ETrade Bank Savings Accounts now by Discover Bank?

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Just got this e-mail from regarding my ETrade Bank online savings account:

We are writing to let you know that your E*TRADE Bank account referenced above will soon be transferred to Discover Bank, and become a Discover Online Savings Account. This follows our plan to focus more exclusively on providing optimal investing solutions to our customers. We expect the transfer to occur on or about March 7, 2010.

Discover Bank sounds okay from what I’ve read, and the APY on my whopping 3 cent balance will go up from 0.50% to 1.35% APY, but the only reason I kept the E*Trade account around was for its speedy funds transfers. I don’t use any ETrade brokerage services since they are too expensive and the phone hold times are too long. (I do enjoy the commercials, though.) Time to close the account?

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Comments

  1. I have an Etrade savings and I did not receive an e-mail stating this yet. About a year ago, Etrade did have a competitive interest rate with no minimum balances and really fast transfers. Like you, I haven’t used my Etrade much lately (been trying to get the most interest out of Ally) but will the Discover account have any minimum balances or other fees? I will have to close my account if so.

    Does anyone have any experience with Discover online savings accounts? Like info on theirfunds transfer speeds/delays, customer service, etc.? I will probably keep my account at first because that is a nice interest hike from .50% to 1.35% but lets hear some other comments…

  2. Seems like many of us like eTrade for the same reasons. I liked the fact that my transfers took basically a day and a half. I also have used HSBC and that is up to 4 days to complete.

    Time to start looking for a new checking account online. This sort of stinks, doesn’t it.

  3. Captain Betty says

    I just dumped my eTrade bank accounts and moved them to my ING accounts since eTrade’s interest rates tanked.

  4. Not sure where I saw this, but I’m pretty certain that e*trade is currently cutting their trading fees to be in-line with other major brokerages.

    Of course, if you’re fine with your Fidelity setup, axe away.

    Update: here’s the story– http://www.marketwatch.com/story/e-trade-cuts-commissions-eliminates-some-account-fees-2010-02-08

  5. I just gave E*trade a call as i have a few accounts with them, the rep told me that they are moving over people who are savings only customers with e*trade. People with more then one account like my self should not be moved over.

  6. I got same email and headed here cause I knew Jonathan used the quick transfer feature to move money, as do I. Sounds like it will still have the quick transfer feature.

    “And you’ll still enjoy fast and free online money transfers4”

    We’ll see if they have comparable transfer times. If not, I’ll probably move to ING as my transfer bank account. Shows how much I was paying attention. I didn’t even notice the account had dropped to such a low interest rate.

  7. I received the Etrade email today also. Maybe Kyle also has an Etrade brokerage and that’s why they aren’t kicking him out just yet. ING isn’t as good for transfers because you can only have three linked accounts, and they must be checking accounts.

    Discover Bank is okay. I just did a decently quick transfer from Discover to ING using the Bill Pay / send money to a person’s bank account feature. I opened with them 3 months ago for a $25 bonus. They are now offering me an unpublished rate that’s slightly higher (1.59%, I think), probably so that I don’t take off after receiving the bonus.

  8. I also received the Etrade email today and have to say that this is the worst display of customer service that I have ever seen. I completed my tax return in January, and had set up my Etrade account to get the direct deposit of my tax refund, which is scheduled to arrive, and now be rejected by Etrade, in March. I have spent many years in the banking business and have been involved in 2 of the largest banking mergers in history. So I have witnessed a transition like this with customers first hand. Etrade has done a terrible job of communicating this change in a timely manner for their customers, and will never do any future investments with them.

  9. American Express Personal Savings…1.5% apy now.
    Transfer from etrade was quick and easy. No fee savings.

  10. It looks like the transfers are still free with discover. http://www.discoverbank.com/online-savings-account.html You may make up to six preauthorized transfers from your Online Savings Account per statement cycle, including automatic and telephone transfers. I wonder how quick the transfer are???

  11. Of my five online accounts (ING, ED, HSBC, Ally, and Discover), Discover seems to pull the money out of my brick & morter accounts the fastest and deposit it on their end the slowest (at least 3 days). On the other hand, when they recently dropped their rates to 1.35, they changed my account to a “Discover Premium Savings”, maintaining (as of now) the 1.59 rate (with a relatively low balance)!

  12. I just got off the phone with Etrade. They will be transferring all Savings acct that do not have a brokerage acct linked to them….My checking and credit card with Etrade will not be affected at least for the time being…..

  13. I go to Checking Finder and use banks that are paying me 4% interest ever since Etrade’s rates tanked a year ago. I have my payroll checks direct deposited to my Etrade checking then allocate them from there……

  14. Hmm… I am a savings-only customer now, although I did have a 5 cent IRA as well for a few years. “Fast” is a highly subjective word, as it seems like Discover is simply bringing us into the fold. It would be nice if they had the same fast system with unlimited linked accounts AND a better rate.

  15. @ Ben The rep you talked with was probably incorrect. I have an IRA w/ etrade and received the same notice about my savings account!

  16. I got the same email.

    I also had previously opened a Discover Bank online savings account because they were at 1.75% a few months ago. So far I have not been so happy with them.

    First of all they sub-contract out their money transfer service to this software called MoneyHQ. I found it painful to set up and transfers back to my linked checking account take about 3 days rather than E*Trades 1 or Ally Banks 2. However when transferring money to them it only takes 1 day? To do next day transfers you have to pay a fee. Go figure right…

    I am also not happy about their transfer limits. You can only transfer out about $35k a month for free. I know that’s a lot of money but that is around what our emergency fund is.

    Their customer service is just OK. I still have a software glitch that only allows me to transfer out 5k a day in my Money HQ. It has been weeks and it still isn’t fixed.

    If they didn’t use the MoneyHQ service I would definitely recommend Discover Bank.

    Needless to say to save myself some potential hassle I closed my $1.01 funds in my E*Trade account over the phone.

  17. I just wanted to correct one of the above posters. I have an ETrade Brokerage, Checking, and Savings. My savings account is still being closed and I am keeping my brokerage and checking. Not a big deal – direct deposit goes into checking and I’ll leave my savings somewhere else. I’ll just have to leave a $5k buffer in there to meet monthly expenses rather than transfer money over on a weekly basis.

  18. What are folks suggestions for a comparable high yield savings bank to transfer our E-Trade funds to? I have my Emergency Fund with E-Trade so it’s significant and i want to maintain a good rate, customer service, fast transfers, no fees,etc.

  19. I have been trying to set up a discover bank account. i only want to link it to one other account, but they wont let me transfer unless I link two – there is big red text to this point in the money hq. Discover email help so far has said i only need one account… odd, then why cant i move money…
    and the $7.50 for next day transfers is a joke.
    why is it that banks took a risk with dumb people borrowing too much money, now those of us who did not have the fancy stuff they couldnt afford have to jump through even more hoops to keep from paying the bill.
    ugh.

  20. As I pointed out earlier, Discover allowed me to send money to myself at ING using Billpay; that took two days for $2500. I wonder what the max is for that.

    For what it’s worth, I loved Etrade for the unlimited number of linked accounts, but I eventually maxed out my lifetime number of linked accounts that I could set up. I’m not sure what this number was, but I think they cut me off after around 30. Good account while it lasted, but the rate ceased to be competitive a while ago.

  21. I was all set to go along with the transfer to Discover, but this info about MyMoney and slow transfers has turned me off. It seems that Ally and ING are the two contenders – which to choose?

  22. I have been an E*Trade customer for about 10 years. I have brokerage, complete savings, and a Roth IRA with them, and I have not received an e-mail stating they will be transferring my savings account. Anyone else NOT receiving this notice? I have over $50k in assets with them (just over $50k to keep my fees low). I have been considering moving to Fidelity for some time, and if this is yet another indication of how they treat their customers, I will be moving sooner than later.

  23. I got the email back on the 9th also. I only use my account for transferring money between other accounts and do not keep any cash in my etrade account. I have been a fidelity customer for 8 years and have no complaints.

  24. I have Brokerage, Checking & Savings accounts with E*Trade. I haven’t recieved any type of notification about my savings account being transferred to Discover. I like E*Trade’s transfer times, and I use my checking account with them to pay my rent. Otherwise, I currently keep very little money deposited with them as their rates may as well be zero.

  25. I would keep the account… Even though you do not have a lot in the account it does not cost anything to keep it. They may offer better rates it the future and the hassle of signing up all over again is worth the .04 you have in there…

    I use ING and have had accounts with Capital One, Citi and others who have special rate deals. Money is a commodity and with the right monitoring tools (rss feeds) you can take advantage of *deals* as banks via for your dollar…

    Andrew

  26. According to the E*Trade representative I spoke with this morning, if you have an active brokerage account with them, your savings account will not be converting to Discover.

  27. I’ve been with Discover Savings for about 6-7months. It used to be pretty ugly, recently they have redone the website. Now it is user friendly and easy on the eyes. I have used ING, I switched because ING was always leading the pack in interest rate reductions. Discover is currently paying 1.59%…. It is a little slower than ING but I don’t really care I use it for long term savings. I thought about switching to ALLY but since the new website is nice I’m staying, and with 1.59 I’m not complaining about an extra day when depositing or withdrawing money.

  28. I have a Discover savings and LOVE it, the funds transfers are free and yes you can do up to 6 a month..they usually take 2-3 business days but DB tells you exactly what day you can expect to see the funds arrive at the desired destination. ALSO, Discover Bank has 24/7 live US based customer service, should you ever need it.

  29. I’m just looking at my new Discover Bank account today after being switched from E*Trade. I may be missing something but Quicken could not hook up for automatic download and I cannot even see anything on the Discover Bank site for manual download. Which savings sites are friendliest for Quicken users? E*Trade worked seamlessly in that regard for me.

  30. Discover Bank verified they do not support Quicken. One way to find out who does is use Google to search the banks domain for quicken (“quicken site:whateverbank.com”)

  31. Hmmmmmmm………not sure if this all makes any sense. It’s funny how you choose a bank and they eventually kick you to the curb. I usually transfer a certain amount from the savings to the checking in the beginning of the month to balance out upcoming bills. So now I have a negative balance in my Etrade checking. If I was aware ahead of time of the transfer, I would have researched and selected a financial institution of my choice ahead of time. If I am not pleased with Discover I’ll close it and move on.

  32. Yeah, we are in the same boat as Monique. And either we didn’t get an email or it was lost in spam or something. We *almost* threw away the letter from Discover thinking it was junk mail because “we don’t have a Discover account”. It’s now a real PITA to fix all our accounts, get fees reversed, etc. Thanks a lot Etrade.

  33. So far I am pleased with my Discover Account. Their 24/7 customer service seems to be good on weekdays, but weekends don’t even try it because i was on hold over the weekend for 15 minutes before i decided to just call on monday. they answered within seconds on monday. the only compaint i have, which has pretty much been established by the other posting, is the slow transfer of funds.

  34. I have had the same thing happen to me. Etrade did not leave a single email, nor did they try and contact me about the switch. Logged on one day to check my account, and they told me all my assets were transfered to a bank that i did not even approve of. Pathetic…

  35. I just had to call in to get my account setup with discover. FYI – they only send statements in the mail. It looks like we can view our statements online but they have to send out a statment in the mail. I dont understand how the online account requires for statements to be mailed out. The rep tried to say something about federal regulations or some bs. I have accounts with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One and multiple others and all of them allow for online statements only. This isnt a big deal just a little annoying. They answered the phone quick, they were nice, and they were in america so I guess thats a good start.

  36. I would call that breach of fiduciary duty. As far as I know a bank cannot move customer funds without consent. They gave up custody of funds as they cannot access those funds anymore.
    I requested my funds back and they told me I have to take care about this on my self to get my assets back. I am close to hiring a lawyer to file a lawsuit after figuring out if they broke the law.

    I am done with this bank and closing all my accounts, same with Discover, how assisted Etrade in this scam.

  37. I just wanted to let everyone know that my account was deactivated when it was transferred from etrade to discover since my balance was $0. The rep suggested I keep at least $1 so the account doesnt get deactivated again. That wasnt a big problem but I called in a had it reactivated and immediately did a online transfer for $50. It took 5 days for the money to show up and they also deactivated my account two more times before the 5 days past. Anyone have a better suggestion for quick online transfers

  38. Consider EmigrantDirect bank online – their interest rate is relatively competitive, but there are no fees and their online transfers are done the next day.

  39. I have account with discover bank. Now they give little more interest
    if you are a AAA member. But to my surprise, when they issue the
    statement they issue by the name of AAA only and discover bank
    name is NO WHERE to be seen. Moreover, their AAA customer service
    phone answer is from UTAH and discover bank is in Delaware.
    There bank statement looks fake and generated from the computor.
    if discover bank goes out of business, what are we going to do ?
    is my question to everyone out there. There is no such AAA (discover
    bank) and AAA is not FDIC. it is very confusing. I have my account
    as AAA customer, and i am not happy with it. The people who respond the phone calls, knows nothing. I have called several times and still have not got the satisified answer from them……..

  40. BEWARE of Discover Bank! My parents had CD’s with them and when father died, they were entirely uncooperative in changing the account to my mother’s name. They have there own set of internal “policies” contrary to state laws and uniform commercial code. They constantly set up new barriers not even related to the original request.

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