Emigrant Bank's 4.0% Savings Account

[vindikation]

I did a search and couldn't find anything. Has anyone had any experiences (good or bad) with Emigrant Bank (http://www.emigrantdirect.com/) ?

The 4.0% Savings Account looks too good to be true.

Thanks

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
I did a search and couldn't find anything. Has anyone had any experiences (good or bad) with Emigrant Bank (http://www.emigrantdirect.com/) ?

The 4.0% Savings Account looks too good to be true.

Thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

I have an account.

Setup is a little slow (snail mail verification), their website is a little subpar, but you can't beat the rate, I don't think.

I can't complain. It's legit, and if there are any real hidden pitfalls, I haven't stumbled on them yet, and I've had an account for about 3 months.

eastbay

[squiffy]

That does seem high. Most banks are paying at most 4% for a 6 month or 1 year CD, with substantial penalty for early withdrawal, hence no ability to access the money in the meantime, unless you want to forfeit all or most of your interest.

The fine print does say the rate is guaranteed only until Dec. 31 2005 or Jan. 2006, if I recall correctly.

And it is possible that to get the 4%, you need to maintain a huge minimum balance of say 100K. It's not really clear to me.

I am very interested in getting high rates, but I have been reading so much recently about computer hackers being able to steal your passwords and drain your accounts, that I am thinking about cutting back on my online banking and purchasing transactions.

Online banking is convenient. But if someone figures out how to steal my info and drain my accounts, it would really suck.

[Sniper]

Rates are going up, you should expect to see more of these.

[vindikation]

[ QUOTE ]
Rates are going up, you should expect to see more of these.

[/ QUOTE ]

So would you wait now before putting money into a 1 year CD? I'm thinking of doing a 1 year 4.25% CD at Met Life Bank. (http://www.metlifebank.com/CD.do)

FDIC should cover it i think, or is that if the bank goes under?

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]

The fine print does say the rate is guaranteed only until Dec. 31 2005 or Jan. 2006, if I recall correctly.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but it has never been below 3.25% and has always been the highest rate you can get.

[ QUOTE ]

And it is possible that to get the 4%, you need to maintain a huge minimum balance of say 100K. It's not really clear to me.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, there is no minimum.

eastbay

[buffett]

Why would you tie up your money for a year at 4.25% when you can get 4.00% and stay liquid?
-web

[gila]

Here is what sucks though, I just drained all my money out of ING to tranfer to Em. Well, I got the small deposit, now I have to wait on snail mail before I can tranfer the rest of my money? So it sets there in my other bank account making next to nothing when it could still be in ING making interest this week. fuc

Depending on the amount of cash you are dealing with Presidential Bank offers 4.12%. There is a minimum deposit of $5000 though.

Vindikation,

You definately don't want to go with a CD right now. Rates are increasing steadily and locking up your money is the last thing that you want to do. Ing Direct has a savings account at 3.4% that is extremely easy to set up. Also, if their rate increases, yours does too. You might find Ing more welcoming and/or accesible if Emigrant scares you.

You can link your ING account to your ED account, but you must do it at the time you open your ED account. When you first setup your ED account you need to provide you ING account number and routing number, both of which you can get from ING's site. Look for the directions on how to setup direct deposit to your ing account and you should find the routing info. I guess it might be a little late for you unfortunately.

[Sniper]

[ QUOTE ]
So would you wait now before putting money into a 1 year CD?

[/ QUOTE ]

Vind, to be honest, I never (unless your an old man) recommend that anyone put money into a savings account or lock it up for a year in a CD. You can do much more with it in an investment account.

However, if you are dead set on locking your money up, you should wait until the Fed completes its cycle of raising rates.

[vindikation]

Thanks for the CD advice. After researching the past month, I'm starting to see no real benefits of doing a CD. My parents do this (that's why I was interested in them), but I want to be a little more aggressive in my investing and savings so I think I'm going to avoid CD's right now.

I'm very, very close to posting my 1 month "NOOB" investing update post. probably in a week or so after some financial documnets and deposits go through.

Thanks again for the feedback, greatly appreciated.