bpoythress
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2014
- Messages
- 7
Hi there,
Getting ready to head out to the Academy is a process full of decisions, and it seems every decision is one that will have a pretty significant impact on my life. Naturally, this means I'm trying to make them carefully. Among the scores of papers I need to send to the Academy is a card with my signature for the opening of an account with the Armed Services Bank so that I can receive pay during basic training. Having no experience with this bank, I went online to see what I could find out about it. To my dismay, I found pages from Consumer Reports and Consumer Rankings that gave it a pretty bad rap, most of which suggested opening an account with USAA as soon as I'm able. This leads me to a few questions:
1. Is the Armed Services Bank really all that bad?
2. If it is, at what point can I close my account/move to a better bank?
3. Is USAA a better choice, and easy for a cadet to use?
4. Should I get a credit card with the Armed Services Bank if I'm going to close my account with them as soon as I'm able? (Or even if I plan to keep my account - should I go on and get a card?)
I know I'm a few steps ahead of the game and probably have other things to worry about, but when it comes to managing finances, I'm trying to do my best to make smart decisions right off the bat. I know how hard it can be to recover from bad financial decisions.
Thank you for your help!
BP
Getting ready to head out to the Academy is a process full of decisions, and it seems every decision is one that will have a pretty significant impact on my life. Naturally, this means I'm trying to make them carefully. Among the scores of papers I need to send to the Academy is a card with my signature for the opening of an account with the Armed Services Bank so that I can receive pay during basic training. Having no experience with this bank, I went online to see what I could find out about it. To my dismay, I found pages from Consumer Reports and Consumer Rankings that gave it a pretty bad rap, most of which suggested opening an account with USAA as soon as I'm able. This leads me to a few questions:
1. Is the Armed Services Bank really all that bad?
2. If it is, at what point can I close my account/move to a better bank?
3. Is USAA a better choice, and easy for a cadet to use?
4. Should I get a credit card with the Armed Services Bank if I'm going to close my account with them as soon as I'm able? (Or even if I plan to keep my account - should I go on and get a card?)
I know I'm a few steps ahead of the game and probably have other things to worry about, but when it comes to managing finances, I'm trying to do my best to make smart decisions right off the bat. I know how hard it can be to recover from bad financial decisions.
Thank you for your help!
BP