High Yield Online Money Market Account at Nationwide Bank
Update 6/29/10: The yield has fallen from 1.25% to 1.20% APY. Refer to the bottom of the post for the rate history.
Nationwide Bank is offering an online money market account which currently has a competitive yield of 3.90% APY for all balances. There's a minimum balance requirement of $1,000 to avoid a $8/month fee. Like any liquid account, the rate could change at any time. According to the CSR, the rate has remained at 3.90% for the last two weeks, and before this it was 4.35%.
I'm glad to see that it seems to have a solid ACH transfer service. There have been too many new online banks that have lacked this feature. Here are some of Nationwide's ACH features based on their FAQs and my conversation with the CSR:
- ACH transfer service that allows you to initiate transfers to and from other bank accounts
- No limit on the number of linked accounts (according to CSR)
- Limit of 6 outgoing ACH withdrawals per month (as required by law). $5 for each transfer after 6.
- Transfer limit of $500,000
- Transfers can take up to 5 days to clear but normally take 3 days. [ Update: Readers have reported very slow ACH transfers with delays of 5 days or more.]
Some of the notable features related to opening the account include:
- $1,000 minimum deposit to open account
- Can be funded electronically with an ACH transfer or by mailing a check
- You will have access to funds in your new deposit account once you fund the account, receive the fulfillment package and return the signature card bearing the signatures of all account owners.
- Free first order of checks
- Minor custodial accounts (UGMA,UTMA) can be opened
- Free ATM card upon request
- Only a ChexSystem verification and soft credit pull (according to CSR)
Some of the notable ongoing account features include:
- $1,000 minimum balance to avoid $8/month fee
- Access to Allpoint surcharge-free ATMs and Visa/PLUS ATMs
- Two free non-Nationwide Bank ATM transactions per month (no refunds of fees charged by ATM owners)
- Online statements; paper statements available at no additional cost
- Account information downloadable in .OFX format for finance software
- Next Day ACH transfers cost $15
- Wire Transfer fees: free for incoming, $15 for outgoing
- no postage-paid envelopes for mailing in deposits (CSR)
Nationwide Bank also offers CDs, IRAs, checking accounts and a savings accounts. The best CD yield currently available is 3.75% APY for 7 and 11 month terms. The minimum deposit is $500. Neither the savings account nor the checking accounts have interest rates worth mentioning.
Nationwide Bank was established in 1998 and is a member FDIC (Certificate # 34710). For those looking for a financially strong bank, this might be one for you. It has a 5 out of 5 star rating (superior) at Bankrate.com based on 9/30/07 data and a 5 out of 5 star rating (superior) at BauerFinancial based on 12/31/07 data.
Thanks to the reader who mentioned this account in the finding-the-best-deals post.
Rate and Account History:
Update 06/29/10: The yield has fallen from 1.25% to 1.20% APY
Update 03/02/10: The yield has fallen from 1.40% to 1.35% APY
Update 11/21/09: The yield has fallen from 1.60% to 1.50% APY.
Update 11/07/09: The yield has fallen from 1.70% to 1.60% APY.
Update 09/26/09: The yield has fallen from 1.80% to 1.70% APY
Update 08/10/09: The yield has fallen from 1.85% to 1.80% APY.
Update 07/01/09: The yield has fallen from 2.00% to 1.90% APY.
Update 06/01/09: The yield has fallen from 2.15% to 2.00% APY.
Update 04/25/09: The yield has fallen from 2.24% to 2.15% APY.
Update 11/15/08: The yield has fallen from 3.52% to 3.27% APY.
Update 7/17/08: The yield has increased to 3.50% APY. There's also a $25 new-account bonus. See post for details.
Update 5/20/08: The yield has fallen from 3.40% to 3.25% APY.
Anonymous - #1, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 10:50 AM
I have an account with them.
ACH system is very slow.
It takes one week for the funds to be available, never mind what CSR says.
If you want next or second day transfers, it cost $15.00.
Last week I transfered from Nationwide to AmTrust, it took 5 working days for the funds to be available.
Anonymous - #2, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 10:59 AM
I would not count on their ACH system. I Initiated transfer on Wednesday, they pulled the money from my account immediately, but ACH went out on Monday and arrived at the other Bank next Wednesday.
Anonymous - #3, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 11:03 AM
Do they allow you to wire funds to open a new CD?
Anonymous - #4, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 12:38 PM
You can wire funds, but first you must call to arrange and ask for instructions on how to open the CD with wire transfer.
Anonymous - #5, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 12:47 PM
About the ACH system at Nationwide, it is same as WaMu or OneUnited Banks. It is slow and painful. I stop using it after two tries. You are better of using their wire system instead of ACH.
Anonymous - #6, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 12:58 PM
According to a manager supervisor at Nationwide, the day you initiate the ACH does not count as working day for the ACH, the day after the initiations is considered as start for the ACH. If you initiate on Friday, Monday is the initiation day for the transfer, but the money will be pulled out from your account on Friday. If you initiate on Monday, ACH will be prepared for Tuesday as starting day and will be sent out on Wednesday and hopefully will arrive on Friday, if not for sure will be at the destination Bank next Monday (one week later).
Anonymous - #7, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 1:14 PM
There is no such thing as free lunch at Nationwide Bank. Even if you send money from any other ACH system from outside Bank into Nationwide, they will not post the money when arrived, but few days later, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Anonymous - #8, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 2:17 PM
So I see all the complaints about the various complaints. Who do people use that has fast ACH and are happy with and still paying over 3%?
Are people able to do transfers between online banks or do you have to ACH out of one online bank to an offline back and another ACH back in to a different online bank?
larkin (anonymous) - #9, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 2:23 PM
E*Trade (currently 3.45%) posts same day. I believe there is a 4pm ET cutoff. GMAC (currently 3%) also posts within a day.
GMAC has check writing and and ATM card. E*Trade does not.
I've been very happy with service on both.
Anonymous - #10, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 3:16 PM
Thanks larkin. I am going to try a etrade account and try to fund it from Emigrant Direct (and eventually move more money if the etrade rate stays higher). I googled to find a current link for a $25 bonus. We'll see how it goes.
Anonymous - #11, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 3:25 PM
I called and asked the CSR when funds mailed in by check begin earning interest. She said it's the same date as the funds availability date. If that's true, and based upon what others have said about their experience with ACh transfers, I would only be comfortable making deposits by wire. I don't know about this one.
Anonymous - #12, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 4:17 PM
Don't forget CW is still > 4% and very fast ACH but you can link no more than 5 banks.
Anonymous - #13, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 7:47 PM
I opened an account on the 5th of this month and mailed a check for the initial deposit.
They used a check 21 system and pulled the money next day.
Until today 03-24-08, the funds are not yet available for use and no interest is credited on the funds.
The funds availability date is just an imaginary date that serve the Bank and not the customer.
I wished I sent them $1 instead of $10k. Bummer.......
Anonymous - #14, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 8:37 PM
They do provide some free checks, though... so one way to avoid the ACH is to write yourself a check (or go to the ATM).
There is no delay when you are pushing money in from another bank, right? Like, they won't purposefully slow you down or anything?
This account looks like a great alternative to the Flagstar account. Five stars is all I need to hear.
Anonymous - #15, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - 11:49 PM
Pushing money in from another bank
takes 3 days to show up at Nationwide even if the ACH was done same day or overnight.
Pushing money out of Nationwide takes minimum of 5 days.
Anonymous - #16, Thursday, March 27, 2008 - 2:21 PM
For all those who think to use E*Trade for ACH, read this:
External account to E*TRADE Securities accounts is available After the 5th business day from when the transfer request is received.
External account to E*TRADE Bank deposit accounts is available On the evening of the 3rd business day after the day of deposit.
In other words, E*Trade makes the money unavailable to re-send via ACH from 3-5 business days, not counting the time to pull and time to again push the same money.
You are looking at least 2 weeks using E*Trade as intermediary for ACH distributions.
Anonymous - #17, Friday, March 28, 2008 - 12:27 AM
Nonetheless, if you pull money from another bank into E*Trade Complete Savings on a Friday before the cutoff time, you'll end up earning interest on the funds at BOTH banks for at least 3 days. E*Trade will start paying interest on Friday, but the source bank won't be debited until at least Monday (or Tuesday if it's a holiday weekend). On the push side, the interest loss from E*Trade to *most* banks (apparently not including Nationwide) is 1 day -- same as GMAC or AmTrustDirect. BTW, the E*Trade Complete Savings pulled-deposit hold described in the previous post is very fair by online-bank standards. Deposits pushed into E*Trade CS are available for withdrawal immediately after the deposit shows up.
Anonymous - #18, Friday, March 28, 2008 - 12:57 AM
Yes, you can do transfers directly between online banks. Use whichever one of the pair has the fastest ACH system. In addition to E*Trade, GMAC, and AmTrust Direct, another 3.00-or-over bank which is reported to have fast ACH is non-minimum Provident-Direct (www.provident-direct.com), which (finally) just lowered their APY from 4.50 to 3.75 tonight. On another forum folks report that the P-D ACH system is not only fast, but that the per-transfer limit was recently raised from $5,000 to $100,000; and that the capability to link to more than one external bank was just added. The caution is that some people have had to work at getting their ACH capability activated, especially if they were unable to complete the application process online. BTW, I no longer have an account at MetLife Bank -- which I believe is at 3.00 now -- but as I recall their ACH system was pretty fast.
Anonymous - #19, Sunday, March 30, 2008 - 12:23 PM
Does anyone know if this account provides postage-paid envelopes for mailing in deposits?
Anonymous - #20, Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 7:10 PM
APY is down to 3.40%.
Anonymous - #21, Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 1:25 PM
APY 3.25%
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