Here are the results of my bank transfer timing experiment to help estimate the lost interest when transfering money from one online bank to another. I scheduled transfers very late on Monday (~9pm Pacific) to and from various online banks and recorded when the money was taken out of the originating bank, and when the money was noted as deposited in the destination bank.

I would have posted the data earlier, but I’ve been trying to pore through all the fine print to figure out exactly when the banks stop and start paying interest during withdrawals and deposits. I’m still fuzzy on several things, but I just made some assumptions and ran with them for now. Here are the (I think reasonable) assumptions I made:
[Read more…]

Every time there is an issue with a bank, I have to go digging to find their fine print again. No more! I have tracked down the direct links to the Terms & Disclosures for each of the banks on my high-yield savings account comparison page – Capital One 360, Emigrant, HSBC, and VirtualBank. I’ve also highlighted some of the useful information from each. Hopefully it will serve as a good reference.

Capital One 360 – Terms & Disclosures
[Read more…]

So apparently from the comments on my last post, I am wrong about all banks taking 2 business days to do a transfer. I thought taking the money out on a Monday and depositing it on Wednesday was about normal for online savings accounts? All this time I’ve never paid attention. So it’s time to set up more experiments. Hey, my classes haven’t started yet, so why not.

I’m going to set up the following transfers on 9-10am Pacific on Monday, and see how long they take. The bolded bank is the one initiating the ACH push or pull.

HSBC -> Presidential Checking
HSBC Emigrant Direct -> Presidential
Emigrant Direct Capital One 360 -> Presidential
Capital One 360 VirtualBank -> Presidential
VirtualBank E*Trade Bank -> Presidential
E*Trade Bank CashEdge as the backend to their funds transfer service. This way we can see if the hold times is solely an HSBC thing, or a CashEdge-wide occurrence.

I must admit, after opening up my HSBC Direct account I went ahead and linked all of my numerous other bank accounts (except ING). Other than racking up over $6 in trial deposits, I envisioned having HSBC be my hub for all my interbank transfers. But then I heard some rumblings about how HSBC Direct is really slow with their online bank-to-bank transfers. During the last week, I’ve been shooting various amounts of money around my different accounts, and they have all been following the schedule that HSBC openly discloses. I couldn’t get a link to it as it only works when I sign in, but here is a screenshot of it (click to enlarge):

It’s true, it can take a while if you miss their 8pm Eastern deadline. For example, if you did it on late Wednesday night, it would count as a Thursday submission, and the money would be taken out of the initial account on Friday and wouldn’t be put in the receiving account until Tuesday. That’s almost a week, sort of, and you’d lose 4 days of interest.

But overall, it takes 2-3 business days, which I thought was about industry standard. Sunday through Tuesday are the best days to initiate transfers in order to minimize transfer time and lost interest. Next week I’ll try the other online banks and see how they compare.

I have redone my old Online Bank Comparison to drop Presidential Premier Savings and add HSBC Direct instead. This way, all four accounts compared have no minimum balance requirements, no monthly fees, and no other strings attached. That way, one can always move money away without issues. There may be other banks with higher rates, but also higher balance requirements to get those rates. The best value for each feature is bolded:

[Read more…]

I’ve blogged about Pentagon Federal Money Market Cerificates (CDs) before, including how to join, previously. PenFed has just announced new rates, and several of them are very competitive –

3 Year CD – 5.5% APY
5 Year CD – 5.75% APY
7 Year CD – 6.0% APY
[Read more…]

Another good question spurned by fellow rate-chasers’ comments. We now have a lot of competition in the high yield savings account arena. So, a good question asked is “When it worth it to move your money”? This is because there may be a gap in between money transfers from Bank A to Bank B where your money will not be earning any interest, which could negate much of the benefits of moving. (Another good question is which bank or entity is earning money off the float.) Things to consider:

1) When does Bank A stop paying interest?
2) How long does it take to for the transfer?
3) When does Bank B start paying interest on your deposit?
[Read more…]

As mentioned by readers. GMAC Bank MM Savings at 4.30% – FDIC Insured, $500 minimum to open and maintain to avoid fees, ATM Card, limited check writing. I don’t have an account with them currently, let’s hope others move to match.

Bummer, I’m finally out of checks. I try to write as little checks as humanly possible and pay for everything with credit cards to get cash back, but still, things like rent, graduation gifts, giving to charity, gradually deplete my checkbook. Last time I was stupid and requested new checks directly from Bank of America. They cost me $35! What a rip off. I didn’t know you could get checks printed from anywhere.

This time, I’m ordering from Costco Check Printing. You get 400 single plain checks for $9, or 300 duplicate checks for $10 with free shipping. Executive members get another 20% off. If you’re not a member of Costco or need less checks, try these places:
[Read more…]

Most people have seen the notices online or in your physical bank that your deposits in an FDIC Insured bank account are insured up to $100,000. But what if you find yourself with more than $100,000 in cash? Say, in between home selling and buying? Well, one easy way is to simply open another account at another bank (You can verify that they are indeed FDIC Insured at this FDIC webpage.)

You can also get around those limits all at one bank if you notice that accounts in different ownership categories, like individual and joint accounts, are insured separately. I found a handy chart [pdf] explaining this from Emigrant Direct’s FAQ Page:
[Read more…]

For me, the only reason I knew Washington Mutual existed was because they offered free ATM access with no fees on their end. According to this recent Reuters article (via Fatwallet), as of November 17th that will be no more. Bummer.

An surprising quote from the article:

Bankrate.com estimates that U.S. consumers pay nearly $4 billion a year in ATM fees, with an average $1.40 surcharge.

$4 Billion??? Yowza. We are lazy folk. I can’t talk though, because I contributed to that $4 Billion myself.
[Read more…]

Back when I was a new eBay Powerseller, I loved PayPal. People paid me instantly, and I didn’t have to run to the bank to deposit checks and wait until they cleared. Of course some people had problems, but I figured they were probably doing some sketchy stuff and had it coming…. Until it happened to me.

They don’t tell you this, but just one nervous buyer or seller can file a complaint against you, and that’s that. Even if they just don’t want to pay for it. Your account is disabled, a happy word for frozen. As in no access to your money. And you don’t get access until you do all of the following:
[Read more…]