I’ve been looking into placing money in an e-bank account because they offer incredibly high interest rates. For examples, at HSBC , savings account return 5.05%.
Not even Certificate of Deposits get close to this, let alone typical savings accounts. It is insured and looks legit. And I know the “no overhead” angle. But there’s a “too good to be true” aspect to it all.
Anyone have any experiences with this bank or other e-bank? Is it really as easy, pain-free, and lucrative as it appears?
I’ve had an ING account for a couple years. The only pain is that it can take a day or so to transfer money back into my checking account. I never know exactly when the money’s going to get there so if I have to do a transfer, I always do it a couple days ahead. No other complaints.
I put a decent chunk of money in an account at GMAC a couple of months ago. It was pretty painless and they have great customer service to walk you through any issues.
I have an internet savings account at home in Australia, but not with a separate e-Bank. It’s an add-on to my regular bank account, so I can only transfer funds in and out through my regular account. That said, I can manage it all via my online banking (or over phone banking), and transfer funds in a matter of seconds. And it’s fee-free with 5.45% interest!
I also use ING. I like it; it’s simple and easy and every now and then I get an email saying my interest rate just went up. It’s a pretty competitive rate (4.35%) and the only annoyance is how long it takes to transfer funds to another account.
[QUOTE=Long Time First Time]
I’ve been looking into placing money in an e-bank account because they offer incredibly high interest rates. For examples, at HSBC , savings account return 5.05%.
Not even Certificate of Deposits get close to this.
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Irresepective of what you decide about the savings account, you might want to go to www.bankrate.com - you can get better than 5.05% on a CD these days.
[QUOTE=amarone]
Irresepective of what you decide about the savings account, you might want to go to www.bankrate.com - you can get better than 5.05% on a CD these days.
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But you’re not gonna get a lot better than that and with the interest rates rising, do you really want to lock yourself into a fixed rate for a year or even six months?
[QUOTE=tremorviolet]
But you’re not gonna get a lot better than that and with the interest rates rising, do you really want to lock yourself into a fixed rate for a year or even six months?
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I wasn’t trying to recommend any particular action - just suggesting that he not make a decision based on out-of-date information wrt CD rates.
Personally, I’ve tried both ING and HSBC. The thing I like about HSBC (besides the fact that they have no minimum balance and they pay a very high interest rate) is that you can get an ATM card linked to the account, thus making withdrawals pretty fast if needed…