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I live in a small town of about 7,000 people, and even though I live in just about as rural of a place as it gets in this country, I still have four different banks that I could choose to make use of, and that’s just on a local basis. If I wanted to an internet based checking account, my options would grow exponentially. There’s a lot of competition when it comes to banking and not all banks are the same, so we have to choose wisely when picking out a bank. When I was a teenager, I picked up an account at Wells Fargo since it was close to home, and didn’t think anything of it. In my many years of experience with that bank, it’s become quite clear that it’s probably not where you should do the majority of your banking at, and here’s why.

First, don’t even consider putting any sort of savings there. Their interest rates are abysmal. Currently I can earn 0.2% from Wells Fargo’s standard savings account, or I can get an online high-yield savings account earning 5.0%+. After inflation, you are losing money when you put it into Wells Fargo’s savings account. Stay far away from their savings accounts, even their premium savings accounts and money market accounts are not worthwhile compared to other competitive accounts.

Secondly, they’re not that great of a place to get a credit card either. Their rewards programs aren’t even worth taking a look at. With their “exclusive rewards” program for credit and debit cards, you have to pay a $12.00 annual fee, and in order to break even on it, you’d have to spend $5000 each year just to get back to zero! For every $10,000 that you spend on your Wells Fargo Debit Card, you’ll get $24.00 in rewards, that’s 0.24% back on all of your money. With some programs, you can get 2% or 3% and even 5% at some stores, it’s just not a good deal at all.

I actually do still have my checking account at Wells Fargo, and really don’t have any problems with it, since I don’t keep a lot of money in there, and there are Wells Fargo banks at all of the area cities that I frequent, but I wouldn’t ever put my savings there, or open a credit card there. There are so many better options. I’ve never considered their other products, but chances are you’ll get a better deal somewhere else.

Recently I did some comparisons of the banks available in town, and based on the discussions that I’ve had with customers of other banks, their customer service easily beats that of Wells Fargo and the major national banks. More often than not they have better rates and deals than the big national banks, so you should definitely consider them when choosing a bank. Always consider 4 or 5 different banks when choosing one and compare the products that each offers that you would use so that you don’t get stuck with a sub-par bank without realizing it.

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