Discover Bank

An Honest Review Of Discover Bank
- iLoveBanking - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 11:16 AM

Discover is a giant. They have been around for a long time (since 1911). Discover Bank recently joined the family of Discover in 2000. So, their banking sector is new. Some people have really ripped Discover apart for errors and customer service. But, considering their newness, they are putting forth a lot of effort and seeking to be competitive and helpful. Just look at thtier website. It has a ton of information and very useful calculators.

Discover's rates are one of the nations best. If you have a discover credit card, then it would make sense to bank and with them and correlate the accounts via bill pay.

Before you jump on the "I hate Discover bank" band wagon.The following site has an honest overview of Discover's accounts and evenmore indepth reviews for each account.

Check out the Discover Bank Review at BankTruth.

Discover Made My Problem Worse With Prejudgment And Lie.
- rlin0430 - Friday, March 23, 2012 - 7:52 PM

When I was moving to another city, I used IP relay service to call Discover (as a hard hearing person, IP relay was the only communication method for me with Discover) and required a change to my address. Suddenly Discover representative hanged up and then locked my account. As a consequence, I could not make a payment to my Discover More card online.
 
I immediately contacted their security department to verify my identity. They wanted to call back and continue the verification process. I explained to them that I couldn’t hear sound so for our communication to work, I have to proactively call them through IP Relay. The representative insisted that their record showed they had spoken to the cardholder so they would still go ahead and call back. That was an obvious lie on a deaf person who couldn’t talk verbally through phone.
 
The second time I called and informed them about my deaf situation, instead of offering an alternative solution, Discover just hanged up disrespectfully. During that time my schedule was very stressful, so I had to sacrifice some goal and time to find out other methods to pay the card.
 
Compared to Amex who handled my request respectfully and smoothly, Discover customer service is unprofessional. To make the matter worse, they are absolutely rude and lack the heart to help customers.

Will Never Open Another Account With Them.
- cdratesearch - Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - 6:35 PM

The rates are great, but that's the only thing that is good.  Their customer service is not well trained and can give multiple wrong answers.   They say they will respond to e-mails within 24 hours, but it can be up to a week.  I have called several times and been given incorrect answers or they said that they would check on the problem and call me back.  They have never called back. 

I did receive a letter requesting that I call them on one of my accounts, but had to read the letter to customer service and they still didn't know how to get me to anyone that could answer my question.  Just promised to call me back and then did not.

They definitely make their money on fund transfers, since they can take up to a week to transfer the $ from an external account into the Discover account or from the Discover account into an external account.

Would not recommend them to anyone. 

 

 

Discover Bank Is Starting To Make Me Nervous (Savings)
- livresrares - Saturday, December 11, 2010 - 11:11 PM

My Etrade Financial savings account was sold to Discover Bank a while ago.  I'm starting to have problems with the amount of time when I simply cannot get access to my money...  Discover's excuse is that the website is down for maintainance.

 

When the website is down, not only do customers have NO access to their accounts, but NEITHER DO THE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS!!! So even if you call, there's no way to set up a transaction until their website goes back up again.

 

Their website goes down EVERY DAY for about an hour.  Additionally, there are special weekend outages when the website goes down overnight.

 

I wonder if banks could use 'website maintanance' as an excuse to steal people's savings or to prevent a bank run or something.  Discover bank shuts down completely for about 7 hours every week.  Could it gradually decrease its opening hours to 1 hour per day?  Per week? Per month? Then it would be very difficult for us customers to get our money out.

High Yield Savings
- garion - Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 1:57 PM

Was about to open a savings account online but then read on the web how they have a minimum withdrawal restriction. I confirmed it by calling them. It's a $50k/month withdrawal. You can ask them to cut you a check or wire more than the 50k for a fee, tho. I think that's ridiculous.]

I gave it 3 stars, because maybe the account is fine and for those who withdraw less than 50k it might be fine. I just don't like the principle of how we are giving them money to loan out and yet when we need it, we are stuck with a withdrawal limit or fee.

Awful, AWFUL, AWFUL!!!
- cdseeker - Thursday, January 3, 2013 - 11:27 AM

I have had numerous CDs amounting to a substantial amount of money with Discover and only in the last 6 months have things gotten really bad with them.  I have contacted customer service several times and gotten perfunctory replies that did not address any of my concerns.  They have NO customer service.  They lie about this in all of their ads and promotions and also lie about having "great" rates.  I sense that there are some real problems with this bank and it may be that they just don't want to deal with consumers any longer, at least in the CD market.  So I will NEVER buy another  CD from them and strongly urge anyone reading this stay away from this bank.  BTW, I had to give one star because there was no option for to give no stars.

Better Check On Your Signature Card
- larkin - Monday, November 7, 2011 - 6:03 PM

I have opened 12 CD accounts with Discover over the past 2 years.  Each one requires a signature be mailed back.  The first 11--no problem.  Today I noticed a debit on my most recent CD.  I called and was told they never received the signature card so I am subject to backup withholding.  I explained that I mailed the signature card back the same day I received it and reminded the CSR that I have had multiple accounts showing that I am not subject to backup withholding.  It was like talking to a brick.

Bottom line--they may have decent rates but if you open a new account make sure to double-check that the signature card got back to them. 

Very disappointing...

Website Is Always Down For Maintenance - Inconvenient And Inaccurate
- ek - Sunday, April 29, 2012 - 12:28 AM

Discoverbank is not a good online solution! The website is down more often that not - it seems like they perform 'system maintenance' every weekend. If you ever want to do any online banking over the weekend you mise well forget about it. Originally I had etrade who was acquired and taken over by discover bank - it has been downhill ever since. I will be looking for a new online savings account option, this has happened one time too many. I bank online with other companies all the time and I have never experience the amount of downtime as this company - if they wanted to get into online banking then they should actually make it work - either that or state hours of operation on their home page. 

Very Pleased With Discover Bank
- sluigij - Sunday, November 13, 2011 - 10:04 PM

I have a few accounts with Discover Bank and have been banking with them on-line for a few years. The on-line services are very easy to use and I have had no glitches whatsoever. Rates are usually better than my local banks.

Fraudulent Con Artists
- rokatem - Thursday, May 10, 2012 - 10:45 PM

I should have seen the warning signs. When I first opened the account in August 2011, Discover tried to pull the initial deposit amount ($9,000) THREE TIMES from my other bank, resulting in multiple overdraft charges of $105. When I asked my bank about this, they told me that I needed to get refunded from Discover and of course Discover told me otherwise. So basically I had to fight with both banks and then eventually closed off my original bank account (since their service was worse than Discover's). What a mistake.

Things were going well with Discover as I had a regular deposit in place. But after unacceptable delays in money transfers and having to wait almost a week for each transaction to occur, I decided to pull out from Discover and open a HSBC bank account that only takes 3 days per transfer. As I was pulling out all my money, of course Discover did what they do the best-they repeatedly tried to "transfer" money into my other account multiple times, resulting in $35 overdraft fees. When I called Discover to ask how on earth this multiple pull happened, they explained that I logged on and transferred the money multiple times myself (they even got a tech person at Discover to verify this!). This was the most insane excuse I have ever heard. And all of this mysterious 'transfer' that I requested all occurred after I emptied out my account. When I asked them "why would I try to make transfers from an empty account?", they were like, "I can see that this doesn't make sense and there must have been a mistake". So I asked for a refund for the $35 fee they charged but they told me that was impossible.

I realized that this is how Discover penalizes people who empty out their accounts--they falsely charge you with fees based on a fake transfer that their system creates. This is the most unbelievable experience I have ever had with a bank. I truly believe that Discover bank is committing a crime through their fraudulent practices.

Slow Transfers + 100K Limit A Month To Get Money Out
- yoman121212 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - 10:48 AM

American Express Bank (similar rates as Discover Bank) - you initiate an external transfer and the money is in your account the next day.


Discover Bank - you initiate an external transfer and it takes a week to get the money out.


Discover also limits your withdrawals to 100K PER MONTH.  Usually you have limitations like this per day...but per month?  Useless!  If you reach the 100K limit when transferring money TO Discover, then a phone call to them can have them override the restriction.  But to get $ out, they say they have to follow the rules.  The only exception to that is if you close your account - which is kind of odd since that lets you transfer 100K out without any problems.

Although this started out as a great experience turned into a bad one given the two issues recently faced...American Express Bank is the way to go when compared to Discover.

Good And Fast Service!
- Jojo - Thursday, December 9, 2010 - 11:19 AM

I have had a money market account at Discover Bank for over ten years. The rate has always been higher than any of my local banks. Of course, today, that does not mean a whole lot.

As far as fast service, this is something that I discovered (no pun intended) several years ago. Say I wanted to deposit $250 in my money market account. If I did online banking at my local institution and transfered the money, it took almost ten calendar days for the deposit to show up in my Discover account. If I MAILED a check, I have seen it posted to my account in a few as THREE days. Discover obviously posts a deposit the day it is received. Electronic = 10 days, snail-mail = 3 days...Hmmm...probably something with my local bank. That is why they are used for paying bills and nothing else.

Because of this I called Discover and asked if it was possible to get more deposit slips and postage paid envelopes so that I could keep a regular savings schedule. In a couple weeks I received an entire book of deposit slips (not blank, but with my name and account number) along with a stack of postage paid envelopes.

 

Caught With Fees
- johndoe - Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - 8:11 AM

 

There was some confusion with some transfers between Discover and Chase where I believe I was incorrectly charged fees.

 

Chase quickly refunded their fee without admitting any fault, making this customer happy with Chase.

 

Discover didn't do the same.

Extremely Stressful To Open An Account Through AAA
- lakegirl - Thursday, July 26, 2012 - 12:48 PM

Opened up an online account . A dozen phone reps said the money never made it to the account. I was not able to speak with a supervisor. The one phone rep said to fax papers to them-which I did.Another said to call someone long distance(not tollfree)-which I did. I was told the money left my old bank and never made it to Discover Bank.I also used online customer service - never responded. I was told the money was GONE!AAA was no help initially, but 6 months later offered to help.I complained to the FTC and FDIC. I found out 4 weeks later the money was in an acoount.I also opened an account via U.S. mail. it took weeks. I spoke to several post offices and Discover Bank reps  on the phone before the account was opened. It is too much time, effort and money  to get an account opened.

Great Comfort
- faizan - Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 8:18 AM

I am a regular customer of this bank it provides allot of services and very comfortable lone conditions. I Have a current saving account in this bank and I am very happy with it as it gives a very attractive profit package. I have a credit card also with very easy return conditions. I will recommend others to have an account in this bank. I love it.

Discover Bank Pretending To Offer Better Deal For AAA Members
- cactus - Sunday, July 22, 2012 - 8:25 AM

Discover bank says: "Get preferred member rates on 12, 24 and 60 month CDs and IRA CDs."

https://aaa.discoverbank.com/aaa/cd.html 

However, all the rates are the exactly same for non-AAA members. 

https://www.discover.com/online-banking/cd/

AWFUL, ..., All Around Awful
- barbina222 - Tuesday, July 3, 2012 - 8:46 PM

Opening an online savings account with Discover Bank is a mistake. I found out the hard way. They are a day or two slow in transferring money out. That hurt a little but one can live with that. There are several other minor things that are troublesome, including horrible customer service. One can live with some of these things, as long as my money is fine. The big issue came when I transferred everything out of the account on the 24th of the month. I was stunned when I didn’t get any interest for the month, 24 days in. They told me that I forfeited that when I transferred everything out. AWFUL.

I never thought I'd say this but American Express (http://personalsavings.americanexpress.com/) is much better. Money transfers on time, better rates, plus, they do not steal your interest money. ING isn't bad either although their rates are a tad lower. At least, they do not confiscate your money. I have learned from experience, I hope no one else suffers my fate.

Stay Away.
- fdsafdsafdfff - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - 11:08 AM

In early 2012, I moved my money from my ING to Discover Bank because of the better rates.  Setting up the account with Discover Bank was a pain, and transfering money was extremely slow.  Now that ING has the same rates, I moved my money back into the ING.  Discover Bank's customer service was also terrible.  Stay away.

Online Opening Long Term Cds With Discover Bank
- Mike - Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 9:36 AM

October 2008.  I opened more than one.  It was straight forward and efficient.  I think I had to sign some forms via snail mail, but it did not hold up the process at all.  The start date for the CDs was the moment I was online.  I believe I had the money PULLED from one of the, then, high interest savings accounts. 

I have had a few questions over time, that I handled via the logged in messaging method.  That has been problem free.

My only drawback:  I am a Discover customer in four ways... 

-(2 logins) separate credit card accounts

-(1 login)multiple CDs

-(1 login)Savings customer (thanks to E-trade)

...and I have to have completely separate logins for these.  They are not connected.  Cannot be connected.  I've asked.  Not available.

I've still got a long wait before the CDs mature (unless DISCOVER is taken over/bought/bailed out, etc), so I am unable to comment on how easy it is to handle the money at maturity.  I hope it is problem free. 

So far, so good.

3.00% APY for 5 Year CD
- Jeanne - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - 12:15 PM

The early withdrawal penalty is 6 months (see http://www.discoverbank.com/cd-faq.html), so for example, if you need to withdraw at 18 months, you would still earn close to 2%.