You have repeat customers for life until you piss them off.

I had a US Bank account for 15 years from when I was in college. They set up shop on college campuses to target kids who might not have the best habits.

One day I was transferring money to a friend and hit an extra zero. I muscle memory tapped through the confirmations and immediately realized my mistake.

Couldn't cancel or stop it in any way.

I called the bank the next day. I asked for forgiveness. The rep transparently told me that since I admitted it was my mistake and not the fault of the app that he couldn't forgive the overdraft fee. After a half hour of escalations they told me "as a one time courtesy" they would credit the fee.

I was pretty pissed off with how much resistance I got over a mistake that happened for the first time in over 15 years.

Alliant Credit Union is online only. They pay interest on checking and savings accounts. They automatically withdraw from savings to avoid overdrafts, but I think their fee policy is a lot more lax if not nonexistent. They have access to two huge ATM networks and a lot of them accept cash deposits. They cover up to something like $20 or $40 in out of network ATM fees (I've never used this) so my understanding is if you only use ATMs a few times a month then they're all free. Great customer service over the phone too.

Been with them for 5 years and have been way happier than US Bank. Regret not switching sooner. Don't do mortgages or credit with them though, every org has their strengths and weaknesses.

Bigger picture, I'm most frustrated at how shitty the banking industry is, or perhaps finance in general, and how unregulated it is, causing folks to have such wildly different experiences with places like US Bank and Alliant Credit Union without even knowing their options just because they didn't do research. It should be regulated enough that the difference in outcome isn't so drastic