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
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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:

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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
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Well, I’ve finally gotten full access to my HSBC Direct savings account. The process was a lot longer than I would’ve liked:

Day 1 – I applied online where they asked the usual prying questions and did one of those Experian/Equifax identity checks based on information on your credit report. I hate those, as the questions are always very weird, but I passed. I filled out the signature card online, and opted to fund my account online as well. Nothing to mail in, very nice. They then send two trial deposits to the account that you want to fund from.

Day 3 – In about two business days, the numbers show up in your account, and you have to go back and type in your deposit amounts. After verifying the amounts, HSBC will then suck the amount you want to deposit out of your designated account. I recommend starting out with a small deposit, you’ll see why next.

Days 9-11 – You then have to wait for two separate letters via snail mail. I suppose this increases security, but since I’m on the West Coast and the letters came from New York, they take forever. I got the first letter on Day 9, and it contains your Customer ID login, and is 20 digits long! I got the 2nd letter on Day 11, and it contains your password, another 8-digit beast.

Finally, now you can log into your account and see your money that disappeared from your checking account a week ago. Then, to initiate transfers in between external accounts, you have first make a Security Key, which can only be typed in via your mouse. After that, they want your ATM card number and PIN info. If you don’t have that just click on “Forgot PIN” and call the number they provide. Finally, you can add external accounts.

Day 12 – Two more letters. ATM Card in one, and my HSBC account number and routing number (022000020) in the other. Do they have a vested interest in supporting the U.S. Postal Service or what? Check out Cap’s Review of this process too.

Conclusion
In the end, opening an HSBC Direct savings account to about 12 days, so be forewarned. Their customer service has been pretty good so far, with short hold times except for on weekends. The interbank transfer times are a bit slow, but it balances out with the added flexibility of being able to link almost any bank out there without having to send in checks.

Here is some possibly useful information if you need to contact them from my application form:

HSBC Bank USA, N.A.
Attn: Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 4045
Buffalo, NY 14240
Phone: 1-888-404-4050

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?
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HSBC Online Banking is now paying 4.25% APY interest, leading all no-minimum no-fees savings accounts. I opened one recently and just got full online access to my bank account earlier this week, and I’ll be putting up a review shortly. $25 opening bonus still looks active. Thanks to Amanda and Anon for the heads up.

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:
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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:
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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.
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