Searching for a bank
Posted by Ryan on July 17th, 2007.
So for the past two years, the only bank account that I’ve had for myself (or at least, that I could access) has been my checking account. Last week I decided that I wanted to open a new savings accounts. The only question was where should I open it? There are a dozen banks in town, and several banks in the surrounding area, plus the bank on campus. So there were plenty of options for me to chose from; some criteria needed to be decided on to help me choose a bank.
So in the end, I decided on the following criteria:
- A high interest rate - the higher the better.
- No need to already have another account there - since I only have accounts at two banks, I didn’t want to limit my options.
- Online account access - I’m always online, and keep track of my accounts using Microsoft Money
.
- Ability to open an account online by transfering money from an account elsewhere - I was doing this on a Sunday, and wanted to open the account that day.
After spending 30 minutes online, I had found the following out:
| Bank | APY |
|---|---|
| ING Direct | 4.50% |
| TD Banknorth | 0.25% |
| Superior Savings | 0.85% |
| Wachovia | 0.15% - 0.55% |
| New Alliance | 0.50% - 0.60% |
| Bank of America | 0.20% |
With the exception of Superior, all of the banks had online services. Not that it mattered…
There was a clear winner that met my criteria - I was opening an account with ING Direct. Although they have no branches - at all - I was fine with that, since I can just use direct deposit when I work, and if direct deposit isn’t offered at a job, I can just deposit the money into my checking account and transfer the money through that.
The entire process of opening the account took less than 20 minutes, but I have to wait a few days before it becomes active. Due to the nature of opening the account - online and entering another bank account to get funds - ING Direct makes two small deposits to the other account that you need to verify before the account is open. That doesn’t bother me since you start earning interest the day the account is open, and not when it is verified.
All in all, I wish I had known about ING Direct earlier. I would have opened an account there last summer instead of a year later.
[...] Earn some money, and throw it into the savings accounts [...]