Emigrant Direct Savings Account - 4.0% APY

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If you just have money sitting in your Bank of America or Wells Fargo savings account, it will grow faster by putting it into Emigrant Direct (4.0% APY). They are a member of FDIC, so your savings should be safe up to $100,000.

- http://www.emigrant-direct.com

Note : ING Direct offers 3.40% APY now. If you feel better with them, follow this post.
 
I was just getting used to ING Direct too :(

Anyone used Emigrant Direct before? Any setbacks compared to ING?
 
greyknight17 said:
I was just getting used to ING Direct too :(

Anyone used Emigrant Direct before? Any setbacks compared to ING?
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Emigrant is a fine bank. I used them when I lived in NY. Only setback is that they don't have the great referral or sign-up offers that ING does. I also heard their application process is not as easy as ING's.
 
I see it's linked to your current checking account. Does your money reside in your current bank or the Emigrant bank? I currently earn interest in my current account so I am uncertain.
 
You can ACH (a cheap way of wiring money) between your Emigrant account and your linked checking account. It's important to bear in mind that an ACH takes 2-4 business days, so if you dump all your money into Emigrant, you won't have the ability to pull it out whenever you want. Granted, 2-4 days is just as fast as any brokerage account (or in some cases faster) but I'd only use it as a savings account.

Also: You can take a maximum of 6 withdrawls from your savings account monthly. And the 4.0% could very well change at the end of the year (up or down), it's not a fixed rate.
 
bubbafett said:
I see it's linked to your current checking account. Does your money reside in your current bank or the Emigrant bank? I currently earn interest in my current account so I am uncertain.
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The money is transfered to Emigrant back, you set how much and when. If you want the money back into your checking account it would take 2-3 business day. Check out how much interest is your current back offering you in your checking/savings account. I doubt is even close.
 
I've used Emigrant for a while now. Transfers are just as fast as ING. Their website isn't as pretty but it works. Their interest rate has always been above ING. At 4% right now it is the largest gap I have ever seen from ING. It links to your checking account. The money resides in Emigrant's bank.

Look for Emigrant to unveil a credit card service in mid-November that is supposed to be better than the 1% cash back you see now.
 
I have been with Emigrant for more than a year. The website is bad. Customer service: pretty rude people out there on the phone.
I don't care about the CS. The rates are competitive (higher than ING) and the e-transfers are pretty fast.
Bankrate.com gives it 4 stars (Sound company). These are some details.

Emigrant Savings Bank was founded by Irish emigrants as a mutual savings bank in 1850. By the 1920's it had grown to become the largest savings bank in the nation.

Today, Emigrant has $10 billion in assets and more than $1 billion in net worth. It operates as a full service bank through 36 branches in the New York metropolitan area, and through EmigrantDirect.com on the internet.

As a traditional savings bank, Emigrant originates home loans in New York and 19 other states. Last year, Emigrant provided 5,000 home loans totaling $1.62 billion. As of year-end 2004, Emigrant has 250,000 depositors and 22,000 home loans. In addition to its own substantial loan portfolio, Emigrant has a loan-servicing portfolio of more than $7 billion for third parties.

Emigrant's wealth management division, New York Private Bank & Trust, has its own deposit products starting at $1,000,000. Emigrant Savings Bank is regulated by both State and Federal regulators. All deposits are insured by the FDIC up to the legal limit.
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Guess I will have an account with them also LOL.

For that Bankrate chart, which column shows the interest rate (if any)? I was looking at HSBC (which I barely have any $$$ in now) and correct me if I'm wrong, but is that 3.75% that I see there for Savings? I don't recall it ever being even close to that (take away the 3 maybe LOL).
 
Greyknight, I think the HSBC 3.75% rate is only for their online-only savings account like ING's and ED's. These banks setup separate online-only divisions with low cost structures (no checking accounts) so they can offer these high savings rates. If you checkout HSBC's website you'll see they have a separate 'online-only' savings account separate from their other savings accounts.

As for ED...I've had my ED savings account for a few months now and I've had an ING account for a couple years. What I've seen is that ED adjusts their rate up much quicker than ING does after a Fed rate hike. They just raised their rate to 4% on the same day as the last Fed hike. ING was quicker this time in raising their rate from 3.3% to 3.4% but often they don't raise their rate for 3-4 weeks after a Fed hike.

Like others have said, the ED website isn't as pretty as ING's but it works and the transfer time is the same. Transfers (into and out of) have always hit my checking account the next business day after a scheduled transfer on both of their websites. I think I'll be shifting my larger savings amount to ED now that there's such a difference in rates between the two.

Steve
 
I'm clearing out my ING Direct account right now.. throwing everything into Emmigrant Direct. :)
 
icijean said:
:bigok: Right now, they are the top of the chart:

Bankrate chart
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Wow :eek:
In this chart there isn't even ING, I did not know how many other banks offered a higher rate than ING. Thank :bigok:
 
TweakFreak said:
I have been with Emigrant for more than a year. The website is bad. Customer service: pretty rude people out there on the phone.
I don't care about the CS. The rates are competitive (higher than ING) and the e-transfers are pretty fast.
Bankrate.com gives it 4 stars (Sound company). These are some details.
Click to expand...

Where is this quote from?
 
I ask ING for a rate increase, to match ED, see what they have to say. This is their response:

ING DIRECT does not base rates on one competitor, we base them on overall market conditions as well as on our competition.

Even though another bank may currently offer a higher rate, we feel that we offer the better deal for several key reasons.

ING DIRECT has consistently paid one of the nation's highest yield with no fees and no minimums for more than 4 years. We have a low cost business model that allows us to continue to offer these high rates over the long term.

ING DIRECT's privacy policy exceeds government standards. We have an opt-in policy, which means that we do not share private Customer information with affiliates and other third parties without express permission from our Customers. Other banks may share this type of Customer information automatically, unless the Customer tells them not to.

ING DIRECT has Sales Associates who are thoroughly trained on all of ING DIRECT's products answering the phone. Our Customers can always speak to a "person". ING DIRECT Sales Associates strive to answer the phone in 20 seconds or less to provide an excellent Customer experience.

If you are simply looking for a higher rate, keep in mind that we also offer CDs which earn as high as 4.65% APY depending on the term that you select.

If you have any more questions, give us a call 1-800-ING-DIRECT.

Thanks for your interest in ING DIRECT,
Nicole

**Keep in mind ING DIRECT also offers competitive loan products including the Orange Mortgage and Orange Home Equity Line. For more info, visit http://home.ingdirect.com/products/products.html.
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I think I'm switching to ED
Thanks for the tip :bigok:
 
LOL

"ING DIRECT has consistently paid one of the nation's highest yield with no fees and no minimums for more than 4 years. We have a low cost business model that allows us to continue to offer these high rates over the long term."

That tells you no one even read your email.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll talk it over with the spouse.
 
OMG :eek:
I went to their website, and try to open an account.
You give them everything, SSN, Name, Address and Checking account.
In their form they have a minimum funding ammout of 0.0
I finished the application, then they make 2 deposits of less that a dollar and you go to their website to their website to confirm this deposits.
Then you get a confirmation that they are going to send you a letter by snail mail with your account number a instructions on how to open the account.
After 19 days I called them and yeah, the CS is rude. American (not indian) but rude. I don't know what I prefer, "well-mannered-I-cannot-undestand-what-ur-saying" indian or rude.
After argueing with the costumer service she says that the reason why my account was open and closed is because I chose 0.0 as funding. Even though in their website form they have: "Minimum deposit amount ($0.00)"
Damn it, is hard to give this guys my hard earn dough. :34:
 
Update!
I opened an account with Emigrant and it was hell. First of all their website has a field called Initial Deposit and under it it say (Minimim 0.00)
So I entered 0.00, after a couple of weeks of not hearing from them I emailed. No answer.... I called, stayed on the phone for an hr and then finally a person picked up. They said the account closed because it had no funds. After telling the person that the website does not require a minimum deposit and she saying that I have to I decided to send them a check (like she told me) of 1 dollar. OK, I send them a check and nothing. I don't get anything on the mail. Then I call again, 1 hr on hold, and they said the fixed it that I'm going to get a letter welcome package with instructions. I do get the letter after a couple of weeks and and try to login and get an error. I call again, 1 hr wait, and they fix it but it shows until a couple of dates. Now I can see my 1 dollar there but under Available Funds I see 0 (ZERO!), I email, no answer, I have to call but, do I really want to give this guys my money? Damn it.
 
im curious, what is the movitation behind opening a new savings account if a deposit is not made? those are not fixed rates, why not save the hassle and open when fundage is ready? do they owe you a signup bonus?

its not good to read the experience you went through and i am asking since i am considering them.
 
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