Just because I’m a Kansas Citian doesn’t mean I was ever loath to bank in “New York City” (around which, presumably, the huge and well-known Emigrant Bank has been based since its founding in 1850).
Until recently, my experience with Emigrant (via its online banking division, “emigrantdirect.com”) was virtually always excellent. Oh, there was one, early forgivable snafu involving their failure to execute a “recurring transfer” (from Emigrant to my local bank) that I’d set up. But they very promptly notified me (via email) of that “system error”, and it only happened once. Otherwise, everything always functioned like clockwork. All other “recurring” (as well as numerous “one-time-only”) transfers that I initiated were executed reliably and promptly. It generally only took one business day to transfer money from my Emigrant account to my local, bricks-and-mortar bank. [When you open an “American Dream Savings Account” at emigrantdirect.com, you must “link” your Emigrant account to a personal checking account of yours at a separate US bank. By the way, Emigant’s “American Dream Savings Account” entails “no fees and no minimums”. This not only makes it fairly easy to open an account; it likewise makes it easy to withdraw all your money (except a penny) and not bother closing your account. I myself have recently taken advantage of the latter fact.]
Needless to say, Emigrant (just like every other bank I’ll allude to in my below discussion) is “FDIC-insured”. In other words, the first $100,000 that you deposit will be promptly repaid to you (by “Uncle Sam”) if/when Emigrant (or any other “FDIC-insured” bank) goes belly-up. Not that I seriously think that’s ever going to happen to Emigrant in my lifetime!
Emigrant’s customer service for their online customers [via their toll-free phone number, 1-800-836-1997, which is available seven days a week, 8:00 AM – 11:30 PM ET] was very good. On those infrequent occasions that I phoned with a question that their “FAQ” page couldn’t answer, I was promptly connected to a live, knowledgeable, well-trained human who always solicitously answered questions to my satisfaction. Oh, a number of their phone reps had fairly strong “foreign” accents (sometimes making me wonder if I’d reached India!), but I never had the least bit of trouble communicating with any of their reps.
Emigrant’s multifaceted web site was always sufficiently easy for me to navigate, not that I generally spent all that much time there. You can see/do pretty much anything that you could reasonably expect to do with a “savings” account.
The monthly hardcopy statements for my “American Dream Savings Account” arrived consistently via snail mail, and they were easy to understand. Those statements are likewise conveniently accessible/viewable (by the legitimate account holder) online. Mind, since this is a “savings” (not a “checking” or “money market” account), you don’t receive (and can’t write) any checks with it. Instead, you simply go online and quickly and easily initiate transfers of money (in either direction) between your Emigrant account and your personal checking account at some other US bank. Transfers from your Emigrant account to your other bank generally only take one business day.
Although I’d initially been (very slightly) uncomfortable opting for an “Internet” bank (as opposed to my familiar neighborhood counterparts), within a very short while I learned to trust Emigrant’s security measures, which never let me down.
As with many banks’ online services nowadays, with Emigrant you must initially logon via entering both a “User ID” and a “password” of your choosing. Subsequently, you must also input correct responses to several (previously set-up) answers to generic questions that should be easy for you to remember (e.g., “What was the name of your favorite childhood pet” [or some such simple query]). Finally, you must click on your previously selected/established full-color “graphic” (which helps you verify that you’re actually viewing the genuine Emigrant site).
Regarding my above two-star rating, the only reason I’m (grudgingly) assigning Emigrant more than one measly star is because I did always find them to be excellent in every other respect than the one that matters most: the rate of interest that they pay holders of their so-called “American Dream Savings” account.
When I opened my “American Dream” account at Emigrant about two years ago, their interest rate was over 6%, which beat virtually any other Internet (not to mention bricks-and-mortar) bank at the time. And a mere month or more ago, Emigrant was still paying a respectable 5.01%. But oh, how the mighty have fallen! As of this writing, Emigrant pays a measly 2.75%, which means it ranks near the bottom of its online ilk.
I can only surmise that Emigrant’s management has been, of late, shrewdly “banking” on many of their account holders to be foolish and just take it on the proverbial chin as their measly monthly “take” continues to plummet toward zero. Well, not this account holder. I withdrew all but (literally) one red cent from my Emigrant account. If Emigrant ever elects to become “king of the hill” again, my established account will be ready. Meanwhile, I’ve found other banks that pay 5%, 5.5%, or even a bit more. Unfortunately, I’m speaking of so-called “rewards checking” instruments that require account holders to meet several seemingly tedious (but ultimately quite tolerable) stipulations in order to “earn” such a high rate of return. The most significant stipulations are the following two:
(1) the account holder must make purchases using his “free bank card” (either in signature-based “credit-card mode” OR in PIN-based “debit-card mode”, depending on the particular bank’s rules!) a specified minimum number of times (generally 10 to 15 times) per month;
(2) the account holder must set up at least one “ACH” (electronic) automatic withdrawal (or direct deposit) from (or to) the account.
Since I’ve long been accustomed to using my checking account thusly to conveniently pay my utility bills (etc.) anyway, the second stipulation isn’t an insurmountable hurdle for me; once such “ACH transfers” are set up, they’re on “automatic pilot” and require no further work on my part (assuming I simply maintain a large enough account balance to cover them). However, regarding the first stipulation, it can be a tad tedious to keep track of the precise number of credit/debit-card purchases per month. [Oh, the darned “hoops” I grudgingly leap through just to garner a “twice-as-high” rate of interest!] But even this isn’t really tough for me to handle, given that I habitually make all my routine purchases with a bank card, which is much tidier than carrying large amounts of cash, much less a tedious checkbook! [Don’t you just hate it when you’re standing in line at the store, and one or more “little old ladies” ahead of you are taking all day to pen (and record) their old-fashioned checks? If you yourself are of that troglodytic ilk, I urge you to pick up the pace and get with the 21st century by using “plastic” for such purposes. (And if my smart-alecky goading hasn’t persuaded you to switch from your checkbook to a bank card, then perhaps earning 5% to 6% on your “checking” account will!)] 😉
Also, note that (typically) such “rewards checking” accounts only allow you to deposit a limited amount of money to earn the higher than usual interest rate. Although a tiny minority of such accounts might allow you to earn the high rate on (up to) $100,000, the rest only pay the high rate on your first $25,000 (or, in some cases, $50,000). Therefore, if you have more than just $25,000 on which you want to earn the high rate, you must open two (or more) separate accounts at that same (or another) bank, and then you’ll have to juggle at least twice as many monthly bank-card purchases (plus ACH withdrawals/deposits). Whew!
One nice thing: during your first month after establishing such an account, you’re allowed an initial “grace period” during which you’ll automatically earn the highest rate even if you don’t meet all the aforementioned stipulations. (This allows you sufficient time to get your aforementioned ACH withdrawals/deposits set up.) But after that initial “grace period” month, you must meet all the above-described stipulations, lest you end up earning only a puny rate that’s even lower than Emigrant’s! So, don’t sign up for one of these “rewards checking accounts” if you’re so pathetically disorganized and/or lazy that you can’t manage to arrange at least one ACH withdrawal (or deposit) plus use your bank card to purchase groceries (or whatever) on a routine basis. [Note: In case you’re wondering, it’s perfectly all right to purchase, say, 10 or 15 cans of chicken soup and pay for each can separately with your bank card. The bank won’t mind, even though the cashier might!]
Earlier today I got an unexpected phone call from an Emigrant representative. He explained that they routinely phone customers who withdraw large amounts of money. He asked if I had been satisfied with their bank. I calmly, matter-of-factly replied that everything had been fine… excepting their recent interest-rate freefall. Without missing a beat (and without proffering any explanation for their rate plunge), he replied that they certainly “understood” that. During the rest of our brief conversation, he asked if I’d put my money in another bank. I then explained that I’d found a bank paying 5.51%. He paused, then asked if I cared to name my “new” bank. I said I’d really rather not, but he could just go to the site “money-rates.com”, click an “Online Bank Deals” link, and then scroll downward to find an inconspicuous, clickable, “Reward Checking programs” link. [Or just use the following URL: money-rates.com/rewardschecking.htm] Thereafter, one can behold a list of various U.S. banks offering such accounts. In fact, a few pay even higher rates than mine. (NOTE: double-check that any given bank allows “out-of-state residents” to open such accounts. Some banks (including mine) will; but many won’t.)
I’ve left exactly one penny in my otherwise derelict Emigrant account; that way, it’ll be ready for me if/when their rate ever rises from the ashes and ascends anew to its formerly glorious heights. Till then, Emigrant is merely a wistful memory.
