I finally had enough of Wells Fargo re-enrolling me into overdraft protection without my consent, closed the account, and walked across the street to Great Western. I checked out another few banks before I settled on Great Western, but I was pretty happy with them from the start. When I signed up, I got that typical gift given to new accounts (reusable metal water bottles). They purchased all my old checks from Wells Fargo, and added that to the account (roughly 20 bucks, which is more than I paid for the checks, ironically).

They asked if which checking account I wanted, and there was no discernable difference between their "totally free checking" and their "VIP checking", except vip had online, direct deposit, billpay, and payed you interest (with no minimum account balance). "Totally free" has none of those things. Also, for the VIP checking (but not Totally Free checking), for every direct deposit you set up your first month with the bank, they will add $10 to your account. Every automatic billpay you set up also adds $10, so long as you set the billpay up in your first 30 days. After my wife and I had our direct deposits and billpays set up, I got a full tank of gas for something I was going to do anyways.

I declined overdraft protection, and have not been automatically signed up (unlike Wells Fargo). If you do opt for overdraft protection, however, overdrafts here cost less than it does at any of the other banks I spoke with (Great Western charges around $32, everyone else I checked out was at least $35).

I have no problem encouraging people to at least check this bank out. The reason that I am giving the bank 4 stars, instead of 5, is because my wife got her debit card, and we got the checks we ordered, both within a week. I never got my debit card until I went back into the bank 1 month later and enquired, at which point it arrived 2 days later. I wasn't angry, but it wasn't quite perfect, so I couldn't give it a perfect score.

Tried multiple times to stop overdraft charges. Details were not properly disclosed.

When I went in person to discuss account, personal banker had left out 2 social security numbers on her desk along with account number and pin number for account. When told banker about it, she did not even attempt to hide it.

Personal Banker was not knowledgeable about current issues already facing Great Western Bank.

I am closing the account I was discussing. Who knows whose information they have breached.