Which online bank?
UPDATE: We've pretty much decided to go with ING, but we still welcome any comments!
One of my goals was to move the bulk of our savings into a higher-yield account. I have accounts at HSBC, Emigrant and ING Direct (I went a little nuts with the opening bonus offers), but I haven't moved much money in and out of them since opening them in the fall. Now I'm wishing I'd made a note of every PF blog post wherein the author stated his/her preference from among the various online banks.
Our main concern (after the overall bank trustworthiness and interest rate, of course), is how quickly we'd be able to get our hands on our money if we needed it. It would also be nice if deposits posted quickly to the account. I'd appreciate your comments on these two things in particular, though if you have anything else to share, please do!
Thanks!
posted by SMB @ 11:56 AM
2 Comments:
I have ING and Emigrant Direct accounts. Emigrant I opened just for the bonus, and because I was feeling lazy for staying with the online bank that's the laggard in the interest rate war. But my spouse and I have joint accounts at ING, and getting him to spend any time on financial stuff is challenging, so ING it is for the time being.
The thing I like best about them is their interface. It does take at least a couple of days--okay, maybe 3--for withdrawals to land in my checking account. My checking is at Wachovia, and I don't think they're terribly speedy about posting deposits, so maybe that contributes. Overall, I've been happy at ING for 2 years, tho.
Thanks! I'm glad to hear you've been happy with them for 2 years--that's quite a long time to be pleased with a bank. ;) At first we were going to go with HSBC, but we decided on ING for a few reasons:
1) The two times I called HSBC with questions, I waited for a long while and then got folks who weren't particularly knowledgable, and I think they outsource to other countries--not that I particularly begrudge them that, but I had difficulty understanding one of them due to his very heavy accent (the other person's accent wasn't quite as heavy);
2) I've never had to wait when I've called ING, and the people who answer the phones have been knowledgable and friendly (!!!);
3) ING was able to add my husband to the account over the phone, whereas HSBC wanted me to mail in a copy of his driver's license and couldn't give me any more information regarding next steps or how long it would take;
4) while I have an Emigrant account for myself, my husband found their clunky website a real turn-off, and he couldn't download from Emigrant into Quicken.
I decided that ultimately, having access to good customer service was worth a slightly lower rate.
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