to be the best bank I can find for vagabonds, travelrs, gypsies, RV-ers, boaters etc. I had to call them today, my wait time was two seconds. Anytime I have called them, someone answers right away, helps me out efficiently and I am on my way again.

Amazing!

In my case, I spazzed out on typing my password getting it wrong more than once, so they blocked access to my account. A quick phone call at 7am and within 3 minutes, I was back online again. I decided I should perhaps mention this bank since many fulltime and parttime travelers read this blog.

Ally.com does not have any physical branches you can walk into. THey are strictly an online bank. But they offer free checking, interest on your balance, free bill paying and free ATM  usage. They have no monthly fees and no minimums.

They accomplish the free ATM usage by allowing the customer to use any ATM for withdrawing cash, paying the fee the machine requires, then once a month all those fees are reimbursed via a deposit to your checking account.

Like most all modern day checking accounts, they allow direct deposits. You can also use a scanner to make a deposit from your desk without even going to the mailbox. You can trasnfer money to and from Ally with other bank accounts.

They have a host of other benefits I am not covering here, but if you want hassle free banking with no service charges and be able to travel the USA finding cash machines, then Ally.com banking might be the perfect solution for you.

I have been using this bank about 3 years and have only wonderful things to say about them.

In this day and age, it pays to have 2 or more checking accounts, especially if you use debit cards. It's like having a backup in case your computer crashes.

One should be your primary checking account and the other your backup account. Use checks, transfers and debit card on the primary account but set up the backup account to have a debit card you keep at home and not in your wallet. If you believe someone has your debit information on the primary account, you can immediately transfer all remaining funds to the backup account. Now you can switch out your debit card for the backup account.

It's often much faster to transfer your money elsewhere immediately than to try to officially close the bank. Your remaining funds are safe while you work to straighten out the compromise on the primary account.