I love banking here. It very well located and I never have trouble parking as there is space in front and a small parking lot in the back. We are no where near their largest clients but they always remember us and we never have to wait in line for anything. They have been able to help me with a lot of outside the box foreign currency transactions. There fees are very competitive.

It's very comfortable feeling on the inside down to the serve yourself Keurig maker with loads of coffee options. It's also nice to have a direct link to someone rather than calling an annoying 800 number and waiting on hold forever. I never feel stress when I walk into this branch, in fact I like to. Our mortgage is with Bank of America and I had to deal with the branch once and was beyond aggravated by the entire experience.

Oh and I love that they have a super cute dog water bowl and one with biscuits out in front. It's so La Jolla, I love it.

A decade ago I used to bank at Wells Fargo, mostly because they seemed to have ATMs everywhere. But I always felt like a very insignificant customer to a very huge institution.

Compounding this perception, my local branch back then was the one on the corner of I-5 and Lomas Santa Fe Dr. in Solana Beach that used to be robbed at gunpoint with disturbing regularity. So the staff at the branch usually had an understandably cautious (almost stand-offish) collective demeanor, I thought.

My experiences as a Northern Trust customer have been almost exactly the opposite, I am happy to say. Both this branch and the one by UTC are pretty small. So when I call the bank, many times the people who answer the phone know who I am. There's never a line of customers when I go into a branch, either. So the service is very personal, almost familiar, which is very comforting (and surprising at first, I found).

Any time I have had even small administrative issues, all I've had to do is call the local branch and they have sorted everything out for me quickly.

Even during the height of the world financial crisis almost two years ago now, I had no problem getting someone on the phone instantly when I called and they were happy to make any changes I wished to my accounts immediately.

If there was ever a test of their customer service, it was then. That's when loyalty is truly earned. And it was...