I have redone my old Online Bank Comparison to drop Presidential Premier Savings and add HSBC Direct instead. This way, all four accounts compared have no minimum balance requirements, no monthly fees, and no other strings attached. That way, one can always move money away without issues. There may be other banks with higher rates, but also higher balance requirements to get those rates. The best value for each feature is bolded:
| Capital One 360 | VirtualBank | Emigrant Direct | HSBC Direct | |
| Interest Rate (APY) | 0.75% | 4.60%1 | 5.05% | 5.05% |
| Minimum to Open | $1 | $100 | $1 | $1 |
| Minimum to Avoid Monthly Fees | none | none | none | none |
| Download Formats4 | .ofx/.qfx | .ofx/.qfx/.qif/.csv | .ofx/.qfx/.qif/.csv | .ofx/.qfx/.qif |
| Deposit Hold Times (Days) | 5 | 3 | 5 | n/a5 |
| BankRate Safety Rating (out of 5) | 3 stars | 4 stars | 2 stars | 3 stars |
| Number of external bank account links allowed | 3 | 4 | 2 | unlimited |
| Opening Bonus Available | $25 | $20 | up to $20 | $25 GC |
[Rates Updated 9/6/06]
1 4.60% APY for balances of $0 – $49,999.99, 4.86% for $50,000 – $99,999.99, 5.13% for $100,000+
4 .ofx is Microsoft Money’s current format, .qfx is Quicken 2005+ format, .qif is Quicken 2004 and older, .csv is Comma Separated Values which is a more generic spreadsheet format.
5 I haven’t found this information yet, for external transfers. Their bank-to-bank transfers seem to have a 3-4 day hold time where the money is in neither account.
** Also check out my list of direct links to Capital One 360, Emigrant Direct, VirtualBank, and HSBC Direct’s Terms & Disclosures.
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EmigrantDirect is subdivision of Emigrant Savings Bank (in NY). Current bank rate safety rating is 3 stars.
ING BANK, FSB also has rating of 3 stars. LYDIAN PRIVATE BANK(virual bank) has 3 stars as well.
Looks like the internet banks have dropped to 3 rating. These ratings at bankrate are based on first 6 month of 2005, though.
Thanks for the update, I haven’t been checking on the Star rating every time. Looks like they’re all about the same.
Anyone use Capital One Savings? Same as EmigrantDirect currently (and same web interface as well).
HSBC is [lame] they always loose my money for 3-4 days in bound and out bound. Almost tempted to close my account just over this fact. I can not beliver world 2nd largest bank would play these games. It is a joke.
Yeah HSBC uses cashedge for ACH transfer..
when I push money in from another account though, it usually shows up the next day. the money wouldn’t be in some weird dimension limbo.
the case also seems to be the same when I pull money out of the HSBC account via another source.
so I’m guessing as long you dont touch cashedge, then its all spiffy. but that’ll be quite a hassle..
so I’m still debating if I should move from ED back to HSBC. bleh.
I love the roundup…short and sweet…thanks Jonathan!
Slightly off topic, but here’s a new one:
FirstFedDirect, a division of First Federal Bank of California.
http://www.firstfeddirect.com/
They offer a 4.25% APR savings w/ no minimums, etc. Just like all the others… Also, they have a 3-star rating on Bankrate.com, consistent with the other online banks.
However, noteworthy is Capital One’s 5-star rating, which includes their high-yield savings account (which I feel is underrepresented on this site 🙂 ).
Okay, I just noticed on the bottom of the FirstFedDirect site that the offer excludes residents of California. Odd from a California bank….
I did a google for CashEdge and found a credit union that states that money in to the CU was 3-4 days via CashEdge. So this 3-4 days to transfer seems normal for CashEdge it appears. The interesting thing about this credit union is that they charged 4-5 bucks for transfers out of their CU and these appeared to be just CashEdge transfers and not wire transfers. Given HSBC’s use of CashEdge I’ll take a pass and stick with GMAC who has four stars on bankrate.com.
Jonathan, I’d add a row for transfer time in/out to your matrix or an indication of use of CashEdge by the bank.
Nice roundup. This is a great resorce for those who may want to re-evaluate their savings plans.
GMAC rocks, fast account opening, fast transfers, one of the highest interest rates, check writing, ATM ( with rebates ) .
Only downside is $500 minimum compared to other savings account
GMAC?
GMAC Bank sounds pretty good, but I probably won’t open another account until they build a longer track record of having the best rates, or a decent signup bonus.
I was reading the fine print in the HSBC DIRECT T&C and it mentioned a fee ($15??) for EFT’s into certain types of accts. and didn’t explicitly exclude HSBC Direct.
This can’t include transfers from linked accts., can it? Common sense tells me that if they binged you $15 every time you moved money into (or out of) the acct. there is no way they could ever compete w/ ING. However, I learned to stop relying on common sense a long time ago.
There is no fee for Bank to Bank transfers for the OnlineSavings / HSBCDirect account. If you look closely (if I recall) it is specifically waived for OnlineSavings. There *are* fees for certain transfers using their checking accounts.
Thanks, great page. Would be remiss if I didn’t mention something re:posts on GMAC bank.
GMAC is a prisoner of the financial problems of its parent automaker GM, which are well known at this point. GM is exploring a partial sale of GMAC, which would offer GMAC a chance to be re-rated, but there has been no hard news yet.
As it stands now, GMAC’s credit rating is BB which puts it in the “below investment grade” category, albeit one notch above GM. But when compared to BANKS GMAC’s rating is quite low. HSBC and ING are both AA credits, for example. Having a credit rating three notches lower than a competitor is a huge disadvantage in terms of funding costs…and running a diversified financial services company from a BB balance sheet is extremely challenging.
Bottom Line: GMAC Bank is a much riskier place to keep money than HSBC or ING–and the extra 5 basis pts. in APY they offer (vs. HSBC) doesn’t adequately compensate for this risk.
So Safe & Sound has it all wrong in rating GMAC BANK four stars and ED and HSBC three stars?
Thanks for showing such a good comparison to us. I live outside of US and never have any experience with all of them. However I think your information is useful for us. So I will add a trackback your post in my side.
JC – I think you are confusing GMAC Bank with GMAC’s Bonds/SmartNotes and other non-FDIC insured securities.
Your money at GMAC Bank is as safe (if not more according to Bankrate) than other banks, I would say the only risk from GMAC’s troubles is change of ownership of the bank and therefore some of the bank’s nice features.
Thanks for the easy comparison. I am happy with my ING Direct account, but it is always good to compare with others. As a Canadian I do not also know if all of these banks are available to me.
Up to $100K all deposits are insured at any FDIC member bank…so should we care??? For one, you could go above $100K (let’s hope so!) and at that point the FDIC won’t help you–and remember that these internet banks are set up as thrifts, and we have had thrift failures in the past.
So, I do think it’s important to analyze the institution holding your cash..besides the S&P credit ratings(see above) the FDIC publishes stats on all banks. The best comparable for GMAC bank is ING…so I ran their #’s.
A common measure of bank “safety” is Tier I capital ratio-by that measure ING and GMAC are even at 8.4%
Inside the #’s ING has 2 distinct advantages
a) size–37.8B in deposits vs. 3.7B for gmac. I worry that as such a small (and non-core) % of GMAC’s total assets, the company (or whoever ends up owning it) could decide to stop soliciting deposits, i.e. stop raising rates or even cut them
b)asset composition–GMAC has 40% of its liabilities in mortgages, whereas ING is almost all deposits. Mortgages are riskier than customer deposits due to prepayment and interest rate risk
So ultimately I would rate ING higher than GMAC even tho bankrate.com has them even.
P.S I actually have a substantial position in GMAC SmartNotes(6.45% due 8/07) so if anyone wants to start a discussion on them, send me an e-mail.
Thanks for this roundup! I’d been hearing about all of these banks for some time now in a variety of PF blogs, but had yet to see a really good comparison (must have missed yours my first time through).
I’m still in the learning curve about my finances, and finding a good place to start saving is one of my goals for 2006.
Thanks, again!
The Carnival of Debt Reduction #17 is now live. Thank you for your contribution!
I would like to add my 2 cents worth, ING and Emigrant have direct deposits. HSBC does not seem to have that option. (Atleast I could not find out looking at their website).
do you guys think that if we don’t lock in the 4.25 APY now that it will decline once their business goes up?
Reading the fine print on HSBC’s terms and conditions, it looks like there is a $3.00 fee for every transfer out of HSBC to a ‘non HSBC’ account.
If you read further, you should see that it also says “No transaction fees will be charged for HSBC OnlineSavings, Domestic Private Banking or HSBC Premier customers”. HSBC Direct = OnlineSavings.
link
I’m a new reader and this website is GREAT!
I wasn’t sure of the best place to post this comment/question, but I was wondering if anyone has tried City National Bank of Taylor (www.cnbt.com)
They offer a free checking with 4.03% APY, no account minimum ($100 to open), automatic next day refunds of ALL ATM fees, and internet banking with aggregation (two options, one powered by umonitor.com the other by fundsxpress.com)
It all seems great. The main “catch” is having to have payroll checks direct deposited (would do that anyway) and (10) POS transactions per month. I know you would be sacrificing a 1% cash back for those transactions, but it still seems like a great deal.
I’m just wondering if anybody has used them. I currently use Everbank and am not too happy so far. I initiated a transfer to HSBC from Everbank, and from my local checking account to Everbank last Tuesday. The money was debited Wednesday, but today is Friday and neither account has been credited.
Comments?
Good job. I am a GMAC fan, has done some research to make sure my money is safe with them. They have one of the best ratings among online banks
Guys, did you notice, Emigrant Direct show 4.25% APY for the Savings account now. Any idea when they increased the rate?
Hi Guys.
Recently, I opended a HSCB saving account and transferred all my money from Ing to HSBC via wellsfargo checking account. It seems that transanction time is so long. They say that process of transfer to transfer takes 3 business days. But it seems more than 3 days. Now I can see the amount which I transferred but I didn’t see any interest. (interest year to date:0.00) Although it passed already 7 days, the status says STILL pending. If HSBC doesn’t have higher interest, I wouldn’t change the bank. -.-
Virtual Bank’s rate is now 4.5% (4.6% APY)
Check Out UFB Direct for a 4.22% savings rate. They play it straight and provide good service. There are rumblings of an ACH transfer like HSBC in the future but nothing at the present time.
I wanted to add something about online bank accounts. I stumbled upon an online money market account right under my nose. I have been using EBAY for about 4 yrs paying with, you guessed it, Paypal. Paypal pays 4.48% interest on any money kept in your paypal account. There is a limit which i will probably never reach of recieving an interest payment of 500 dollars a month. I have found this easy to use and it can transfer back and forth from any bank account you have linked up. Highly recommended!
Yes, until a disgruntled eBay buyer accuses you of fraud and your entire Paypal is frozen and you have no access to your money at all until and if they unfreeze it. Read the Terms and Conditions carefully, they have this right and exercise it regularly.
Everyone thinks it only happens to the scammers, until it happens to them too. Me included, my money was frozen for about a week. I still use PayPal for processing payments, but they are NOT a bank. Just my two cents.
Do all of these have the same compounding formula?….ie..monthly, yearly, daily??? Or are they different. That would be something to add to the table. Thanks.
DK – If you compare APY to APY (not APR), which we are doing here, then it doesn’t matter if it is compounded yearly, monthly, or dailty. It is already worked into the APY calculation.
BTW, I emailed Virtual Bank and they support .qfx downloads.
Ah, I see it now. They must have added this when they updated their website layout a month or two ago. Of course, I hate the new layout… but thanks for letting me know!
Has anyone had tried Everbank? The new 5.51% APY posted on 1 April looks interesting but after filling out the application I got to the Fees Schedule which is extremely ambiguous. Please let me know if the fees charges are as ominous as they seem.
51% of GMAC was just sold this morning, which should help the bank get better credit. This was from an AP story:
The deal will bring troubled GM (Research) about $14 billion over time, including the $7.4 billion purchase price and a $2.7 billion distribution from GMAC itself. The buyer is a group led by a hedge fund called Cerberus Capital Management and the private equity arm of Citigroup (Research). Standard & Poor’s, the nation’s leading rating agency, said it expected to raise GMAC’s credit rating one notch to BB+ after the deal closes, but that’s still a notch below investment grade.
I was going to open a savings account with Virtual Bank, but the on-line application process wouldn’t accept a cell phone number as the home phone listing (I’ve eschewed landlines). When I telephoned customer service, I was told that the people I’d need to talk to had gone home for the day.
I thanked the lady, went to the Emigrant Direct site, discovered that cell phone numbers were welcome on the application form, and opened a savings account.
If Virtual Bank ever enters the 21st century, I’ll consider giving them some of my business.
AmboyDirect and GMAC Bank are both offering 4.75%
http://www.gmacbank.com/
http://www.amboydirect.com/premiumsavings/
Which ONLINE bank is best for ONLINE PAYMENT?
Does it make a difference if you initiate a transfer from your everbank checking account vs. your virtualbank account?
What is Routing number and how can I check my account number of ING and HSBC? Can I transfer money directly from ING to HSBC? Thank you for yur kind reply in advance.
Time to update the chart again…
Emigrant now at 4.65%
Emigrant Direct is now 4.65%
Citibank now provides 4.75% on e-Saving account
it takes hsbc 3 days for a round trip for your cash, is emigrant direct has faster?
i recently applied for a platium mastercard through citi and i would like to know if it has been sent to me?if so can you tell me when it was sent and when would be the latest i would of recieved it? thank you for your consideration and time. kathy
I have an ING,EMIGRANT,CITIBANK? DO ANY OF YOU Have A Preference?
Full Disclosure: I have an HSBC, ING, Emigrant and Citibank e-Savings Account (along with a Citibank Checking Account).
FYI: Citibank has upped their rate to 5.00% as of today.
Personally, I’m about ready to get rid of ING because of their continual low rates. The only downside I see to having Citibank e-Savings is that you MUST have a checking account with them as well, and they must be linked. They charge a fee for the checking depending on the marketplace.
Citibank does charge you for initiating outgoing ACH transfers (as does HSBC); but does not charge you if the ACH is initiated by another party (such as HSBC or ING). Since most online banks give you free incoming ACH, I really don’t care about that charge (I initiate from the “free” side).
I’ve been recently searching around for who has the best offer. So far I think the best one for me is HSBC, since I’m a college student trying to build a good savings I don’t have to worry about making a big deposit. I did call HSBC to find out about the transfer charges and I was told that with the online savings account those fees are waived as long as the transfers are to another U.S. banking account. I also like that they offer an atm card with the account, so I won’t have to wait 3-4 days if I transfer funds.
isn’t virutalbank at 5.13 now?
Sheeesh. Fed Funds goes up 0.25, ING goes up 0.1, so another 0.15 goes into ING’s profits? You figure they could at least pass a little bit more along. Was using Treasury Direct for my cash management and ING just to sweep the interest into, but maybe its time to switch. I know insiders at Emigrant and I don’t like their portfolio and how they generate their returns and HSBC’s TOS sorta scared me, but for a 0.75 increase, its probably worth it… probably…
Trying to decide between HSBC and CITIBANK, because of the high rates and easy access to money by ATM.
what are the main differences?
only thing i can see is that CITIBANK forces you to open a checking account with them, which might be helpful since I am getting their Platinum Dividend Select card.
what do you guys think?
HSBC offers $25 GC @ Bestbuy on new accounts
http://www.hsbcdirect.com/1/2/bestbuy
Included, thanks.
Jonathan, the question is, if I’m saving for a house (say 3-4 years down the road) am I better off investing in a no-load index mutual fund than in savings accounts?
Hey,
I just saw in the Wall Street Journal that UFBdirect.com has 5.26 apy for money market and online savings accounts. $1 to open an account. Any comments or anybody have any experience with them??? Thank you so much!
Hang on, I’m confused as to why the general consensus does not include Emigrant. They are clearly the winner in APY, so how come everybody seems to be giving the nod to Citi and HSBC?
Hi, I’m reading all these comments and am confused. What is the best savings account, highest interest rate, no fee’s, no secret’s.
I signed up for HSBC and am waiting for my pin in the mail. Can I get someone’s opinion about HSBC, or savings accounts in general. Thanks, K
There is no “best” savings account, each one has different features that are of different importance to people. Rates change over time and often one bank may leapfrog one another. I don’t feel any of these banks are horrible.
Anyone do the GC with HSBC @ bestbuy? I just signed up a month ago for the HSBC account and did the promo with the GC, anyone received it yet? howlong does it take?
I signed up for HSBC when the Best Buy gift card was being advertised on the website. It didn’t give me any confirmation that I was going to be getting it while I signed up. I was planning on giving it another month or so until I gave customer service a call. Usually things like that are quoted out 6 or 8 weeks.
ING Direct just bumped thier APY up to 4.40%
I did the Best Buy GC offer with HSBC. Opened my account on 6/21/06 and just received the gift card last week on 9/8/06. So, looks like it might be closer to 10-12 weeks.
I think you should add Amboy Direct Premium to your list. Currentyl 5.25% APY. $1 minimum. One day transfers (five-day hold).
Links to only one account, but you can open multiple savings accounts.
Anyone use UFB Direct? I saw that they have a 5.27% APY, with the typical no minimums, no fees. Any feedback on them?
GMAC Bank at 5.25% APY. A minimum of $500 is required to waive monthly service fee.
Is ING still doing the $25 opening incentive? I would like to join, but it doesn’t say anything about the referal on the website.
Yes the $25 for ING is still going strong – please see link above.
I heard the ING online savings had its ads on “Smart Money” Oct 2006 magazine, just glance at it to get the code then sign in under the code, you can get $25.00 bouns for new customer ONLY.
What I experienced of any disadvantages of the ING direct online savings Acct isas follow:
1/ its APY is lower than Emigrantdirect.com;
and
2/ ING allows you to save your $ into ING account, (one way street).
(Emigrantdirect allows you transfer your fund from the online savings to your checking acct.)
Educate me if I am wrong.
Thanks
You can move money both ways in both ING and Emigrant. ING has had lower rates for the past year or more.
Well, I guess there are a lot of choices. Here’s my situation and would appreciate some advice.
I have about 9K-10K that I would like to put into a short term account. My plan is to deposit this into an high yield account for about 5 months then transfer most (maybe all) of it back to my local bank’s checking account. I have a mobile home that I plan to make improvements to in the spring or summer and would like to be able to access this money when I need it. Any advice on which account would be best? Also, could anyone tell me how much interest I would earn in that amount of time?
Trevor – Please also see my new online bank comparison, if you have Washington Mutual or Citibank accounts you may not even need to change banks.
Otherwise, there are several banks paying in the 5% range. $10,000 for 5 months would earn you roughly $200 in interest.
How come no one has mentioned http://www.iGoBanking.com ? iGOBanking.com offers 5.30% interest with no minumums . . I already deposited $500 and it seems all legit. Check them out.
I also just opened a savings acct at iGoBanking.com. Going to take advantage of ING Electric Orange checking interest when not getting the 5.3% at iGoB. Had a CapitalOne HYMMA but am switching for the slightly higher interest at iGoB (5 to 5.3).
iGoBanking let me down. I opened the account and linked it to an online checking account. However now I have no link to move my money around unless I use their service which I won’t agree to the terms of service. All my other accounts all provide easy to use links. They want $10. to close the account before 6 months is up. I was lied to and mislead and all customer service says is upper management is looking into what happened to all the external links.
Do not put too much weighton the BankRate validation for VirtualBank or Lydian the CEO of the mentioned is good freinds with the CEO of bankRate. Any Star is supported by childhood freinds scraching each others back
What do you know about the WTDirect Savings Account?
Hi, all seams like everybody went crazy with this story and comments. But if anyone is confuse let’s open ten account in ten different banks.
I have tried ING/HSBC/Emigrant, and Emigrant is by far my favorite. I will never recommend HSBC to anyone.
A few questions to you guys: Do all these bank accounts require that you be linked to a “real” bank account? I was interested in just having an online bank bc I have had enough check fraud situations happen to me with Washington Mutual and Bank of America and don’t feel like dealing with the in-person banks anymore. I was told that possibly Fidelity has an online bank like that..does anyone know?
Plus, is there anyway to get an ethical assessment of these banks? I personally don’t like supporting banks that give a lot of money to deleterious development projects in the third world or to conflict areas, but it is hard to come by that information.
Just wanted to note that this site is sort of outdated as the interest rates of the banks listed are now INGDirect 4.218%, Emigrant 4.75% and HSBC 4.25%.
Thanks ~ I see all the issues with HSBC and I have ING and have only done many inbound transfers with no issue, and one outbound again with no issue.
What I am seeing is the other banks seem to be following INGDIRECT with dropping interest rates, but they say a few .x% higher. What is with that ?
Have a good 07 holiday season.
I would like an opinion on my situation. I am traveling to Europe this summer and I am thinking about opening an account at HSBC direct because I know they have ATMs all over Europe. Do any of you guys know if I would get a fee?
Old Numbers
I just did a similar analysis and for me HSBC is the better choice. ING is the easier to use and smoother of the two, but HSBC has a better APY.
Is it possible to get a virtual bank account if you live outside the usa or canada ? I am from trinidad in the caribbean..
I don’t think it’s possible to open a virtual bank account if you live outside the usa
I just want everyone to know that Army Aviation Federal Credit Union is by far the worst bank that exists. When my account was compromised while I was deployed, their response was “sorry, nothing I can do.” When I tried to close my account 3 years ago they said I had to do it in writing. Email and phone are not acceptable. I am still trying to close my account and retrieve my money after 4 letters, 2 faxes and a lot of phone calls. The customer service is horrible and their policies are unacceptable. Avoid at all costs!!