I've had a wonderful experience with Amex since my parents added me to their account when I turned 16 and got my driver's license and became their personal assistant. (ugh!) Anyway, years later and I have my own AmEx card now and always had a positive experience when calling them, etc. And their website is so easy to use! My dad has like 3 amex cards and it's easy to see at a glance the balances and stuff. They've overnighted me a new card for free every time I lost it which happened a lot when I first got my parents card back in high school years. (Imagine how shocked I was when they offered to overnight a new card for free the time I “accidentally” dropped it on the way out from the dry cleaner's and told my parents I guess I can't pick up their stuff anymore now that my amex card is lost. that one sure backfired.) My bank back then would never overnight my debit card unless I wanted to pay $35 or something ridiculous like that. So I'm sure their online savings account customer service is superb as well.

So now I am stuck with huge overdraft fees because FNBO screwed up, and they appear to be in no hurry to fix it. I am closing my account as soon as I can get all of my money.

I’ve tested transferring funds from American Express and it is so MUCH faster (took about 2 business days which is acceptable to me). I’m just hoping the 1.85% is not a teaser rate and that they remain one of the top rates for a long time. I’ll keep the HSBC account open and linked just in case they have a promotion which offers a high rate on newly deposited money. I hope my experience helps! Good luck.

Thanks

Ken N.

I typically spend somewhere between $600-$1000 a month on groceries, merchandise, etc. That means I automatically get between $6-$10 deposited right back into my 2.75% interest bearing account. You can also make as many deposits as you like per month and up to five withdraws per month.

The annual fee for the card is (I think) $50. But that’s nothing really, especially if you have $5-$10 K in there. Keep $10K in there, spend $1000 per month, pay it off so you have no interest, and you’ll have an almost magical $30 put in your account by combining the interest as well as the cash back. I’ve also noticed that withdraws are posted on the next day after you request them (I request funds to be sent to my regular bank on Monday, and they are there on Tuesday- though I have a credit union that is spectacular, so that may have something to do with it).

I just wanted to add y .02 as I am not seeing anyone talking about the AMEX One card anymore.

Which brings me to SFGI- online division of Summit Community Bank/Summit FInancial Group in West Virginia – no minimum and rate has been 2.25% for several weeks- I am sure it will drop as soon as they get enough “new money” lured by that rate but it is FDIC insured and the parent group has a good stable track record…I just am researching them now but initially I am imopressed….anyone else use them or have an opinion?

I do not agree totally with Cheryl in terms of not chasing rates…it is a pain and of little gain sometimes BUT there is the factor that moving your money in and out to get the best yield sends a message to the banks that keep dropping and to me that is important. If you leave it in and remain at their mercy all the time they have control not you and I don’t like surrendering any more control to financial institutions than I absolutery have to. We “shop” savings and prices all the time in other personal business we conduct( gas, groceries, necessities) why not banks- with the convenience of online we have no reason not to and every reason to do so if we want to.

I heard Discover Bank is 2%, but I just went to their website and the second I clicked on “View Details” for the Savings Accounts, my virus protection alerted me of a Trojan from their website! Now I’m cautious of using them.

Ally seems like a pretty good option. Considering them as well. But what do you think? Stick with ING and wait for the rates to go back up? Or switch to a higher yield now, with the chance the rates will drop more?

Ken N.

All of their so-called customer service responses were just scripted replies that didn’t even come close to solving my issue.

Not worth the time and frustration.

I have both an E-Trade Checking Account & a Savings Account. It made it so easy to transfer funds between the 2 accounts. They were always available, could do everything by Internet, and a breeze to set up. I also had 2 CD’s with them and when they matured, it was a quick phone call to transfer the funds to my savings account. E-Trade use to give great rates, but now they are .95%. So I am now on the hunt to find a better paying savings account.

After reading many reviews and comments, I came to the conclusion to base my decision on a few factors:
1) Do not chase rates. As we have seen, they can change very quickly and there is usually a hitch and hoops to jump through to catch that higher rate.
2) Must be easy to access and have a help line that ‘people’ actually answer.
3) Have a good, stable reputation.
4) I didn’t want to deal with week(s) delay in setting this up, so EFT is important. Come-on, welcome to the 21st century.

Reviewing the bankrate.com site, I decided to open the new DiscoverBank Savings Account. They offer a 2% APY with a $500 minimum. It took a total of 10 minutes to fill out the online application, transferred my funds, and received confirmation and an account number. They are mailing a “Welcome Kit” to me and then I can set up the rest of the Internet settings. I’ll let you all know if something goes badly after this point, but I am not expecting it to. I even called the “Help” line and spoke with a very friendly and helpful person who answered my questions. Their website does not tell you that you can transfer funds OUT without charges, and that they offer Bill Pay. You can withdraw funds up to 6x/month.

Hope this has been helpful.

If anyone wants to open up a new ING account, send me your e-mail. I’ll refer you to ING through their link. You get $25 from ING and I get $10. Totally legit…see it on their website. Yes, I feel like a whore, but times are tough.

Truly, ING is a great bank!

I opened the Provident account on 7/14/2009 when the interest rate was 2.75 %, but
on 7/18/2009 the interest rate fell to 2.50 %. Better than Venture Direct.

Bill C.

I also got lucky about 6 months ago. I knew rates were going down and I locked into a short term CD at 3.25% at the time. Unfortunately, most of the short term CD rates now are lower than the savings account rates.

Does anyone have experience with Discover Bank? They’re showing 2% savings with minimum $500 to open the account, but no minimum balance after that.

I recently moved my money back to Apple Bank’s Grand Yield @ 1.7 on a day when it was better than my other two (Emigrant Direct and Capital One.) I hate to keep jumping around but what can you do when they’re constantly changing?

I thought of opening an Ally account and now I’m thinking of AmEx but I’m lazy – and with rates changing so quickly, I might just stay with Apple unless they drop.

I read that a Bankers Association complained about Ally because of their low rates yet they took some bailout money.