Conference vmszoo::new_hampshire

    Try DCU - it looks better every day.
    
    				Steve

    RE .1 
    
    I agree. Watch for the big bad banks to try and force some regs or
    changes on the CU's in the future as more people vote with their
    accounts.
    
    Steve

>> There was some very interesting reading concerning "Changes and 
>> Enhancements to Your Accounts".  I was gratified to learn that "There will
>> be *no changes* in the $25 monthly fee or $25,000 minimum balance 
>> requirement" that I had never yet been charged on an account that wouldn't 
>> dream of meeting that kind of a mimimum balance.

You are not required to have a Bay Plus account.  There are other types of
accounts.  The Bay Plus account was much more reasonable some time back, but
they are raising the cost of the account.  The $10,000 minimum for fee waiver
has been raised to $25,000, and the fee structure changed.

Certainly you should do what you feel best, but don't act surprised.  They've
been publicizing the changes to the Bay Plus account for well over a year.  It
was quite clear some time ago that the charges would go up, to what level, and
what balances were required to get the charges waived.  We have a Bay Plus
account; they suggested a different type of account for us months ago, and
we've received several other mailings about the changes.

						Brian

    We used to do our banking with WCIS, and had a "serious saver" account.
    By maintaining a minimum $2k balance in your' savings account, you 
    were entitled to free checking. We recieved a letter in the mail
    stating that they were increasing their minimum balance from $2k to
    $2.5k. We were instructed to deposit an additional $500 into our 
    savings account or we would be charged for checking. I called the
    bank and asked for an explanation. They confirmed that we needed to
    deposit $500 into our savings account. I told them I was not willing
    to deposit $500. They asked why and I told them I didn't have $500
    laying around collecting dust. They asked WHEN I could make the
    deposit and I told them that it would be more convenient for me to
    withdraw the $2k and open an account with another bank. As soon as
    I said this, they informed me of several other savings accounts that
    were available that would give me free checking with NO MINIMUM
    BALANCE. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT RIGHT OFF THE BAT? AAAAAAHHHH!
    Good thing this conversation took place over the phone, because
    otherwise I might have been tempted to strangle the guy!
    
        It's just scare tactics to get you to tie up more of your money in
    their bank. Tell them to stick their minimum balances where the sun 
    don't shine. Also let them know that you will arrange to have your
    pay check direct deposited in another bank. They love direct deposit!
    
    	Mark

AT&T works that way too - they don't tell you about their best rate plans
unless you ask specifically (or threaten to leave for another carrier) - or
at least so I read in the Globe this weekend (I use Sprint).

				Steve

    Just got off the phone with "Bank-Boston" (not to be confused with
    WCIS, Bank of Boston, or Baybank). They informed me that my account
    was "grandfathered" and would not be subject to any fee. It is
    stipulated in their records that our account has a "fee waiver". 
    I asked them to put this in writing. I further warned them that if I
    get charged a fee at any time for any reason, I walk. We are prepared
    to take our savings account, checking account, payroll deposit, 
    and home equity line of credit to another bank or credit union, and
    will be watching the monthly statements like a hawk from now on. 
    
    I wonder what the bank will be called next month?
    
    Mark

 >   Just got off the phone with "Bank-Boston" (not to be confused with
 >   WCIS, Bank of Boston, or Baybank). They informed me that my account
 >   was "grandfathered" and would not be subject to any fee.
 
 Same is try for NFS accounts when BB took over ....

 The new bank has to honor the previous banks contractual obligations
 with its customers ....

 BB once tried to convert my accounts when I wasn't looking, so beware.

 "It was a mistake Mr. Fyfe" ....  ya sure ....

 If they didn't have homelink I'd be long gone .....

 Doug.

Why are you still there?  What does Homelink give you that DCU's PC Branch
doesn't?  It used to be that I could think of a handful of reasons to stay
with a commercial bank, but gradually, DCU eliminated every one of them.
The more I read about what the mega-merger banks are doing, the gladder I am
that I switched all my banking to DCU.

					Steve

    
    Actually when a new bank takes over they have a year during which they
    must not change the terms of the accounts.  After that year is up they
    can notify you that they plan to change the terms on a certain date.
    
    

  One thing that BayBank offers that DCU doesn't is real canceled checks with
every statement. I read the BankBoston flyer carefully and it said that this
is still an option after the merger. Whether this will continue after one year
is up, I don't know.

I believe that there is legislation pending to more strictly control credit
unions and membership. I'm a member of another FCU and have read that existing
members should be able to keep their accounts, but it may be more difficult to
get a membership in the future.

Although my credit union has changed hands once in ~10 years, it's been a lot
more stable than my bank account and mortgage. I've been very happy with my CU
and would think that DCU is at least worth a look. And don't delay too long...

-Jeff

The Merrimack DCU branch had a petition on one of its tables about the 
legislation...  

bjm

    So didn't the DAS branch in Andover. I signed.
    
    Bright Blessings,
    
    PJ

    It is the old 'I can't compete/don't want to compete so I will get laws
    enacted to punish/burden my competition'.
    
    The DCU now offers 10 pictures/sheet of cancelled checks for free.
    
    
    Steve

    The free check image statements are OK, but they do not show the
    back of the check.  If you trying to show somebody that a check
    was really deposited by them, they often want to see the back of
    the check.
    
    DCU will provide copies of checks (front and back) with little or
    no charge (depending on the number of checks you are curious about).
    
    				-John

>Why are you still there?  What does Homelink give you that DCU's PC Branch
>doesn't?  It used to be that I could think of a handful of reasons to stay
>with a commercial bank, but gradually, DCU eliminated every one of them.
>The more I read about what the mega-merger banks are doing, the gladder I am
>that I switched all my banking to DCU.

I had an account with the DCU for many years. I also had more than my fair
of grief from that organization. Too much BS, and no sensible consistency
across tellers. At to that the lack of returned checks, fees for retrieving
checks, more phone automation than the phone company ...

Quite to contrary of my experience with DCU, NFS was a joy to do business
with. Competent tellers, supportive management staff, no ridiculous hoop
jumping requirements, and a desire to please the customer.

I'm with BB because they bought NFS. So far, the pain has been minimal and the
HomeLink a blessing. They even have a policy of crediting you account any
contested charge below $10 (or is it $15), which I have found quite satisfying.

Has DCU changed? Doubtful. My friend, a member of DCU since 1988, had a 
major blow-up with those dolts up in Merrimack just recently due to teller 
incompetence. Major inconvience to have to drive down to ZKO for transactions 
that weren't allowed in Merrimack by the dolt behind the counter.

DCU?  No thanks.

I used to be with NFS (started when it was Nashua Federal Savings).  They
progressively became more difficult to deal with, and when BayBank bought them,
it became nearly impossible and I closed all my accounts.

					Steve

Hmmm, I've never had an unpleasant exchange with my (automatic) tellers. They
seem pretty competent, except maybe when the network is down...

I saw in the news that someone was robbed at outside a (closed) supermarket 
somewhere in NH. I think it was in Manchester. So, beware...

Fwiw, my credit union did away with voided checks long ago and I've never missed
them. You can get copies if you need them for legal reasons, but I can't think
of why else I would need them back. My checks now are the "carbon-copy" type,
which are very helpful if you forget to write down the info when you write the
check.

A recent Money Magazine article suggested that credit unions were a good deal,
since the fees are generally lower. In my experience that has been true.

-Jeff

How did your credit union do away with voided checks?

What do you do when you make a mistake?  How do you void the check?

Oh.  You meant "returning checks after processing".  Never mind.

/john

    I pay no fees with Bank of NH, never have.  Do not know what their
    limits are etc.  And I get all my cancelled checks every month.
    
    
    I once belonged to DCU, and was even a charter member.  But they didn't
    offer any benefit to services that other banks do.  Their interest
    rates have always been higher than what I could get elsewhere, they
    take longer to do things, etc. etc.  And the worst part of it, is
    that any loan payment is a payroll deduction.   

    
    
    	You don't have to set up loans to be paid via auto deduction.
    	At least I didn't when I got my car loan.  I did opt for that
    	because I got 1/2% decrease in my interest rate.  But I don't
    	think it's mandatory.
    
    	The only thing I haven't liked about DCU in the past, was their
    	$1 service fee per use of ATM machines that weren't theirs.  But
    	they've since done away with that, so........
    
    	JJ
    

    	I usually prefer auto-deduction/payment, though I did have one
    small problem recently. You generally tend to forget about the
    auto-payments. For the ones that come out in advance, you generally 
    can forget about those. The ones that come out of a checking account
    can be a problem though.
    
    	I had made a mistake in my checkbook and thought I had the money to
    cover an auto-payment (CRT). Once missed, it wasn't retried, and I wasn't
    notified until after the grace period. By then, you have a penalty
    applied.
    
    	I find any mistakes when I reconcile my account, which requires my
    statement. By the time I get my statement, it's either nearly, or is,
    too late to correct it and avoid the penalty. I mentioned this in the
    DCU notes file, but I don't know what, if anything, will become of it.
    I basically suggested that they notify you immediately if this type of
    auto-payment gets missed for any reason.
    
    	Ray
    
    BTW - Yes, I'm aware of PC Branch, but unless I suspected a problem, I
    wouldn't be likely to use it.

    I'm a big fan of the DCU.
    
    Whenever *I* have looked, they've always had better rates on loans.
    
    I ended up getting two car loans there, and a 2nd mortgage largely
    because their rates/terms were clearly the best in the surveys I did at
    the time.
    
    I don't pay much attention to interest rates on checking accounts. 
    It's been my experience that fees and convenience features far outweigh
    the interest rate in overall importance.  If that's not true for other
    folks, you may have WAY too much money in your checking account and
    should look into investments.
    
    Only thing I've ever been really frustrated by with the DCU is PC
    Branch.  Frankly, I think it's just this side of "useable", not
    particularly "safe" (I have been burned fairly severely by failures).   
    
    I would be jump for joy if they just dumped PC Branch in favor of
    Intuit's Online banking but that won't and shouldn't happen until
    Intuit wises up and either opens the interface to it and/or provides a
    non-quick client that provides an ATM-like interface (like PC Branch)
    rather than a personal-finance type interface (like Quicken which is
    currently required).
    
    	db

RE:.23

	Dave, I sent you this before.. Check out

	http://www.intuit.com/ofx/ for information on the Open
	Financial Exchange spec developed by Microsoft and
	Intuit. This will be the spec that an app can be written
	against for online banking.

	To me that means that DCU could pick one package, Money or
	Quicken, and eventually both will work. Or, they could
	provide a PC Branch like app that speaks OFX and we can
	just use Quicken.

							mike

    The bad thing about DCU is that certain contract companies can't join!

Contractors can't join DCU no matter what company they work for unless they're
related to a Digital employee.

				Steve

    Actually Steve L. brings up a good point. They just sent me an app for
    my dependents. I am going to have my 2 sons apply for checking etc
    accounts even if they really don't use them much now. At least they
    will signed up.
    
    BTW does the DCU service any other companies? I mean with
    layoffs/////// 'rightsizing' they could get pretty small and possibly
    not economically viable w/o enough members.
    
    Steve

DCU includes many small companies in its "Field of Membership", though 
the commercial banks are pushing for legislation to outlaw that.  See the
DCU web page (www.dcu.com) for a pointer to more information on this.

Note that once you're a DCU member, you may stay a member for life, even if
you leave Digital.

				Steve

    DCU allows folks from Oracle, BEA, etc to join - even new hires into
    those companies.  Not sure how far that concept goes beyond those
    companies - but I'm sure there are more.  Independent contractors may
    be left out in the cold - but companies that supply contractors may
    be included....
    
    andy