Citi and Emigrant raise rates, new banks enter the competition
EmigrantDirect has raised the rate on their online savings account to 4.8% apy while Citibank is now at 5%. Gotta love competition in the marketplace. It also appears that there are some new players that are in the online savings accounts arena. Well, I don’t know how new they are but I hadn’t heard of them until now as far as rate leaders go.
The first is BankUnited which is offering 5.25% apy. It has a 5k minimum deposit to open and you need to keep $300 to avoid a monthly service fee. Bank deals has provided alot of information about the account. However, some of the details are a little sketchy as the website, disclosures, and customer service representatives have given different answers as to what minimum has to be maintained to get the 5.25% apy. Another negative is that it appears that you can’t link it to other accounts so you would need to do ach pushes and pulls from another account. I think I will hold off for the time being until we find out some more info about them.
OneUnited is a little unique if you read their company profile. Here is a little excerpt:
OneUnited Bank is the first Black-owned internet bank, the first Black-owned interstate bank and the largest Black-owned and managed bank in the country with offices in urban communities of California, Florida and Massachusetts. Its mission is to provide affordable financial services to support economic development in urban communities and maintain superior financial performance to maximize shareholder value.
It has a competitive 5% apy and alot of the features that I have come to expect from online savings accounts such as ach, no minimum balance requirement, and the ability to add external accounts. You can also get an atm card with it but it appears to charge a $1 fee for withdrawals at other atms. The biggest negative that I see is that interest is compounded quarterly, not monthly, so if you closed your account you might end up losing a couple of months of interest. I decided to open an account this weekend. So far everything has been online. I will write a review of it after I get it completely open and get a chance to play around with it for awhile.
June 28th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
Hey, cool. Thanks for telling me about the new banks in the rate wars.
Except that I’m too lazy (and too brand-loyal, to my detriment) to move my emergency fund out of Ing.
But if I do move it, I’ll look at BankUnited.