February 22, 2009 Update: DollarSavingsDirect cuts its savings account rate to 2.65% APY. See how this compares to other top savings and money market rates.
In a rather strange move, Emigrant Bank, the parent company of Emigrant Direct has launched another online direct brand, DollarSavingsDirect. DollarSavings differs slightly from Emigrant Direct and currently has a higher savings rate of 3.75% APY, which is competitive with some of the best savings rates offered by other banks. The minimum balance to open the account is $1,000. Emigrant Direct's American Dream Savings Account offers a 3% APY with a $1 minimum balance. At the moment, the difference in rate and minimum balance seem to be all that seperates the two accounts.
The bank is a seperate division of Emigrant Bank although located at the same location as Emigrant Direct. Its FDIC insurance falls under Emigrant Bank, meaning that an account at Emigrant Direct and DollarSavingsDirect both count towards the FDIC limit.
Accounts can be opened online and funded via an ACH transfer from a personal checking account.
Why has Emigrant Direct started a seperate brand? We called Emigrant with this question but didn't receive a reply. My guess is that Emigrant plans to make significant changes to either Emigrant Direct or DollarSavingsDirect over the next couple of months to differentiate their offer and pursue different markets. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Comments
Kris
November 21, 2008
The minimum amount for starting a savings account is $1,000, please change that, it wasted my time.
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Kris
November 21, 2008
BTW, here's a site I like to use, it refreshes every few seconds as well...
http://www.money-rates.com/savings.htm
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your site sucks.com
November 21, 2008
Sorry pal, that site is always slow to update. Just look at money market where it shows b of a dow at 3.93. This changed almost three weeks ago.
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gudway
November 21, 2008
I opened an acct.with "Dollar " and transferred money
back & forth between other accts several times.
No problems whatsoever and the people were nice
and knowledgeable,no "hang on" time out to ask someone else for info.
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gudway
November 21, 2008
WONDER WHY DOLLAR SAVINGS GETS ONLY 3 STARS ?
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Maria
November 24, 2008
So far no problems, it is a little slow to transfer funds, but hey, at 4% interest, I can deal with it, why does it has only 3 stars? that almost scared me, but I went for it anyway.
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Saver
November 27, 2008
Opened an account - quick and painless. Reps answered the phones and questions - good service - good security. BIG PROBLEM for me however is that unlike many other competitor banks (HSBC, ZIONs..) this outfit will not link to my Vanguard MM account. That's a showstopper for me. As depositor I need access to money on my terms - so unfortunately, I closed the account as in these times I am leary of any banks that will not play ball. I am sure there are work arounds but the juice is not worth the squeeze.
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Disappointed
November 29, 2008
The rate is great, but there are a lot of limitations:
1) You can only transfer in and out of your linked checking account i.e. you cannot make electronic transfers to pay your credit card bills, to contribute to your investment accounts at another institution, etc.
2) You can only have two linked accounts, and to link the second one you need to mail in a check
3) By their own admission, transfers take 2 to 4 business days, which is slower than average.
For me at least, it's not worth it.
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YOUR NUTS PAL!
December 01, 2008
You can do overnight ACH transfers in. There paying 4% compounded daily and your complaining about what? BTW, which bank do you work for?
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Concerned
December 04, 2008
Dollar use to be listed on Bankrate.com. I just checked this morning and it's no longer listed. Does anyone know why?
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