Boston Gal's Open Wallet

I wrote to ING and called them about their weak rate increases...they said "well, we have better customer service and we dont feel the need to compete with these other banks on a weekly basis". This was after I told them i was going to pull my money out.

So really, they dont care if you take your money out. Im gonna take mine out and put it in Emigrant or HSBC next week, as I am tired of losing 1% point by keeping it at ING.

David
www.thegoodhuman.com

 

Not sure if interest at ING is compounded daily or monthly but HSBC is compounded monthly not daily. Isn't daily compounding preferred over monthly? Or does it all work out to be the same? Sorry for being so clueless!

 

why don't you guys even consider citibank e-savings? they had 5.00% as of yesterday, i.e., before the fed rate increase, and you would assume they will hike it too ...

- s.b.

 

Hi S.B.,

For CitiBank, you have to open both a checking account and the savings account to get that 5.00% rate. With the checking account you may get hit with fees. This little "gotcha" in the fine print is why I have steered clear of CitiBank. ING Direct and HSBC Direct are simple online savings accounts and don't charge fees.

As for CitiBank going to 5.00% a day before Bernanke raised rates - I am not sure they will go up again so soon. The Bernanke rate increase was widely predicted, and CitiBank probably raised the rate anticipating the increase and trying to get a marketing jump on the competition. I may be proven wrong, but that is my reading of the situation at this moment.

** Qualifying relationship packages are Citibank® EZ Checking, Citibank Account, Citibank Everything Counts® and CitiGold®. To open a Citibank e-Savings Account you must have or open a checking account in a qualifying relationship package. Your Citibank e-Savings Account must also appear on the same statement as your checking account. Regular Checking Accounts do not earn interest. Fees may apply to the checking account.

 

With Citibank you do have to OPEN a checking account. However, you do NOT need to us it. All you need to do is fund it with $1.00.

Regarding compounding - of course daily is better than monthly. However, I think the difference between the 2 is very small. I would guess less than .10 of 1% on 4.5%-%5%.

I have the citi account and I also wonder why it does not get the press that other accounts do?

 

ING lost my business today. I withdrew everything except $1 just so they can credit my interest for the month.

 

To anonymous and all: currently, GMACBANK (DE) (balance 0-499.99: 4.59%rate/4.70%apy; 500-over: 4.68%rate/4.8%apy). EMIGRANTBANK (NY) 4.80%apy, compounded daily, issued monthly; HSBCDIRECT (NY) compounds monthly, at 5.05%apy. INGDIRECT (DE) currently 4.2656%rate/4.35%apy compounded & credited montly. METLIFE BANK (state?)5000-up balance: 4.25%apy.(if you leave their website, you should see pop-up for $50 bonus). PRESIDENTIAL BANK (MD): CheckingPLUS (requires $1500min to open, direct deposit at least 200 monthly, & min $1000 to waive fees) is at 4.41%rate/4.50%apy. Premier Savings (requires $5000 min to open) for balances upto $35,000 earn 5.00%rate/5.12%apy. UMBRELLA BANK (AL) Pot o' Gold Money Market (requires $1000min & to waive fees) 4.85%apy over 1000. VIRTUALBANK (FL) 100-49,999 4.50%rate/4.60%apy; 50,000-99,999 4.75%rate/4.86%apy. ONEUNITED BANK (CA or MA or FL)the Unity Internet Savings Account at 5.00%apy, min $10.
There's lots of bankdeals now. I give credit to bankdeals.blogspot.com

 

I took out what I had left in ING except a few hundred and am going to transfer it all to HSBC. I know I will lose some days worth of interest but it 0.75% will more than make up for it.

I have always preferred HSBC as they have always offered superior rates than ING since I opened my accounts at both banks earlier this year.

Keep up the great blog!

 

You are probably right about the Citibank not so near in the future interest rate hike. But I am sure there should be a difference in the compounding. In this case you have to work your way to the effective annual rate from the daily one (with daily compounding) or the monthly one (with monthly compounding). Any beginner's finance textbook should contain examples of the calculation. Of course another possible place which might cause the difference is fees. Unfortunately, I dont use either of the two at the moment to know better. Lol, this comment became way too long....

 

Has anyone seen an HSBC referral bonus code lately? The last one I can find is from March. I think I'm ready to switch from ING!

 

Regarding HSBC's compounding monthly, ING and Citibank compound monthly, too. Emigrant, on the other hand, compounds daily. Don't let that fool you, though, because the number they advertise is the APY, which is adjusted to reflect compounding. Thus, all of the rates are comparable as long as you are looking at the APY.

Regarding Citibank, you do have to open a checking account with your high-yield savings account. In the fine print I read, you have to do two online bill payments using your Citibank checking account. If you don't, you get charged a fee. So be careful about depositing the minimum balance ($1) into the checking account and then forgetting about it. You might get surprised with some fees.

Lastly, I haven't opened a HSBC account, but am very interested. I'm with lauraloops--is there a referral bonus code out there?

 

Current HSBC sign-on bonus deal:

For Best Buy Credit Card holders - Open an HSBC Direct savings account and get a $25 Best Buy Gift Card. Offer expires 8/31/06

This is the only sign-up bonus I can find. HSBC Direct stopped offering sign-up bonuses just about the time they aggressively started raising rates above ING Direct. I can only assume their marketing strategy shifted from enticing new customers with sign-on bonuses to just offering the highest saving rate.

I keep wondering how long ING Direct will keep the referral program going - if they want to raise rates to compete they will probably have to make the decision to stop the $25 sign-on bonuses.

That is why I keep mentioning them - if you have not yet opened an ING Direct account, now is the time to do it to get the $25 bonus - who knows how long they will be around?

 

I have been a longtime CITIBANK customer and have had their E-Savings account since it began last summer. I just opened a 6 month 5.5% CD there too so they are keeping quite competitive. Their customer service and website is excellent as well.

I only have around $20k left at ING and I suspect when my last CD matures in 6 weeks that might be the end of my ING investing unless they can compete with Citi.

 

I don't know if it matters to people here, but ING and HSBC are both traditional savings accounts as we know them (backed by the FDIC). Citibank and GMAC Bank are technically money markets (that contain slightly more risk so it should have slightly higher rates). If it comes with a checking account then it's a good bet it's a money market. This is the reason why many folks don't compare ING to Citi's e-savings. I am not saying one is better than the other, but that they are different, however slight.

 

What is the DIFFERENCE? They are both FDIC insured. So were is the added risk?

 

One difference between ING and HSBC that swayed me towards ING (plus the sign on bonuses) is child accounts. ING will build interest under the child's SS# - must be linked to your account. But HSBC and others, Emigrant I believe, you will be taxed on the interest under your ss# and the child will be specified as a beneficiary.

 

And to add to the wars, I believe emigrant will be increasing their rate to 5.15% on july 28th. Looks like i'll be pulling even more money from ING.

 

What about One United Bank? It's 5.3%. https://www.oneunited.com/OnlineBanking/OpenAccount.aspc