I was just wondering about everyones opinion on what bank they suggest useing and what bank to avoid.....

We already had USAA when we moved here and it's great! We use the debit card for everything, almost. I rarely use checks anymore. You can deposit any odd checks you get from people online through the "Direct Deposit at Home. you have to have a scanner on your computer/printer. you can get money from the Community Bank ATMs on base, even Yen. The small service charge is reimbursed to you. If you use the Navy Fed ATMs you get charge $2 each time. You might get some of that back but once we learned that Com. Bank didn't charge like that, that's the only one we go to. I also set up a Community Bank account because I work at a Japanese school (have a Japanese bank account for that). So, I can go get Yen from my Mitsubishi Bank account then take it to Com. Bank and get it changed to US then deposit it there to be used for different things or I can transfer it electronically to USAA. Hope this helps!

that helps a lot thank you!!!!!!!!

We use USAA for everything and love it. My husband's been with them since 1997 and is very happy with them. We use the USAA ATM/Debit card at the Community Bank ATMs to withdraw dollars and yen.

Like Polly, we also deposit checks by scanning them and have been doing that for a couple of years.

There's a Navy Federal on the base but I've only been in there two times in the 19 months we've been here.

Navy Federal is horrible~We lived in Biloxi when Hurricane Katrina hit....with all that was going on(miscarriage, loss of two cars and about $20,000 worth of house stuff) we simply forgot to pay the credit card bill...I drove to pensacola to visit family and they had froze out account...would not unfreeze it even though I explained the situation. I despise NFCU....USAA rocks....they paid off both our cars which was more than kelly blue book and we got about $20,000 for rental insurance....They are fast when it comes to claims and customer service is far above NFCU
Once we pay off their card, that account will be closed...you can't go wrong with USAA...

My husband and I both use Bank of America but we also have an account at Community Bank in Yokosuka, it is a branch off of Bank of America.  We have had no problems with it at all.

I'm with NFCU and I've never had any problems with them. I never go into the branch because it's always crowded. I do most of my banking online or thru a NFCU ATM.

Avoid NFCU...not able to have a joint account with my husband because they see everyone as "individual customers"....I am an authorized user but not able to do everything since he is the primary.....needless to say this makes it very difficult when he is underway.....we still have them since we have GIBIllpay and everything else set up but once we leave we are moving everything to USAA.....don't forget that NFCU hits you like crazy with ATM fees

We just opened an account with USAA about 6 months ago, we do not use it often but we've never had any difficulty and have heard nothing but GREAT things about them. If you are a person that likes to visit a branch, USAA does not have branches but I believe you can make cash deposits at UPS stores statewide if needed, otherwise you can use the "at home" scan system that was mentioned above.

We have NFCU since 1996 and have a joint account. In case you cannot pay your loan on time, just give them a call and they will give you grace period. Every time we have situations like my husband is going underway, I 'll give them a heads up so that they will not freeze his ATM card which is actually good because they think somebody stole his credit/atm card.
We get up to $10 dollars back every month when we use other atm machines; the community bank on base is only charging us $1.

I have been a loyal of user of NFCU for nearly 30 years. I will never, ever use a commercial bank; I despise them. I have always gotten great service with NFCU; people complain about lines but my question is, who ever needs to actually walk into a branch? There is a local branch here in Iwakuni that never has lines, but even so I probably actually walk inside twice a year. With direct deposit, scannable check deposits, online transfers, etc. you really shouldn't have to visit a branch very often. As bad as CD rates are right now, the best rates I can get are NFCU (used to be Ally Bank, but they've gone downhill). All my accounts are joint with my wife, and I'm even joint on my adult son's account. He's back stateside, but I can do transactions on his account any time I want. I pay no fees of any sort, so I am very happy with them. In all the time I've been with them, I can't recall them ever making a single mistake on any of my accounts. Ever.

We've never experienced mistakes or issues like that....they are proactive about suspicious activity and it is easy to resolve those issues with them....but I am now confused about the joint account issue.

I am a user on his account - I can transfer money, pay the bills, etc....but once we were locked out of the website and they would not let me reset the account - only my husband....and he was underway.....not good. I'm not authorized to do anything but spend money using the debit card lol - oh well different people, different experiences I guess...

I will say, they do have better rates than my last bank....Bank Of America.

A user on the account is not the same as being joint. If you are not joint, I can totally understand them not resetting the account after multiple log-in attempts on the web. That is their #1 defense against fraud.

You & your husband need to visit the branch; make him joint on your accounts, and you be joint on his accounts. After that, problem solved. This is very common & I assure you they do it every day for anyone who asks.