Modern banking

I opened my first bank account when I was perhaps 12 or so with Washington Mutual. After Wamu became Chase, I stayed on as a customer and have used them as my primary banking for the last 20+ years.

In the last few years, I’ve been expanding our families “financial toolkit”. Sophia and I opened a joint checking account at a neobank. I also dabbled with another neobank to check out the features.

I used my Chase account primarily for the Sapphire Reserve card and my spending. Then would use the joint account for liquid savings targets for Sophia and I. And I used another neobank Yotta for small emergency savings.

While the features at these neobanks were fun at times, e.g. Yotta offered effectively a lottery, the benefits just weren’t there for me to keep those accounts open. I realized that what I wanted was the best user experience and convenience.

Chase will continue to be my primary account, but I’ve also opened a Mercury personal account and a Mercury joint account for Sophia and I. This will consolidate our financial lives into 2 institutions, one legacy player and one neobank.

The Mercury dashboard and app is just fantastic and easy to use. It was clearly designed by well.. tech people and the simplicity of everything there makes me a happy customer to pay the yearly fee.

Sophia and I will use the Mercury joint account for joint expenses and as a way to track our savings goals. I’ll use my Mercury personal account for my emergency cash savings given the higher yield interest I earn there. And I’ll continue to use my Chase account for monthly personal spending.