As suggested in my survey, I am continuing to freshen up the parts of this site that are getting a bit dated. My old online savings account comparison just wasn’t cutting it, as a lot of new competitive accounts have entered the scene recently. I can’t keep up with every single bank, so instead I decided just to list what I see as the major ones and link to all the information that I’ve gathered about each. It’s now up on my Popular Posts section on the right.
Or, go directly to my new Online Savings Accounts Comparison page.
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I liked the chart better from before 🙁
I know, I think I did too. I can only fit 4 banks that way though without messing with the blog format. Vertically later perhaps. 🙂
forgot gmac bank.
they are 5.25%, free checks/atm card, and i think they give atm rebates .. (didnt request atm card)
maybe you can do an excel spreadsheet monthly or quarterly, that includes the biggies… virtual, presidential, hsbc, emigrant, ing, gmac, and maybe some others like etrade moneymarket, zionsbank, citi (esaving/EZcheck combo), and others. Matt is right, GMAC moneymarket savings refunds atm’ owner fees (upto 4 fees, but only upto $6); citibank does the same thing, if you are outside a county region of CitiFinancial Center.
Yeah GMAC Bank is a good bank. I want to open an account just to see for myself, but I don’t want to waste a hard pull on it since I already am satisfied with what I have. Anyone want to supply me with screenshots of the web interface and/or some feedback regarding them?
Next weekend I’ll see if I can put something more automatic together.
This may sound naive. I thought all banks nowadays (and brokerages) do “hard” pull credit checks on new savings (and usually definitely with checking) account openings? Jonathan or others: do you know of banks that do “soft” pull credit checks or none at all??? Second, how about the amount of junk mail and/or junk emails from the banks and their subsidiaries?? (ie. BankofAmerica– check/ savings, CD, loans, FIA Services (creditcards); GMAC– GMAC bank, GM cars, GM real estate agents, GM credit card, GM lenders; eLoan= CD, loans).
Most banks and brokerages don’t do a hard pull. And they shouldn’t really, because they aren’t extending you any credit, unless you are applying for overdraft protection or margin trading.
See here and here for more info.
Not sure about junk mail, most have privacy policies that you can opt out of.
…but the ones who do a hard pull will tell you, “Oh all banks do that. You’ll be hard pressed to find one that doesn’t.”
Yeah right…
I have experience with Emigrant, HSBC, ING, Apple, and now WaMu, all online. My old (and still useful) checking account is at Chase.
And here’s a difference among them that should be addressed: How long each bank takes to credit an ACH transfer to, or debit a credit from.
Emigrant is always next business day for credit, therefore the new funds start getting interest right away. The same with Chase, making the funds available. ING is the same or only a day behind.
But HSBC, Apple, and WaMu take several days to credit (the date listed for the transfer deposit), even when the sending bank listed the debit the next day.
Guess who gets more of my business?
Does anyone have any real life experience with the Internet Money Market account at Zions Bank? I called them yesterday and they were very helpful and forthcoming with information. One inconvenience I discovered is that you have to have a checking account with overdraft protection established or a Zions Bank Visa card in order to inititate ACH transfers to and from other banks. Fortunately the checking account can be the free one and does not require a minimum amount of activity (unlike Citi).
Side note: EmigrantDirect’s privacy policy isnt that private; they say that they may share all of the personal information within their family of Emigrant Bank, and they may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted by law, and you do not have a right to opt out of the disclosure of this information. Eloan, has a nice thing where you can click on something and enter info for “opt-out”; but, i personally have no experience with them since all i think is mortgages from eloan.
i have no experience with Zionsbank. Actually, besides the online savings accounts, people may want to compare these high yield savings accounts to some mutual fund families’ money market accounts. ie. Vanguard, Fidelity, TRowe, Dreyfus, to name afew. Some of them are yielding around 4.50-5.25% today (i’m not talking about money funds that have their prices and yields fluctuate.) So, this can be an alternative if you have a brokerage account (and of course check that the fund will have no transaction/commission fees.) An extra advantage: money market mutual funds pay interest as “dividend interest income” and a good portion of the interest can be subtracted from the total interest income earned for state taxes (cuz alot of states do not tax income derived from US obligations…) CD’s, savings accounts, bank mma interest income are taxable both at state and federal levels. Money at mutual fund can be linked to your local bank’s checking account and funded via electronic transfer funds. A disadvantage: money market mutual funds are not FDIC-insured; but securities in a brokerage firm is SPIC-insured.
Thanks for the eloan review. Switching over to a high interest online banks is something I have thought about doing for a while now but was somewhat catious because it was my first online bank. Reading the reviews helped me pick eloan. I am pretty happy with my choice and cant wait for the 5.36% div. It beats the hell out of my old 4.22%.