NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Michele Norris Shares Kitchen Must-Haves and the Nerds Break Down Switching Banks for Better Rates

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Find out when it’s worth splurging on kitchen gear and how to switch banks without losing your financial footing. What kitchen tools are actually worth the money? Is switching to an online bank really worth the hassle? Hosts Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola discuss the value of investing in high-quality kitchen gear and what to consider when moving your money to an online bank so you can make smarter, more intentional financial choices. They begin by speaking with Michele Norris, host of the podcast Your Mama’s Kitchen. She explains how you can align your purchases with your cooking habits — without falling for social media hype. Plus, they discuss how to think about home kitchen upgrades, including tips and tricks on choosing the right knife or stove, knowing when to skip premium brands, and avoiding aesthetic-driven purchases that don’t match your lifestyle.  Then, NerdWallet consumer banking editor Ruth Sarreal joins Sean and Elizabeth to discuss how to evaluate whether switching banks makes sense. They explore how to compare rates and fees, keep your auto-payments organized, and transition smoothly without damaging your credit or missing a bill. NerdWallet’s roundup of the best online checking accounts: https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/banking/online-checking-accounts  In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: high yield savings account, switching banks, best kitchen appliances to buy, online-only banks, SoFi checking account, bank account switching process, best knives for home cooks, Vitamix vs Ninja blender, Le Creuset alternatives, when to splurge on appliances, budgeting for kitchen upgrades, online banks vs traditional banks, how to switch banks, ATM access with online banks, pros and cons of online banks, choosing a stove, best air fryer to buy, kitchen appliances worth the money, countertop appliances, instant pot storage, what to look for in a blender, managing multiple bank accounts, best checking accounts, how to avoid bank fees, how to transfer auto-payments, comparing bank APYs, personal finance for home cooks, financial planning for kitchen purchases, emotional value of kitchen gear, and sentimental kitchen items. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.

Sean, what's the most expensive kitchen item you own? Well, when my house was being built, I splurged on an oven with a gas range instead of the standard electric range. And let me tell you, Elizabeth, it has more than paid for itself with delicious meals. What about you, Elizabeth? It's probably the ice cream maker I received as part of a teen building activity, but never used. Thank you, NerdWallet.

Well, this episode, we're talking about where it's worth splurging when it comes to home kitchens. If you're thinking of upgrading your appliances or maybe just buying a really fancy knife set, this one is for you. Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles. And I'm Elizabeth Ayola.

This episode, we talk with a listener and a fellow nerd about switching banks amidst falling yields on savings accounts. But first, we are going to chat about where it's worth spending your money in the kitchen and when you might be able to get by on that knockoff version of whatever countertop appliance is trending at the moment. My partner, Garrett, is the cook of the the house and I like to encourage him along by buying nice things for the kitchen every once in a while. And let me tell you, some of the stuff can get so expensive.

Elizabeth, what was the last kitchen gadget or appliance that you bought and how much did it cost you? It was a small cutting knife that I bought from Target for like 12 bucks. But whether you need to buy a knife set or restock your spices, all that stuff can add up. Now we're going to chop it up with Michelle Norris about where it's worth spending a lot of money in your home kitchen. Michelle is a host of podcasts, Your Mama's Kitchen, author of Our Hidden Conversations,

and a contributing editor on MSNBC. I will also add that Michelle has an impressive resume. She has won Peabody, Emmy, DuPont, and Goldsmith Awards over the years. Welcome to Smart Money, Michelle. Hello. Well, Michelle, shopping for items in your kitchen can be a little intimidating sometimes because there are so many options and different price points. How do you think people can strike a balance between buying quality items while

also working within their budget? This is a really good question and it depends on the individual. So I'm going to try to give you a blanket answer, but you're going to have to edit this based on where you live, how you cook, how often you cook and what your budget is. Generally, I think if it's something that you're going to use all the time, it's worth getting the best that you can get. Get the best knives that you can get, and then take care of them.

If you're cooking, you're gonna use a knife every day, and a really good knife can make a difference. It's about safety, making sure that you keep the knife sharp, you're less likely to cut yourself, that knife is less likely to sort of slide out outside the onion and cut you accidentally if you get a good clean cut through something. But you don't necessarily have to buy the $500 Japanese knife. That may not be necessary. But get at least a good carving knife or a paring knife, something that you use every day to chop, and then something that's a little bit heavier

that you can use, say, to chop root vegetables. If you want to cut up a chicken, something that has a little bit of weight and a really nice sharp edge on it, and then take the time to, if you're getting the knife set, invest in what you need to keep it sharp. So that's an example of where it might be worth spending money.

I like your tip about being selective around what kind of knives you get, because I bought my partner a very nice knife block for Christmas, and I think it came with eight knives. We use two of them on the regular. Yeah. So that's a good point around just knowing which ones you're actually going to be using day in, day out. If you're on the keto plan and you don't eat a lot of carbs, you don't eat a lot of bread,

you don't need the bread knife. You know, you might not need the whole set. So there is a lot of talk with the Duchess on TV, Meghan Markle, about Les Crusais. And this is another example, you know, do I really need an actual Les Crusais pot? Well, it depends on how much you cook. And it depends on if you're willing to make an investment. There are some pretty good alternatives and there are some pretty good knockoffs. So you might not need to spend the money, but you know, Stob, Lodge, there are a lot of other people who make cast iron

or enamel cookware that are also very, very good. One of the questions that people ask, do I really need a Vitamix? You have lots of options. There's a Vitamix, there's the Ninja, there are a couple of other high-end blenders. You know, Vitamix is gonna set you back. It's gonna cost a couple hundred dollars.

They go on sale every so often. That's a good way to get it, is when they go on sale. Sometimes you can buy refurbished or open box items, but this is another individual question. One thing I wonder too is how much people can really tell the difference between the smoothie coming from a Vitamix versus a less expensive blender. Are you refined enough in your cooking and your smoothie consumption to tell the difference? I'm not personally.

Well, if you're cooking smoothies, you might not need a Vitamix, right? Magic Bullet makes a pretty good smoothie, even if you gunk it up with some of that high protein powder that you can use or, you know, and it still does a good job. But if you are making soups, if you are making pesto, you can make a almost something like a gelato in a Vitamix because it has that much horsepower. It has so much horsepower that you can make a soup and it heats the soup in the Vitamix. So it depends again on what you're doing. I'm wondering whether there are some kitchen items that people should never be cheap about,

even if they are beginner cooks. A stove is an item that gets a lot of wear and tear. And so you want the best one that you can afford, not just for cooking, but for safety. So, you know, whether it's electric, whether it's induction, whether it's gas, you want to make sure that it's safe. But I would say a word about replacing a stove. Again, this is know your skill level, know how you cook. We are inundated, particularly on social media with people who have these high performance kitchens. And, you know, it looks like a restaurant stove. Do you need a griddle? Do you ever make pancakes?

Do you need all six burners? Do you need a super high performance stove? Because if you don't cook you're gonna burn everything up. Trust me on this. The other benefit that people don't recognize perhaps in some of the higher performing stoves and some of the mid-range stoves are starting to pick up on this now also, is the simmer function. So if you like to make a nice ragu on a Sunday, and you wanna make a pot of greens on a Sunday,

you wanna make a lovely soup of some kind, you can keep it on such a low simmer that you can keep it on the grate or on the induction surface for three, four hours and not worry about it burning up or reducing too much. It's this, you know, constant low, just barely there flame that lets something really cook down, that lets the flavor sort of marinate and move all throughout the dish without worrying about it burning or sticking to the bottom. You're making me want to make a nice sauce for some pasta now, but completely

agree that a good stove can really make the difference between whether you want to cook at all or not. I had plenty of crappy apartments in my early twenties where I was fighting my stove every egg I cooked. And I ended up eating out a lot more than I probably should have because it was such an uphill battle to cook anything. And I love this conversation about stoves because as I guess a newbie to appliances and even though I'm renting, I have an electric stove in my house.

I am Nigerian so I cook a lot of stews and sometimes fried foods and what I'm finding is that the stove top is staining with oil on the electric stove. And I grew up with gas stoves. Aesthetically, I love the look of an electric stove, but I'm realizing that once I get to a point of buying a stove of my own, a gas stove might be better in terms of maintenance and longevity and things like that. So what do you have to say, Michelle, for people who are maybe drawn to kitchen appliances or any kind of kitchen items because of the aesthetics but are not thinking about what works best for them,

especially with social media pressure and just wanting your kitchen to look aesthetically nice. Ignore the social media pressure. Find the kitchen that's going to work well for you. And it's really hard to do because I have in my own house a stack of kitchen magazines, you know, with the dream kitchen that I love to have. But then I think about how I really cook.

And that's what you really have to do, is be aware of how you cook, how often you cook, how many people are in the kitchen when you cook. Do the things that make sense. And that's true for appliances too. When you have, we now have kitchens that have entire appliance garages because people have so many countertop appliances

and they're trying to find a place for them. Like I purchased an instant pot because I saw everyone using an instant pot and that thing is taking up a whole lot of space in a cupboard right now. I just don't have a lot of use for it. Other people love it. It's probably gonna make its way to a friend of mine's house

who does a lot of cooking and makes a lot of stews and she probably would make better use of it. You talked about things that are worth spending a little bit of money on. I think an air fryer is something that's worth researching to understand, again, safety is a big part of this because you don't want something that's gonna leach anything into the food, so you wanna look at

what it's actually made of and how you cook and how you're going to use the air fryer. Do you need a small basket? Are you going to put an entire chicken in there? Are you cooking for a family of four? So you want to be able to put four salmon filets to get a nice crust on that if you're doing like a hoisin brown sugar maple glaze on that. But the fish stays really soft and moist inside. Or will a small basket do if it's just two of you and you occasionally want to roast some broccoli?

Or, you know, do something a little simpler. Yeah, we use the air fryer on the daily in my house. It is just so convenient and I love the way it crisps the food. It's been really worth the cost. Alright, Michelle. I want to ask a quick question around protection plans on expensive kitchen items. Do you think that that's worthwhile? I know that some tend to already come with a warranty anyway, but do you think it's worth

people after maybe splurging on the items as we said, they are important, getting a protection plan on that? This is a tough one because it depends on whether it's a countertop appliance or whether it's a big item that you plan to use quite a bit. And I think stoves and refrigerators and dishwashers probably fall in a slightly different category. I think the garbage disposal might be in that category as well if you live in an area where you're allowed to have garbage disposals. So for a big appliance that you really depend

on, if your dishwasher breaks, can you live without it? Probably. Will you enjoy life without it? Maybe not. For your oven, it may be worth doing the extended warranty. For some of the other appliances, I'm not so sure about that. But it's probably not a bad idea to register things. So if you do have problems, if you do take just a moment to fill out that card that they give you and send it in, if you ever have a problem down the road, you're much more likely to get a much more welcoming response

if you actually took the time to register it. Michelle, before you go, we have two final questions for you. What is your favorite kitchen item and how much did it cost? I'm thinking a lot about my mom these days because she went to glory last year and she's just kind of on my mind all the time. And if you would ask me that a while ago,

I might have said the air fryer because I too use it every single day. That is an appliance that gets a workout. I have this mixing bowl that is jade green, and I have always loved this bowl. And then when I was going through photos, I realized it was almost this little rosebud moment. I realized that in a bunch of pictures in our kitchen,

my mom had the same bowl, jade green. And I got mine, I think from William Sinoba, maybe so I'll tell you. I got it at one of these, you know, high-end culinary stores, and it was on sale, and it just spoke to me, and I purchased it, and I just love it. It's where I make pancake batter. If I make cornbread, it's where I make the batter for that. It's, you know, it's something that has a handle on it. It looks like a pitcher, but it's a big kind of mixing bowl, and it's jade. And that jadeite, I think, is what they called it. I don't know if it was made by corning or anchor hockey,

but it was quite popular for some time. And then I realized what I was doing is buying something from my youth, something that I saw on, because my mother made her own bread. She made cakes and pies all the time. She made rhubarb crisps. She was a fantastic cook and a very good baker. And so I realized what I was buying is something that subliminally I remembered from the kitchen counter in my childhood kitchen. And I have two of them now, because I found a second

one on sale also. I'm always scouring sales for kitchen items. That's what we like to hear. And I have two of them. And they make me happy. That's what we like to hear. Yes, and I have two of them, and they make me happy. That's so beautiful. I love that. Michelle Norris, thank you for joining us on Smart Money. Thank you for all the tips and also the stories. Thank you.

It was really, really good to be with you. All right, we're about to get to this episode's money question segment, where we help a listener think through switching banks. But before we get into that, listener, I've got a question for you. What is your money question? That financial thing that keeps you up at night or that goal you just can't seem to make progress on? Maybe you're not sure how to tackle your credit card debt.

Or you're wondering whether this is a good time to do a cash out refinance on your home. On the other hand, you may wonder whether you should pay off your car note or invest that money instead. Whatever your money question, we nerds are here to help. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. And we know that a lot of you might be feeling anxious or uncertain about the volatility and mixed signals that we've been seeing in the economy,

and whether recent changes at the federal level might mean that you need to pivot your financial plan. On Smart Money, our job is to help all of you listening make the smartest financial decisions, and that means putting the news in context so you know when it's time to adapt to changing circumstances and when it's okay to stay the course.

So for timely guidance about what the news means for your money, listen to our weekly Money News segments which go live on Thursdays and send us your questions and thoughts about what's happening in the economy. All right, let's get to this episode's Money Questions segment. That's up next, stay with us. We're back and answering your money questions to help you make smarter financial decisions.

This episode we're joined by Rachel, a listener with some questions about when switching banks to get the best rates is worth the potential hassle involved. Rachel, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, thank you. To help me answer your banking questions, Rachel, we have NerdWallet banking editor Ruth Sarial. Ruth, welcome to Smart Money. Hi, Sean. Thanks for having me. So, Rachel, I want to start by hearing a little bit about your financial life right now. Like, where do you feel good? Where do you think you might have some room

for improvement? I feel good about lowering our debt on credit cards slowly but surely. And we did start some high yield savings accounts for our children through Ally, which has a really high interest rate, but we're kind of stuck on saving up for our emergency fund. Like we can't quite get that right. But we keep hitting those snags of actual emergencies. For example, our roof, we had to put in a new roof for that. So I think we're struggling with our emergency

fund. But I think slowly but surely we're knocking down our credit card. Tell me a little bit more about your credit card debt. How much do you have? Right now I have about three or 4000 and my spouse probably about the same. How do you approach paying that off? I pay off a little bit more than they're asking.

Sometimes double. We racked up the debt because we were trying to conceive and unfortunately, you know, the health insurance only covers so much. So our debt has a lot to do with that, but we're done having kids now. So we are paying that down. Well, I'm glad to hear you're making some progress on that debt. One thing I would encourage you to do is play with a debt payoff calculator and see how quickly it would take you to be fully out of debt, paying a little above the minimum, or maybe even paying $100 more on that a month, because you might be surprised by how quickly

you can accelerate your debt payoff if you pay just a little more each month, because often paying the minimums will keep you in debt for quite a long time. Well, I could spend all day talking about debt because it's one of my favorite topics, but you wrote to us with some questions about banking and whether it makes sense to switch

to having only an online bank for checking in savings. Talk with us a little bit about why you're thinking about switching and what's drawing you to an online bank. I was thinking about switching because honestly I saw the advertisement that SoFi was doing about 0.5% interest rate for a checking account. And I found that interesting. And also a higher interest rate compared to the bank that we have with Wells Fargo.

And they just make it so convenient. Whereas SoFi, they don't have actual banks. So there's very little that I know about strictly online banking. As far as checking accounts go. I do have to admit I have the checking account and the savings account. I opened two accounts. Apparently I just clicked on savings and I think they automatically.

Enroll you or, you know, sign you up for both at the same time. With SoFi you mean? Yeah, with SoFi. And I didn't put any money in it. So these interest rates come with stipulations. So if you read on and like read the fine print, you know, they say, oh, you can get up to $300 for a bonus for this, for that, and up to, I don't know what they said, 3.8% interest on savings.

But then when you read on, they tell you, you have to put direct deposit in these accounts. Yes. Sign-up bonuses often come with catches like that, where in order to get the sign-up bonus, you might have to have a certain minimum amount in the account for a certain amount of time. And some high yield savings accounts, it may be that you have to have a certain amount of money in the savings account to get that higher yield on the savings. So that's something to consider as well looking into the fine print there. Yeah, so I was just looking into switching because of that reason. And also, I just want to move away from those bigger banks. I have a checking in a

savings account, joint savings account with my spouse and she also has a checking account and they give us pennies, like literal pennies in our savings account. So we just use that savings account kind of to like transfer money between us if we need to pay certain bills, or for me to transfer money into the Ally savings account that has a higher interest rate for our emergency fund. So I just want to get away from Wells Fargo. Ruth, I'd love to hear from you a little bit about when you think it's a good idea to switch maybe exclusively to using online banks or whether in your opinion as a banking editor, it might be a good idea to keep a brick and mortar

bank in the mix? Yeah, it sounds like Rachel has the right idea. I think it's a great idea to switch to online banks when you are looking for an account that earns a lot more interest than a traditional bank will offer you, or if you prefer to do most or all of your bank tasks online. And the great thing about some of these online banks' savings accounts is that they'll have sub-accounts, so you can really specify what you're putting money away for. You can specify that it's for free vacation, or say IVF, or whatever needs you have coming up. Rachel, it seems like you've been using your savings accounts with a little bit of that

savings bucket, savings goal, sinking fund, whatever you want to call it, functionality where you've been saving for your kids, right? Yeah, I had one for about six years now for my oldest and just recently opened up a new one for our nine month old. I also have a separate account for myself because I'm a teacher. I have to save up money for myself over the summer when they save up for you through the school or whatever. It's just an escrow and it doesn't earn interest.

So I figured this is a better option where at least if I'm saving up thousands of dollars for myself Over the summer at least it's earning interest and yes, I do have to pay taxes on that but it's better than nothing So yeah, we have we have several different accounts now with Ally just so I'm keeping track You have Wells Fargo accounts you have Ally accounts and so fi accounts. Yes How do you keep all of this trade? Does it get confusing ever? No, I mean, right now I just opened the so fi accounts and they have $0 in them. I'm deciding on what to do with that. Do I really want to switch over, like lose my checking account with Wells Fargo and just keep the savings account because I looked into it a little bit and soFi does have a lot of ATMs around.

I was afraid of like, how do I take out actual cash because Ally doesn't offer that, I don't think or it takes a while for you to get cash money out of those accounts, whereas SoFi sends you a card. That makes me think we should probably outline some of the pros and cons of online-only banks. So do you have any other concerns besides maybe not having access to ATMs easily? What are some other cons that I might not be thinking of besides the whole like the actual cash? I mean, there aren't I don't think they're drive-thrus ATMs. That's the con.

Ruth, are there any other cons or maybe huge pros that we haven't addressed around online banks that you think Rachel should keep in mind? Yeah, as far as cons go, generally, online banking is tough if you prefer to do bank tasks in person. Like go to a teller. And you mentioned ATM. So if you often need to deposit cash,

you'd need to make sure that your online bank makes it easy and ideally free to do so. Because some online banks don't accept cash, as you mentioned, or they may limit how much you can deposit, or they might charge a fee for making cash deposits. Though some do let you deposit cash for free. As for pros, again, the much higher interest rates

are a great incentive for switching to an online bank. And then along with that, you'll pay fewer fees. Because online banks don't have the overhead costs that come with having branches. They're able to minimize or not charge fees and they can pay higher interest rates. And Rachel, have you looked into any fees that you might have to pay from either your Wells Fargo account and how that might compare to Ally or SoFi?

No, I have not. That might be a good thing to consider as you're looking at these three different banks that you could go with. Which one maybe gives you the best interest rate, which one has the lowest fees, which one is as accessible as you want it to be. Those seem like the three big categories that would be important to you. Yes, definitely. And, you know, it's important to note too, that like you have set up right now, Rachel,

you can have both a traditional and an online bank and they may well serve different purposes for your banking needs. Ruth, I'd like to hear maybe some of the pros and cons of traditional banks too. Being a customer of both types of banks can be really useful. Traditional banks do offer some advantages. You can generally get that in-person service and the biggest traditional banks have a lot of branches and a good number of ATMs, so access to those kind of things is convenient. If you need like quarters or crisp bills for example it's helpful to be able to walk into a bank

and get those things. And the big banks do generally offer robust online and mobile services that can compete with those of online banks. But the biggest downside of traditional banks is a really big one. And as we just mentioned before, it's interest rates. So traditional banks, APYs are generally dismal like 0.01%. So you have no reward for keeping your money with them. And another big drawback is that many traditional banks still charge expensive overdraft fees and other fees, whereas a lot of online banks and credit unions have eliminated those.

Well, I want to talk about credit unions for a minute actually because that hasn't been discussed so far. I am a huge proponent of credit unions. They're a way where you can keep your money in your community. They tend to offer really favorable rates for their members on things like auto loans. And they, uh, may allow you to align your money with your values a little more. And Rachel, it seems like that's something that's important to you to having your money in an institution that reflects some of your values. Have you considered a credit union? No, I have not.

I bet you have a bunch in your area that might be worthwhile to look into. You would have the likely convenience of being able to go in and get a check if you want a check or cash if you need cash. There will be ATMs around. So it's a nice mix of having the infrastructure of a traditional bank with some of the alignment with your values potentially that you may not have with a traditional bank. The downside is that they might not have all of the bells and whistles that a fancy online bank might have, but in my experience using both a credit union and an online bank,

I find that I have my needs more than met with both of them. I want to talk a little more about yields on savings accounts. We've been seeing yields fall due to the rate cuts over the past year, the federal rate cuts over the past year. So Ruth, do you think it's still worthwhile to pursue opening an online bank account? Or is the falling yield that we're seeing on them maybe making other accounts like at a credit union something that's more appealing? I definitely think those higher APYs are still a huge draw. You can grow your money at a credit union, something that's more appealing. I definitely think those higher APYs are still a huge draw. You can grow your money at a much higher rate with an online bank than a traditional one. Rates have fallen some in the past year,

but they're still really strong at a lot of online banks and credit unions. Some of the best online savings accounts right now have rates as high as 4.40% or even higher. All right. And Rachel, you mentioned that you're curious to know about the process of switching from maybe a traditional bank or your current online bank to a new bank and that there might be some administrative burden to that.

What are your thoughts there? I was thinking about just the logistics of it, like automatic payments that I have through my checking in Wells Fargo About the timing of all that. I think I would probably have to really sit down and make a list of all my payments and Do a switch and all the accounts I just have to make sure I switch everything so that I don't miss a payment because that's Definitely not something that I want my credit score is very good right now. And I don't want to mess that up because I forgot something.

So it's just, I think it's just a lot of steps. If I were to completely change over my checking from Wells Fargo to so fi it could be a little, I don't know, bureaucratic and boring. I would say, I went through this a few years ago and it took me about an hour to make sure that I had all of my payments switched over to my new bank. And it wasn't a fun hour, but I was relieved to have it done and to know that I was as thorough as I needed to be. So you can go through your recent bank statement and just see what are all of these auto payments that you have set up and just transfer them over

to your new bank. And I will say there's also an opportunity in this to review auto payments that you have set up that might not be serving you anymore. It's those streaming subscriptions that maybe you're not using as much. What are the things that you have auto set up that maybe you don't even want anymore? So you could maybe save some money there too. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Okay, and Ruth, is there anything else around transferring over to a new account

or maybe even closing an account that Rachel should keep in mind? Sounds like you have the right ideas in mind making a list of all the things that you would need to transfer over. I think having your Wells Fargo account still open is a great idea that we can you know easily transfer money as you need to to the new account

and then it's a good idea to keep it open for a little while. That way if there's anything that comes through that hasn't cleared yet, say like an automatic payment as you mentioned or maybe a check that needs to clear, you will still be able to have that go through. And you'll just need to make sure that you have enough money in that old account to meet any minimum balance requirements so that you didn't get charged with a fee.

And I will also say that when you do close your old account, you should get confirmation in writing, and you should also check what your bank's policy is for reopening accounts in case, you know, you did forget to cancel an automatic bill payment or something. The bank may reopen the account and that could result in a negative balance and overdraft fees.

So be careful of that. And I would keep an eye out for any communication from your old bank about unexpected activity once your account is closed. Okay, that was very insightful. Thank you. Rachel, you also asked us about the functionality of a debit card from an online bank. What are your questions there?

What do you think you might need a card from a bank for? That card would be great to use to buy things with that checking account that I would have with the online bank, as well as taking money out of an ATM. So that's what I was thinking because SoFi has that and Ally, I don't believe has the card. The thing with debit cards at an online bank is that you might need to request the debit

card. They might not always automatically send you one, But just like a debit card from a traditional bank, you'd be able to use it to pay bills, make purchases, withdraw cash. Rachel, I'm wondering how you're feeling now about the process of switching over to a new bank, whether you think you'll go more into SoFi, you'll stick with Ally, maybe consider a credit union? What are your thoughts? Yes, I'm definitely I definitely have a lot to look into now.

I've heard about credit unions, but I haven't really done more research on them. So that's something that I'm going to look into. As well as I was very adamant about totally closing out my Wells Fargo checking account, but now I think I might have it there just in case. I just have to make sure that I know if there's any minimums or any requirements that are needed and that they are met just in case I don't want to be charged for anything.

But I think it is a good idea to keep my bank account open with them because they are brick and mortar bank. There's also nothing wrong with having a period of transition where you're maybe gradually moving over from Wells Fargo and going further into Ally or maybe considering SoFi or Credit Union. I did that when I was rearranging my banking setup a few years ago and I actually still have a checking account with a big national bank that I've had open since middle school and I pretty much only keep it open to pay my mom my part of the cell phone bill and a couple other payments here or there. Rachel, I just want to add that there might be a credit union for teachers in your area and they might have like special benefits and perks that would be beneficial to you and that would be a good medium or a good replacement

for a traditional bank, because then you could still, you know, be able to walk in and deposit or withdraw cash there. And if you need to have that account to transfer money to your online bank account. Well, Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. And Ruth, sorry, thank you for coming on and answering the banking questions with us. Thanks for having me. That's all we have for this me. And Ruth, sorry, thank you for coming on and answering the banking questions with us.

Thanks for having me. That's all we have for this episode. Remember listener that we are here to answer your money questions. So turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at podcast at nerdwallet.com. Come back on Thursday, or we'll cover the latest financial news and answer a listener's question about how to pay

off tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. Follow Smart Money on your favorite podcast app including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart radio to automatically download new episodes. Here's our brief disclaimer, we are not your financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances. This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland, Hilary Georgi helped with editing, Nick Charisame mixed our audio,

and a big thank you to NerdWallet's editors for all their help. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds!