Banking - Which one to use
 

In preparation for our upcoming move, we want to set up a checking and savings account. We're wondering which one people are using. trying to find something without fees (by meeting their requirements). Thanks for any/all help.

If you travel a lot I suggest Chase. They have a cash station in all the Walgreens and are almost anywhere you go. If you are going to spend most of your time in TV Citizens is the hometown bank.

We use Citizens and are quite happy.

Another vote for Citizens, if you use Quicken, they support this, and the online banking is straight forward. None of the banks offer any significant saving interest, so look at other features. Only downside to Citizens so far is limited Saturday hours at most of the branches. drive up only, lobbies closed.

When we bought our seasonal home in February we opened an account at Citizens. No minimum monthly balances and no fees and you can't beat the ATM's at all the pools!

I use Bank of America because i can use it in Michigan and Florida.

I confuse easily. I see a "Citizens Bank" and a "Citizens First Bank" in TV. Are you, who responded, talking about "Citizens Bank"? Thanks for the help.

It is Citizens First Bank. Definitely is a super bank. Yes, it is "family" owned and the Morse family makes a lot of money from it, but who cares?

They have several branches in The Villages for full service banking needs as well as ATM machines at every mail depot.

Their employees are very knowledgable and very friendly - and the free popcorn is mighty tasty.

You might like to keep something in Bank of America in case you travel outside of the immediate area and Citizens First is not available.

There are NOT ATM locations at every pool...only the ones on the main streets. However the ARE over 40 locations.

I have used Chase for many years and saw no reason not to continue here. Chase has ATMs in Walgreens and a lovely new branch office on 466. If you travel north you are 100% more likely to find Chase than Citizens First

Citizen's First here too. We also keep Chase.

We have been completely satisfied with Citizens First.

We use Citizens and have been happy. Because we travel a lot we also have a Bank of America account, seems they are everywhere. (Not to mention that the daughter is a VP for BofA so at least I can tell her I do some business there.)

Citizens is a great bank for us while here in TV. But, one caveat with Citizens is they do not have the ability to transfer bank to bank. I can transfer funds from our other hometown bank up North to Citizens, but cannot use Citizens for the same operation.

Bank of America - has ATMs all over country. Never had a problem, Open Saturday too.
Citizen's is convenient if you don't travel outside of TV

If you are coming from the Baltimore area like we did, then we went with Sun Trust. We had a branch in Abingdon a 1/4 mile from our house. We set up our automatic deposits and everything else in advance. When we had closing on our house in Abingdon, we deposited the check immediately at the branch and when we arrived here the money was available for our closing on our new home.

Sun Trust is all over Florida and other parts of the USA. I was a little concerned about using Citizens. They are throughout TV area but in other parts of Florida not so much. We have three Sun Trust banks in TV that we use, one on 466 on bank row and two on 441/27. They use to be inside Walmart, which was really convenient. However Walmart wouldn't renew their lease because I've heard that Walmart is considering bringing in their own banks. GO O's!!!

Two Good Choices
 

I'm a JPMorgan-Chase retiree, so that was my main checking account even before they built the branches here a year or so ago. But I also had a checking account at Citizens First that I opened at the same time we closed on our house. I didn't know why at the time, but they have a small office right in the Closing Department to open accounts and give you checks and an ATM card before you leave.

For a long time before Chase built here, I considered closing my Chase account and using only Citizens. It's really a nice bank, convenient and with almost all the services offered by their competitors. It's majority owner is our Developer, so you pretty much know the quality and consistency of service to expect.

You couldn't go wrong with either of these banks. But there are a lot of local conveniences with Citizens First.