I've had good experiences with Capital One and would recommend them, especially if you have a branch close by.

Young adults frequently have. Problems opening accounts online due to identify verification issues

Look at credit unions. They tend to give better customer service

The best bank for a young person is one that has many branch offices , atms, and physical locations nearby. I'd shoot for a Bank of America, or Wells Fargo.

Credit Union, better service, cheaper interest on auto loans, In my state all the diffenet credit unions are networked. I can go into any other credit union and do banking. No fees using any credit union ATM. It's a no brainer

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> The best bank for a young person is one that has many branch offices

Um, explain this?

Young people are less likely to need branch locations because they're not allergic to doing stuff online like my parents and others their age are.

If your paychecks are direct deposited, and you rarely need cash, you don't need physical branch locations.

And if you do need branches, BoA and WF are two of the worst.

Younger people use cash for a lot of things. Many of them work as servers or side jobs that don’t offer direct deposit. It’s also convenient to have a location nearby in the event you make a mistake as they typically only have one card they rely on.

I dislike BofA and Wells Fargo but they’re extremely convenient, especially if it’s difficult to get around.

I bank at Charles Schwab and find myself using Wells Fargo atms 80% of the time.

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Is she working, a student, both? Does she have significant savings or will this be mostly a spend account?

I know everyone here loves to love credit unions, and that's great! They offer a lot of benefits if you are strictly looking at the return on savings accounts, getting a car loan from them, etc.

I like Chase because sometimes the best way to handle things is to go to the branch in person, and I've always had a great experience doing so. I wouldn't recommend that you use Chase for things like investment accounts however as their fees are very high. But for checking and savings, I believe the convenience of having physical branches everywhere should be part of the consideration.

Credit unions aren't everywhere, so you have to confident that you can get everything you need done over the internet or a phone call. I've never had as much success with customer service agents over the phone/chat as I have in person.

I banked with Wells Fargo in the past, but they wouldn't stop trying to push extra services on me everything I entered a branch, so I left them.

Plenty of online-only banks offer ATM access through Allpoint or similar, and will reimburse ATM fees.

The bigger concern with banks like BofA are overdraft and account maintenance fees, which are more likely to penalize the young.

Depends on where you live but an 18 year old just starting out I would look at local to you credit unions or banks. If there looking at going to college many of those have favorable interest bearing checking/savings accounts for students with no fees or minimums and may be a big help if they would need a car loan or something in the near future. Personally think capitalone for regular credit card is fine but there savings and checking accounts sucks and anything they have that will pay you interest you have to have such high balances for it to work that its just not a great place for someone just starting out. Not saying this is everywhere but the credit union that I am at currently is paying 4% apy on checking accounts as long as you have 12 debit card transactions a month, direct deposit check of $400 a month and online banking statements. No minimum amounts required. Something to think about.

When I turned 18, my mom insisted I open up my first checking account with a local brick-and-mortar bank in my area because she was sure I'd have all sorts of edge-case-type things I'd need to go in person to talk to a real banker about as I was embarking on my adult life. (She was also sure I would need to write a check every now and again.) College, multiple international moves, multiple different housing/renting situations, and multiple jobs later, I don't think I've ever gone to the brick-and-mortar location once, and I've certainly never written anybody a check. I do all of my banking on my phone.

I don't think there's any harm in opening an account at a brick-and-mortar bank; I've had a generally positive experience with mine, and still use that checking account as a "triage" space for my money before using it to pay off credit card statements, redirecting it to a HYSA, etc. But in this day and age there's not a compelling reason to stick with a brick-and-mortar if there's an online bank whose benefits you like better imo.

What I WOULD recommend is, if your 18yo is going to be a student this fall, getting them set up with a student credit card. I used my debit card all throughout college, stayed in the dorms all four years so never rented or paid a utility bill, then ran off to live abroad for a few years after graduating. By the time I came back, I had zero credit history whatsoever, but had aged out of any sort of young-and-new-to-credit offers. Building up from zero enough to successfully rent an apartment turned out to be a huge pain. On the other hand, I told my younger sister she had to get a student credit card while she was still in school, which she did and basically just used it to buy her groceries; and she was getting all sorts of great credit card offers within a few months of graduating and had no trouble at all landing a nice apartment in the city where she found her first job.

Primarily an online bank like Ally, CapOne, Schwab. If needed, perhaps a local CU to deal with occasional cash.

Just stear clear of any "retail banks" like Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, BoA. These places are full of BS fees, poor customer service, and poor products. They spend a lot on marketing and branch locations so they get a lot of customers, but they really offer no positives as far as banking experience.

If a bank has a "low balance" fee on their checking account that's a pretty clear sign you should avoid them.

Yes and yes to your first questions. I'm not sure what qualifies as "significant" but she does currently have both a "checking" and "savings" account, they are just tied to my account w/USAA.

I would also recommend having your young adult get a credit card. It was a great way for our son to build credit. The bank will gradually increase the limit. It helped out son quality for a mortgage; he is a homeowner at 23.

Thanks for your very thoughtful reply and sharing your experiences!

I had a student checking account with my savings on overdraft protect, so I personally never had either of those issues.

From one parent to another, congrats!

If they are going into college, often they can get a college specific checking account that has no fees. I used Chase for mine and never had a single issue with it. You can just ask to set up a college account. If not, Chase is still a great bank and ive never had any problems. Good luck!

What I would do with what I know of your situation is do the local credit union where she will be living for checking and a credit card, then do a savings account online with Ally, Wealthfront, etc that pays higher interest so she has the habit of using that account as she gets older.

I have a Capitol One MONEY teen checking account for my son and we're both happy with it. I also made him an authorized user on one of my credit cards at age 13 so he already has an established credit history. If your son is 18, he (emphasis on he!) really open an account anywhere--i would just look for something with no fees (and no minimum balances) since those can be gotchas.

I bank with Discover and I love them! There are tons of no fee ATMs. They also have a student credit card which helped me build credit when I was in college. I’ve been with them for probably 10 years and I have never had any bad experiences. I get my paychecks early always, their customer service is top tier, and banking is so easy. Everything is all in one place online.

Since your kid is now an adult I would for sure set them up with their own bank so they know how it all works for when they are eventually on their own or married. I would also help them get started on a budget! I wish my parents showed me how to budget sooner in life. What we use now is YNAB and it is a life saver and makes money not as stressful.