Washington Mutual's Savings Account Now 5.00%
Aug 25, 2006 - 9:04 AM by Ken Tumin
Washington Mutual raised the rate on its new Savings Account from 4.75% to 5.00% APY. As I mentioned in this post, this rate is only available to those who open a WaMU Free Checking account through this online application page. For those who already have a WaMu checking account, many people have reported being able to get this high yield savings account by opening an additional checking account through this application page.
This deal now looks better than Citibank's 5% savings account which also requires a checking account. In my opinion, WaMu's free checking account has many better features than Citibank's free checking account. The only thing to worry about at WaMu is if this competitive savings account rate will last. Citibank has a longer track record.
Also note, WaMu has a 6.00% APY 13-month CD special available in many states (see post).
This deal now looks better than Citibank's 5% savings account which also requires a checking account. In my opinion, WaMu's free checking account has many better features than Citibank's free checking account. The only thing to worry about at WaMu is if this competitive savings account rate will last. Citibank has a longer track record.
Also note, WaMu has a 6.00% APY 13-month CD special available in many states (see post).
Featured Savings Account
Nationwide Savings Accounts
ETF Guy (anonymous) - #1, Friday, August 25, 2006 - 6:09 PM
Emigrant Direct has taken the lead recently in offering the highest percentage. They're not at 5.15% which beats Citi's eSavings, ING Direct, and the WaMu.
Banking Guy (anonymous) - #2, Saturday, August 26, 2006 - 12:58 PM
One reason to pick WaMu over Emigrant Direct would be if you want a little more liquidity with the savings account. You could move the money from the savings to checking or checking to savings immediately instead of a day or two.
I would tend to agree that Emigrant will lead this WaMu savings account in APY for the long term.
Anonymous - #3, Friday, September 1, 2006 - 8:36 PM
if you don't need money immediately you can buy cd from wamu for 6% instead of saving in saving account. No one is offering 6% cd's except for wamu.
This offer is of 11 months or 13 months CD's only
Kevin (anonymous) - #4, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 - 3:34 PM
Wow! The customer service reps are not very proficient in their knowledge of the online bank at Washington Mutual. I am currently trying to link an external account I have at another bank to my accounts at Washington Mutual but after 10 days I have yet to receive the micro-deposits needed to verify that I own the account. I tried to call CS and the first one told me I cannot link to an external account, even though I already have one linked. The second time I called I had to explain to the CS rep how one goes about setting up an external account.
I swear if I have trouble with this tomorrow I will just forget the whole thing. I wish I could go to a local branch and fix this but I was told I can only do this online or through the phone.
Anonymous - #5, Friday, August 17, 2007 - 11:52 AM
Minimum $300 in the savings if you don't want to be assessed a $4 fee, FWIW.
Online Savings
The minimum deposit to open this account is $1.00
Monthly Service Charge: $4.00
The Monthly Service Charge waived if Online Savings is opened with a WaMu Free Checking™ account online or opened and linked to an existing WaMu checking account online. If the linked checking account closes, standard monthly service charge and minimum daily ending balance requirements apply.
Accounts with daily ending balances of less than $300.00 on any day of the monthly cycle are subject to the Monthly Service Charge.
Anonymous - #6, Saturday, September 1, 2007 - 6:52 PM
Does anyone know if there is a termination fee for closing the Wamu Online Savings/Free Checking account? I checked the T&Cs but couldn't find anything. I ended up signing up with ETrade for the higher (5.05%) savings and ATM fee refunds on the MaxRate checking.
Nenny Derex (anonymous) - #7, Friday, August 8, 2008 - 7:01 AM
Hi. Nice blog. I do not want you to think that I do not like Washington Mutual but I think that is not the best of the existing financial institutions. I browsed the net and looked through this great site which I love www.pissedconsumer.com and found out that the company does not satisfy lots of its clients. The reasons for that are numerous.
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