E-LOAN Savings Account - Where's the Interest?

Many E-LOAN savings account customers were disappointed on Wednesday (the start of November) when they didn't see any interest added to their balance on their account page. It turns out that your account balance is updated monthly from your anniversary date of your account opening. I opened the account on October 2nd and I my account was credited with interest yesterday on November 2nd. However, electronic statements are issued at the end of each month. On the statement, you'll see interest credited up to the end of the month. On the monthly anniversary, that month of interest will be credited to your account and will be shown on your account page. It's a little confusing, but as long as they keep the high yield, I can live with it.

From my account, the interest came out as expected: 5.36% APR or 5.50% APY. Hopefully, this will hold for awhile. I've read that the E-LOAN CSRs are telling customers that this rate for balances over $5k is guaranteed until Thanksgiving. A tiered rate structure could return before then.

If you want to lock in the high rate, you might want to consider an E-LOAN CD. Their CD rates continue to hold while others have fallen. For long-term CDs, E-LOAN's 5.75% APY is 60 basis points above GMAC's CDs and around 50 basis points above AmTrustDirect's CDs. Please see my previous post on E-LOAN's CDs for more information.