I had a Washington Mutual bank account for more than 10 years, until they were taken over by Chase.  Having little choice in my small town, I stayed with Chase until they were taken over by the bank of greed.  After Chase began charging fees just to have an account, I started doing a lot of research on potential new banks.  Since there are only four banks in my town and three of them charge fees now, I had to really dig to find something that would work for us.  We do not have direct deposit, you see, so most banks would cost us money to use now.

Enter ING Direct.  Not only does ING not charge fees, but they also pay interest on checking accounts with no minimum balance.  We signed up last February for basic checking and savings accounts, and I have been a happy customer ever since.  Depositing paper checks is kind of a hassle, but they say they are working on a way to deposit paper checks electronically, which eliminates the only major downside to banking with ING.

We also created savings accounts for the kids.  Accounts can be created online with no need to talk to customer service or send in paper documents, so long as you have a checking account at another bank to get started.  Once you create your accounts with ING, you are free to cancel those pesky fee-charging accounts and enjoy making money off your money for a change.

Overall, we have really been happy with the decision to switch to ING.  It beats paying a bank for the privilege of giving them our money.