TCF Bank Review: Account Good for You?

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TCF is a Midwestern bank with almost 400 branches throughout the Midwest area. TCF offers a wide array of banking products for personal and business use, but their ATM network may be narrower than others

TCF offers checking, savings, mortgage products, personal loans, business loans, credit cards, and corporate banking products. They are big on community development and educating consumers on how to be financially savvy.

You may find TCF banks in your local grocery store, Target, or as a freestanding location. Keep reading to see if you should use TCF's banking services.

Services Overview

TCF offers the following services:

• Savings: You have a variety of savings products to choose from with TCF. Their savings accounts cater to various age groups, such as teens or seniors. They also have high-yield savings/money market accounts for those who have more money to save and want to earn more interest.
• Checking: You can open a barebones checking account or an interest-bearing account at TCF. You'll need to meet the average monthly balance requirements in order to avoid the monthly maintenance fees.
• Money Market: If you want higher interest rates on your larger deposits, the TCF Power Money Market may be more your speed. In exchange for the higher interest rates, you'll need an average monthly balance of $1,500 to avoid the monthly maintenance fee. You may also be restricted on the number of withdrawals you can make per month before incurring a fee.
• CDs: You can choose from a variety of terms ranging between 3 months and 10 years. The longer you tie up your money, the higher the interest rate you will get paid.
• IRAs: TCF representatives can help you set up the right IRA to help set you up for retirement. They offer a variety of accounts, each of which has their own requirements, such as withdrawal and contribution limits.

How to Find Your TCF Routing Number Your TCF routing number is located in the bottom left corner of your TCF checks. Each state in which TCF is located in has its own routing number, so make sure you use the routing number associated with your state when making transfers or setting up direct deposit.

Reasons We Like TCF Bank

• Many of the TCF Bank branches have extended hours beyond your standard bank. Many of the TCF Bank branches are located inside local grocery stores, making it convenient for you to do your banking before/after you shop.
• TCF offers teen and student bank accounts with no monthly maintenance fee. The teen account is targeted towards 14 - 17-year-olds. It's meant to help teens start to understand how to handle money. The student bank account is for college students aged 18 to 24 years old. Both accounts require at least $25 to open an account.
• TCF offers a "senior" checking account. This interest-bearing account does carry a monthly maintenance fee, but if you have more than $200 direct deposited into your account or you make at least 15 withdrawals per month, the fee is waived.
• You can open a savings account with as little as $25. TCF offers several savings accounts, all of which earn interest. The more money you commit to keep in the account, though, the higher interest rates you can get. The monthly maintenance fees do increase with each higher tier savings account, but you can waive it by meeting the minimum balance requirements. The highest amount you need for the Money Market Savings Account is $1,500, which is low compared to other banks' requirements.
• TCF allows CD laddering. This allows you to stagger your maturity dates. This way you can control when you have access to your funds while possibly increasing the interest rates you earn on your money. You can monitor your CDs and revisit your strategy anytime with TCF online banking.
• TCF offers a variety of IRA products. You can open a traditional, Roth, educational, or rollover IRA. These accounts don't have a monthly maintenance fee and they offer competitive interest rates. Just like any other IRA product, though, they do incur early withdrawal penalties and maximum contribution limits will apply.
• You can pay bills online. Once you set up online bill pay, you can pay many of your bills right through your TCF account. You can pay companies or individuals. You can set up one-time payments or recurring payments to make it easy to stay on track with your bills.
• You can set up automatic transfers. If saving money is hard for you, try setting up automatic transfers. You decide how much to transfer from your checking to savings account and the frequency. Once set up, the money automatically transfers.
• TCF offers a prepaid Visa card. If you have trouble staying on budget and are tired of paying overdraft fees, a prepaid Visa may help. You preload the card with funds and spend them as you would with a regular Visa. You can reload the card with cash at any TCF branch and you can use it with Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
• You can bank on-the-go with TCF's mobile app. You can view all of your account information or use the "Quick Glance" option. This option gives you your current balance and the last 10 transactions on one page.
• You can set up alerts. Whether you want to know when a transaction takes place in your account or you want to monitor your balance periodically, you can receive alerts. This can be helpful if you don't check your account often and want to know when something out of the ordinary takes place in your account.

How to Contact TCF Customer Service: You can reach TCF customer service at 1-800-823-2265. You can also search their Frequently Asked Questions on their Customer Service page or send them a "Tweet" on their Twitter handle.

Reasons You May Want to Look Elsewhere

• The fees can be steep. The overdraft fee alone is $37 per day. TCF can charge this fee up to five times per day for every transaction that exceeds your balance and is over $5.
• Check deposits made with a teller can take up to two business days to be available. Typically, the first $250 of the check is available the same day, but the remaining funds take longer.
• If you use an ATM machine outside of the TCF network, you may pay $3 per transaction plus the fee that the host ATM charges. If you use an ATM outside of the US, TCF charges $5 plus 3% of the transaction, and you also incur the charges the host ATM charges.

How It Compares

US Bank:
US Bank is known for its feature-rich mobile app, which may appeal to tech-savvy consumers. US Bank does charge hefty monthly fees and has slightly hard to reach requirements to waive those fees, such as direct deposits of at least $1,000 per month or average monthly balances of at least $1,500. Wells Fargo:
Wells Fargo has many more ways that you can waive your monthly maintenance fee, such as making 10 debit card purchases per month or receiving at least $500 in monthly direct deposits. Wells Fargo also has 5,000 branches throughout the nation, making it a convenient bank for many.

Bottom Line

If you are looking for convenience rather than high interest rates, you'll find it at TCF. If you don't bank much outside of your own area and know that you'll have access to TCF ATMs when you need them, it may be a convenient option. You won't get rich on the interest rates and fees may eat away at your profits, but if you pay close attention to the minimum requirements, you can make the best out of a conveniently located bank.
1/16/2022 Update: TCF Bank is no longer available on CreditDonkey. This offer may have been discontinued or may no longer be available to new customers.

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