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Ally vs. Everbank vs. Discover vs. Schwab

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Almost everyone should use Ally as their primary bank. Their 100% ATM fee reimbursements and 0.87% savings rates will both earn you extra cash on the margin and no other bank has better terms.

Reasons to use other banks include:

  • If you can’t get an Ally account: Schwab offers ATM reimbursements and can therefore pair nicely with an online savings account from Discover or Everbank.
  • If you like free money: You can get a $75 bonus by opening a free checking and savings account with Capital One 360.
  • If you want to buy foreign currency: Everbank offers good accounts for this. Whether you want to buy Swiss Francs because you think the US economy will collapse, or you’re buying 3 month CDs with Brazilian Real because they offer 8% returns, Everbank will let you do whatever crazy hedge you want. UPDATE (Dec 19, 2015): Everbank engages in illegal business practices, carried out by unethical lawyers. They were a good bank 5 years ago but now they’re exhibiting the signs of a company that’s grown corrupt with age and at risk of going under. I withdrew all my funds. I recommend you do the same and get out while you still can.
  • If you want to experiment: GE Capital Retail Bank recently changed their name to Synchrony Bank and started offering an account with 0.95% interest called the Optimizer+plus account. Their website looks tacky and they also charge $5/mo if you don’t maintain a $50 balance. I don’t think they’re worth the trouble currently, but others may want to try them to get the absolute highest interest rate available from any online bank.
  • If you really never use ATMs: The Discover savings account could be the most convenient if you deposit your paycheck there and link it to autopay on your Discover Card✝.

For those who are curious, here’s how I would rank the banking and credit card companies I’ve worked with:

✝ BTW, if you don’t have a Discover Card, you should probably get one as your main credit card or something like the Fidelity 2% Cash Back American Express. Discover and American Express are pretty much accepted everywhere nowadays and they actually give you more cash back *and* charge merchants less. So you’re helping yourself and being a better customer to the businesses you’re buying from. Also, you can automatically pay for Amazon purchases with Discover reward points, so it’s pretty much the easiest cash-back plan to spend of any program ever.

Author Description

Louie Helm is a Machine Learning Engineer

13 Responses to “Ally vs. Everbank vs. Discover vs. Schwab”

  1. June 22

    Ashlie Aileen Clay

    I love Charles Schwab. Their customer service is excellent and the ATM fee refund made every ATM in Vegas available to me.

  2. June 22

    Ben Kuhn

    One probably shouldn’t be overly concerned about interest rate for checking accounts. Like, if you want to use Ally but are worried that the interest rate is 0.1% lower than Synchrony you can just invest an extra 2% of what would otherwise be in your checking account. The main cost of having a suboptimal bank account is probably the time and attention cost of dealing with various hassles.

    That said, I’ve found Ally (who also have almost the highest rates) to be generally quite good about being low-hassle.

  3. June 22

    Matt Elder

    Huh. I have Everbank, and I *get* ATM reimbursements. Poking around their site, it looks like you have to have $5000 in your account for that to steadily happen, though.

  4. June 22

    Artem Lamnin

    I’ve used an American Express high yield savings account for several years now. They provide a 0.8% Apr yield. Not sure of the min balance requirements and all that.

  5. June 22

    Alice Shay Yu

    Wow, you have the exact same bank/ credit card preferences that I do. I’ve been happily using Ally for 1.5+ years now, and Discover since early college.

  6. June 22

    Alice Shay Yu

    The other day, one of my coworkers saw my card and said “so weird I think you’re the only person I’ve ever met who uses Discover.”

  7. June 22

    Leah Libresco

    Yup, used to work in bank regulation. I recommend Ally for folks, too.

  8. June 22

    Ryan Del Mundo

    Schwab all the way

  9. June 23

    Jolly

    I completely disagree with your credit card suggestions. Fidelity offers a 2% cash back card (amex) that will be best for most people, discover has limited coverage. Why the two cards you suggest? There is a range of better cards out there….

  10. June 23

    Louie Helm

    Thanks Jolly! 2% on everything does sounds really good. You mean this, right? https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/american-express-cards

  11. June 23

    Jolly

    Yes. If you want to redeem for travel, then there is a barclays card that gives 2.2% when redeemed for travel thats a visa. Unfortunately, that one has an annual fee. If you want to carry different cards for different categories, you can get around 3-5% on your purchases

  12. June 23

    Louie Helm

    Yeah, the quarterly 5% categories from Discover occasionally pay off well for me. But I agree your recommendation of the Fidelity Amex sounds better. Thanks again for sharing. Your lifehacking advice is always so great.

  13. June 23

    Jolly

    Not so much quarterly, more of specific cards per purchase. I get 5-6% on amazon through my forward card, 5% on fastfood/restaurants, 5% on my kiva loans via cash+, 5% on gas via penfed, ect. 6% on groceries, ect. The other way to juice cash back is to buy gift cards/visa cards with a cash back credit card say at office supply stores.