Help finding a bank in Orlando

[wdisneelvr]

We will be moving to Orlando within the next two months, can anyone recommend a good bank in the area?

Free checking with direct deposit would be great too!

thanks for any help

 

[sap1227]

We use Bank of America (we do have free checking with Direct deposit, no min account balance). I know a lot of people like having a local bank, but having a larger bank saved us on our honeymoon. I did not have a debit card for the checking account yet, but DH did. He "thought" he left his DL and debit card in the tux pocket so we were able to go to the Bank of America in NC and get some money. It turned out that DH had the cards the whole time they were in a different spot in his wallet.

I have never had a bad experience with Bank of America and they are in a lot of Publix (I'm not sure the plural of Publix). The ones in Publix are open until 7 on week nights and a few hours on Saturday. It is nice to be able to bank while I am at the grocery store.

Good luck on your move, where are you moving too?

Christy

 

[nativetxn]

I don't live in that area but I'm going to bump this back to the top of the list for you.

 

[ducklite]

We got our construction loan for the house we're building through Suntrust, and it was painless. Really!!

I have had a Bank if America Visa card for ten or so years now, and have been extremely pleased with thier level of customer service.

Anne

 

[wdisneelvr]

thanks for the great advice about the banks, I will most certainly check them out.

We haven't found a place to live yet. We are currently looking for a house to rent for our first year there. Anyone know of any places for rent? Not sure where all the good places are to live, we have done some looking around but would like to spend more time doing so.

 

[Feralpeg]

DD and I are also moving to the Orlando area. I plan on opening a Bank of America account. There is a branch in the area where we are building. I don't know about renting, but we will be moving to Windermere. The Dr. Phillips, Bay Hill area are also very nice.

 

[SoonerKate]

I've had accounts with Bank of America for a few years now, and kept my account with them while I was in Orlando for College Program.

They were wonderful! Not only are there banks and ATMs all over everywhere, but their regional headquarters are in Tampa so anything I needed mailed from there came super quickly -- that was a lifesaver when I lost my ATM card. Their online banking service is wonderful, and their phone banking isn't too shabby either. They generally have good loan rates and I've also been happy with their credit card. Honestly, I don't see myself using another bank. Ever.

 

[wdisneelvr]

Wow this is great news, thanks fellow DIS-er's I knew I could count on you

It's so hard to know anything about moving to a new town, unless you ask.

The other hard thing to find is doctors and dentists, ugh!

 

[ead79]

I bank with SunTrust here in Atlanta, and I know they have branches in Orlando. I have free checking with direct deposit, and I have been very pleased. I actually used to work for SunTrust, and my fiance does now while he's in school. They have a very extensive presence in Florida--there is even a branch right by Downtown Disney Marketplace.

 

[gshoemate]

We have SunTrust but would not recommend them. We have direct depost and our account was only free for the first 6 months. And they are not open on Saturdays, there hours are 9-4 Mon-Thur and 8-6 on Fridays. So if you work 8-5 you can only do your banking on Fridays, which stinks.

 

[ead79]

That's interesting how different it is in your area, gshoemate. Here in Atlanta, SunTrust is open more than any other bank I know of. The hours of the retail (regular stand-alone) branches are short (9-4 Monday to Friday and some are open 9-noon on Saturdays), but there are tons of branches in Publix grocery stores that are open every day of the week except Sundays. The in-store branches hours are 10-7 Monday to Friday and 10-6 on Saturdays. How strange that they differ so much by area! Also, my account is free with direct deposit forever--I think it's called Convenience Checking. That's so strange.

 

[Disney845]

Currently in FL (don't know if this special is running elsewhere) Suntrust is offering a Free Checking with "The Works" account. Suntrusts are all over the place here in FL, and best of all they were the chosen bank of WDW and had Suntrust ATMs in WDW! I personally HATE my bank, Citrus Bank, but then again I am not in the Orlando area, so you will not have to worry about "stupidly" deciding to do your banking with them like I did. I keep telling myself I am going to close my account and move to Suntrust...but I haven't yet

 

[Galahad]

Originally posted by gshoemate
We have SunTrust but would not recommend them. We have direct depost and our account was only free for the first 6 months. And they are not open on Saturdays, there hours are 9-4 Mon-Thur and 8-6 on Fridays. So if you work 8-5 you can only do your banking on Fridays, which stinks.

We also had Suntrust when we lived in Florida and would also not recommend them. Poor customer service and pretty inconvenient to do business with.

 

[wdisneelvr]

So far it looks like ya'll are pretty happy with Bank of America. It's amazing how we either really like our banks or not (gulp!)

Good customer service is important, and easy access as well either online or in person. I don't have millions to put in a bank account, just the average everyday earner. Otherwise I would be asking about swiss bank accounts. LOL

I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy living in Orlando!

 

[wdisneelvr]

One other thing, are those the only banks in Orlando...Bank of America and SunTrust?

Any other recommendations?

 

[phamton]

Orange County has close to a million people. There are lots and lots of banks. There are 4 pages of banks listed in the yellow pages not to mention the credit unions. I didn't recommend my bank because it is for Orange Public school teachers. I've heard good things about AmSouth Bank though. I understand that you want recommendations but it is hard when there are so many choices. It's like asking which restaurant is best in Houston. What we did is kept our old bank account until we moved. After being here awile, we looked for a bank in the general neighborhood we had moved into so we didn't have to drive too far to get there. Then we looked to see if they had several ATMs around town. The bigger banks have lots of ATMs but some of the smaller ones only have them in a few locations so we might be looking at a service charge if we were in a part of town without our local ATM. We finally settled on our local teachers credit union because they were convenient and were very friendly. All the banks and credit unions have direct deposit if you want that from your work.

We did the same with doctors and dentist. We didn't want to drive clear across town to get to a doctor so we called several before settling on the ones we wanted. We also had to wait to see what doctors were listed on our employee insurance. We chose our vet by looking in the yellow pages for hours and location. We picked one that had late hours and Saturdays and was closest to our house.

 

[wdisneelvr]

Phamton--thank you for the great advice. You are right about there being alot of banks in the area, I guess my head is up in the clouds right now that I finally get to move to Orlando.

I will check out that list of banks in the yellow pages and look for their websites too.

Also I will probably do the same with the dr's, wanting to be close by where ever we end up getting a house.

So many things to think about and take care of.

 

[phamton]

I understand. We are native Texans who moved to Orlando in July. I understand your excitement. We are thrilled to be here in Orlando. We had lived in Texas almost our entire lives and were moving to an area where we knew no one. All of our pre-planning was changed after we moved here. The changes in what we planned was because of the size of Orlando and the traffic. The first thing for us was to find a place to live which was convenient to work. After we got that, we had to get phone, utilities, etc. Then on to banks and just recently we found doctors, dentist, and vet. There are plenty of walk-in clinics you can use if you need one before finding a family doctor.

We also decided to rent for a year until we determine exactly what area we want to live in. Our biggest hurtle was getting a drivers license. We had to take a day off work just to get in. The wait times are very long. They have one office open on Saturday so we got there at 7:00 AM in able to get in when they opened at 9:00. The line went all the way around the building by 8:00 AM. When we did get in, we found out that our hospital birth certificates couldn't be accepted. (We also had our TX drivers lcense with picture and social security cards, car title, and insurance.) So back home, with no license. We then ordered certified Birth certificates and took off work on a Tuesday. (The offices are closed on Mondays.)

Bev

 

[wdisneelvr]

Bev--I forgot all about the drivers licenses, thanks for the heads up on the bc's. I had a funny feeling it would take a long time at the DMV.

Do you know if you have to have a car inspection sticker inorder to get your car registered there? We have to have one here in NC.

We are looking to rent for the first year as well, but we want to rent a house instead of a apartment. I'm not having much luck with that, rental housing seems to be in short supply. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places for it (classifieds?)

It's wonderful having all these helpful hints before I actually get there. I am making lists of everything but I'm sure I'll forget something.

 

[phamton]

No inspection sticker in Florida. We had to have one in Texas also so it was a surprise not to have one here. Here's the info for drivers license:
http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/html/dlnew.html

We checked the classifieds for homes also with very little luck. We even subscribed to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper for 3 months before moving here. We ended up moving our stuff down and storing it, staying in a hotel and driving around neighborhoods we were interested in for "For Rent" signs. This was probably not the best way to do it but it worked for us. We have a large dog and needed a fenced yard. Realtors will also help you find a place to rent.