Poppy Bank

We love Poppy! When we moved here in 2011, our WaMu had recently been absorbed by Chase Bank, and heeding the mantra, "too big to fail" from the 2008 bank crisis, we wanted a smaller bank. Poppy Bank - then called First Community Bank - in the same shopping center was our choice and we've never looked back.

I'm sure there are some functions that a mega bank has that Poppy doesn't, but we've never found anything that hasn't fit our needs - and they care about us. I can't say Chase or BofA or Wells would. When we were in escrow and in the process of moving accounts, we miscalculated our checking account. We got a phone call from Poppy telling us that we were going to be overdrawn $40 and would be like to come and fix that before we got charged for a bounced check? We ran right down there and took care of it! Can you imagine any big bank doing that? If you were overdrawn for a nanosecond, a big bank would immediately bounce your check and debit your account for $50 or so.
And if you're worried about lack of nationwide branches, don't. They're part of a network. I have an iPhone app and I can find a bank anywhere in the country where I can use the ATM for no charge and make a deposit if I need to. And the Poppy ATM card works just fine in European ATMs.