Online banking in STX?

We use Banco Popular and do almost everything on-line.

Search. There are a lot of threads on this.

Get used to the culture shock. I've written more checks since I got here than anytime in my life. The good news, if it's a local check, even those temp checks with no name and address, it tends to go over pretty well.

Expect LONG holds on your initial deposits. They held my initial deposit (a business stateside check) for 12 business days. If I could do it over, I would have brought a cashiers check or a money order with me for my initial deposit.

ATMs are only found at physical banks and maybe hotels? _ no supermarkets, bars, etc., at least, as far as I have found.

I am at Bank of St Croix because they have a great reputation and I wanted to support the local business. That said, It takes 6-8 weeks to get a debit card from the time you open an account.

Their online banking is surprisingly good. I think it's better than the one I had when I had Wachovia (back in the day).

Also, I was easily able to link my Paypal account and my stateside account with Ally to my Bank of St Croix account, so I make it a point to have a bit of money, hundred bucks or so, in each just for convenience sake.

If I could do it over, I would have brought a cashiers check or a money order with me for my initial deposit.

At FirstBank (don't know about elsewhere), stateside cashiers checks get held just like regular checks. I found that out the hard way.

As much as I like dealing with the local 1stBank and their website is good, I've had a HORRIBLE time trying to get a new DebitCheck card from them after mine expired 3 months ago. (Note: if you move and inform the bank, do not assume they propagate the address change throughout their inefficient system. They kept sending my new card to my 2 yr old address, even though they had my new address on file and I called them twice about it). That a Banana Republic island would have a Banana Republic Bank, doesn't surprise me.

Thanks, all. I did do a search on banks and online banking with no results. I had used Bamco Popular 8 years ago, and was reasonably happy. Just wondered if things had changed.

ATMs at K-mart also.

Bank of St. Croix is the best of the lot here. Nearly every professional or business I know has an account with them, in large part because they are the most reliable. I frequently spend chunks of time off-island and therefore have to do all of my banking, both stateside and here, online. Have had no problems with BoSTX whatsoever. I do wish they'd stop sending me paper statements, though -- so very twentieth century.

More and more places take debit cards here now; they didn't when I moved here ten years ago. As for trying to find a functional ATM ... in a pinch you can use the Post Office for cash back. You have to buy something but, hell, a couple of stamps is way cheaper than the ATM fees at most machines.

Is the only branch of BoSTX in Gallows Bay? I was a little dismayed to find so few gas stations taking debit cards. Found only one in LaReine. I really hate to carry cash -- have been pickpocketed twice in the States, and got out of the habit.

There is a second BoSTX branch in Peters Rest, near Sunny Isle.

One other thing to consider is whether the bank you're considering is FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Company) insured. FDIC insures your deposits up to something like $250K. When I moved here a couple of years ago, Bank of St. Croix was the only FDIC bank on the island. Kinda made my choice easy. They also have on-line bill-pay and you can pay your WAPA bills at their branches. If you'd like to pay your WAPA bills on-line, navigate to:

https://www.customerservice.viwapa.vi/Click2GovCXP/Index.jsp

You can pay your WAPA bills with a credit card and get miles too! (Mighty as well get something for the astronomical bills!)

Also you do not need a local bank. Been here over ten years and never had one. We have a great credit union stateside. Never been a problem at all. Online bill paying is getting much better. You can pay WAPA, Innovative, Broadband, online. Many small business will keep your credit card on file but that always makes me nervous.

All of above good to know. Some things have, indeed, changed for the better while I've been away.!
Thanks.

Also you do not need a local bank. Been here over ten years and never had one. We have a great credit union stateside. Never been a problem at all. Online bill paying is getting much better. You can pay WAPA, Innovative, Broadband, online. Many small business will keep your credit card on file but that always makes me nervous.

It's true, you don't need a local bank, unless you need to cash a check, or make a deposit quickly, or you like getting cash without paying a surcharge at the ATM. There are also some businesses that accept local checks or cash only. It's not essential, but it can be very useful.

agreed....been here two months and have been fine with BOA stateside account. i do a lot of "cash back" from the stores as way of ATM. GL!

Also you do not need a local bank. Been here over ten years and never had one. We have a great credit union stateside. Never been a problem at all. Online bill paying is getting much better. You can pay WAPA, Innovative, Broadband, online. Many small business will keep your credit card on file but that always makes me nervous.

It's true, you don't need a local bank, unless you need to cash a check, or make a deposit quickly, or you like getting cash without paying a surcharge at the ATM. There are also some businesses that accept local checks or cash only. It's not essential, but it can be very useful.

You no longer need a local bank to do deposits.
I kept my USBank checking acct active as a backup and I can deposit checks ONLINE.
This is extremely important because they put the money in that account within 12 hours! ...whereas a check deposit with a local bank down here can take 3 to 5 business days.

Ditto to what Neil said, I can deposit online and because my credit union is the BEST, they apply it right away and worry about the details later. Never ever had ANY local business deny my out of town check.

Why would you need to cash a check when there are ATMs? I do enough people's books to know what the fees are from the local banks and I'd rather pay the ATM fees then have an island acct. If you are talking about paychecks or any other locally written check, you can cash it at what ever bank they use for free. Or deposit it online in your account for free as well.

Honestly, if you have a good bank/credit union stateside that has good customer service and low fees I would totally keep it. You can always open a secondary account here if you really think you need it.

Hiya, who's your CU? If I could do online deposits with my stateside CU, that would change everything!!

On STJ, we don't have all the fancy options you big-city folks on STX and STT do -- quite a number of businesses are still cash only and do not accept stateside checks (including the car barges). At least one grocery store will not take non-local checks, nor will our only gas station. And there's nowhere on island to my knowledge where you can get cash back with a debit card. The ATM fees for stateside cards are high enough (at least $3 per withdrawal now) that it's cheaper to have a FirstBank account, which charges me $5 a month ONLY if my average monthly balance is less than $1,000. Otherwise it's free checking.

Another annoying thing is that it's impossible to withdraw more than $300 in cash per day on my stateside ATM card. If you pay your rent in cash (commonly done here) and eat out a couple of times a week, you'll be doing way more than a couple-few $300 withdrawals.

I can relate to what someone else said earlier -- when I left the states, I hardly ever used cash for anything, just carried my Visa debit card everywhere. Here it is just the opposite.

It's a CU out of San Diego, if you still want the name I'll pm it to you. Most banks stateside offer the feather of depositing online. You just have to have a scanner/printer that they are compatible with. 🙂

Bank of St. Croix is the best of the lot here ... I do wish they'd stop sending me paper statements, though -- so very twentieth century.

Send them a letter asking them to stop. That's how I stopped my wire transfer deposit notifications from them.

But I'm sure your friend Norman Paperman will always want his statements on paper, man.