The Bank for Recovering Merger Victims
Written: Aug 04 '00 (Updated Aug 05 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great customer service, low fees
Cons: Limited locations
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| ebolles's Full Review: Middlesex Savings Bank |
A while ago I wrote a review of Fleet Financial Corp and how terrible they are and how they have bungled the recent takeover of BankBoston. I ended up deleting it because every time I saw it on my epinions page it would put me in a bad mood as I remembered how they made my finances a shambles for over a month. (Plus, Fleet already has many terrible ratings on epinions.) Instead, I am going to write a positive review of the bank I have switched to.
This bank rocks. (Like Monty Python's Crimson Permanent Assurance.) Middlesex Savings is community owned - not some greedy, bloated mega-bank. When I went to open an account in their Framingham branch, it was like stepping into a small town bank. The assistant manager who I spoke with greeted me pleasantly and let me know how long a wait there would be - only five minutes - not bad for Friday at lunchtime. She was very nice, professional and efficient. She explained information about the various accounts and options extremely competently - rather shocking after my recent big banking customer service experiences.
Fees that don't make you feel exploited. Tired of banks that require $10,000 checking account balance for real free checking? Check this out - at Middlesex Savings to get checking with no service charges you either:
1. Have to have direct deposit of paychecks
2. Or keep a minimum balance of $250. $250! Even I, the aspiring queen of financial chaos, can handle that.
There is also an option for basic checking with no minimum balance where the monthly fee is - brace yourself - $3. Shocking isn't it?
Free ATMs – really! Unlike some banks that advertise free ATM use, but in reality have many difficult-to-meet conditions and hidden fees, you really do get free ATM use. I did not expect this to be too much of a bonus because I assumed it would be only at their ATMs, which there are not too many of. But ATM use is free at any ATMs that belong to the SUM network - this adds just about every local banks' ATMs as free to use - 1850 ATMs altogether (Probably every bank but Fleet). So it's not too difficult to find an ATM in the Boston Metrowest area.
No torture with bad musak or annoying recordings. It drives me bananas when I have to listen to some awful music for thirty minutes while I am on hold waiting to speak with a rep. Even when I use automated telephone banking (with BankBoston and Fleet), I tend to get irritated with marketing thrown in their recordings of options. For example, instead of :“Please enter your card number followed by the # sign” (straightforward, logical prompt), I have had to listen to: “Please enter the number of your BSBank Select, BSBank Total Access Card, BSBank Rob-Me-Blind-Oh-Please-Card, or BSBank we-are-doing-this-to-filter-out-the-non-masochists-who-will-not-make-good-customers Total Abuse Card, followed by the pound sign.” Not with Middlesex Savings Bank. A NORMAL human voice – rather than some alien zombie voice - gives straightforward prompts without a lot of marketing bs thrown in.
Online banking. I have not used this capability. I know that it is free for the first six months and after that there is a reasonable monthly fee (under $10).
Nothing’s perfect. Okay, the downside. There are not MSB branches or SUM ATMs every quarter mile in the area, as with Fleet. While there are branch offices in several towns in Middlesex and Norfolk counties, there is only one branch per town, which may take some getting used to if you were used to BankBoston or Fleet every other block. MSB is definitely best for people who live in the Metrowest area only. But, that's not really a drawback, that’s the idea – a community bank.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ebolles
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Member: Elizabeth
Location: 420 17' N 710 25' W
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 202 members
About Me:
Aspiring novelist who enjoys harassing fish, taking blurry underwater photos and self-medicating with chocolate.
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