Comments For: High Yield Savings Account and CD at Choice Financial - Nationally Available
Sofa King Frustrated - #2, Friday, May 8, 2009 - 10:39 AM CT
What a shame they only credit interest quarterly for the savings account because the rate is great.
Damn!
But again, if they credited interest monthly, can you imagine the money that would flood into this bank, which would then have the ultimate effect of causing them to drop the rate a lot?
Anonymous - #3, Friday, May 8, 2009 - 12:46 PM CT
How do you get your money out when the CD matures? Is it like CWB where you could call, have them transfer the $$ to SavingsLink and then ACH it out? or do you have to wait for a check to arrive in the mail?
Anonymous - #4, Friday, May 8, 2009 - 5:01 PM CT
The rate will drop after the 30 intro!
Anonymous - #5, Friday, May 8, 2009 - 8:04 PM CT
It will take a month to open and fund the account through the mail and waiting for initial deposit to clear. I don't think we will get the intro rate as advertised.
Anonymous - #6, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 1:05 AM CT
I applied tonight and indicated that I would wire funds. Upon applying, they stated they would email me with my acceptance, etc. I am assuming they will send my account number at that time for wiring. Does anyone know if they charge an incoming wire fee?
Anonymous - #7, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 1:11 AM CT
I thought about the interest loss thing. If you have to pull funds, instead of closing the account, can't you can just drop it down near nothing and leave it open until the end of the 3 months, pay the $2 per month (or leave 5K) and then get out the day after the interest posts? Or leave the minimum and avoid the $2 fee. Should not lose interest that way.
Anonymous - #8, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 10:13 AM CT
Banks rules are geared against the customers, the logic applied by the poster at 11:11 PM, May 08, 2009 will not work.
They require written notice to close any accounts and you are on their mercy to acknowledge your request for closing account. Many times they ignore the request and continue with fees if not sufficient funds are in the account.
To the poster at 11:05 PM, May 08, 2009, you can not wire funds until the account is opened, which require mailing check first and wait until the initial deposit has cleared.
Such a small bank and thousands of new applications, will bring long delays for processing new accounts.
Good luck to all who are brave enough to open account with a tiny bank, since the rates will plummet the moment they reach their goal.
Anonymous - #9, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 10:30 AM CT
According to a CSR, the listed rates could change at any time and their ACH system takes 3-5 business days to complete the transfer.
Anonymous - #10, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 10:40 AM CT
In effect, they want us to keep at least $5000 for minimum of 3 months, which effectively is 4 months, since you can not close the account within 3 months without losing $50 and all of the interest for the prior 3 months. If you close before 6 months, 3 months of interest is lost.
We are all better of with a 6 mo CD then this lousy terms on the saving account. It is not for me, I will wait for better bank and terms.
Anonymous - #11, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 10:46 AM CT
I agree with the poster at 8:40 AM, May 09, 2009.
This is essentially 3 mo CD disguised as saving account with variable interest rate.
Anonymous - #12, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 5:00 PM CT
I still don't get the negativity on this one. The fee is only $2 per month if you have less than 5K in the account. So, if you have to pull your money for some reason, the worst case is you have to lose $6 to qualify for your 3 months of interest. Regarding poster 8:13. I have opened many bank accounts over the years. I can't remember any banks not closing my account within a reasonable time with written notice. I almost feel like the posters are trying to talk people out of opening an account her for some unknown hidden agenda. It just seems like unwarranted negativity. Does anyone else out there feel like I do on this one?
Anonymous - #13, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 5:01 PM CT
Has anyone wired money into this bank? If so, what are the incoming wire fees?
Anonymous - #14, Saturday, May 9, 2009 - 8:01 PM CT
To poster Anonymous, at 3:00 PM, May 09, 2009.
There is no negativity here, it happened twice to me.
Once the bank said we did not received your letter to close the account and another time, they kept the letter unopened (as per their side of the story), until the window for closing elapsed and the new statement period started, so they didn't pay me interest and got me on the penalty late request fee to close account (CD).
So, count yourself lucky for not being a victim of a bank fraud, perpetrated on their customers.
Anonymous - #15, Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 4:33 PM CT
To Anonymous @ 3:01 PM - According to the disclosure form, there is a $15 fee on incoming wire transfers.
None - #16, Monday, May 11, 2009 - 12:01 PM CT
Does anyone have actual experience with their CDs? I'm considering the 13 month, but in view of many of the comments I've read this morning, perhaps it might be wise to either wait or perhaps wait.
Anonymous - #17, Monday, May 11, 2009 - 6:39 PM CT
I opened the Rate Builder Savings account last Friday (5/8) and when I spoke with a CSR she told me that ACH is available. Today I was told by the same person that after clarifying with the group who handles Rate Builder she found out that ACH can only be initiated by the external bank for now till 180 days - at that point I can do ACH from Choice Financial online banking - kind of sucks!!. But she was kind enough to let me know that if I send a secure email than the CSR can do the ACH on my behalf - this is a workaround till 180 days (if I keep my account that long !!)
Anonymous - #18, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 12:14 PM CT
I applied for this account on Friday and received a welcoming E-mail yesterday. It contained my User ID and password login information. This was a regular, nonsecure E-mail. Is it normal for bank's internet divisions to send it this way?
Anyway, I have a Mac and found that the Camino and Mozilla Firefox for Mac browsers will not work for the process because I received a message saying "Unsupported Software Version," apparently related to how Adobe Acrobat Reader works with these browsers. I did reach a normal login screen when I used the Safari browser. I proceeded to enter my UserID and password. However, I get a message saying I entered an incorrect combination. I called customer service for help a few hours ago but there's been no call back as yet. I was told they have just two CSRs handling the online accounts, so that may be why. I spoke with both on Friday and both seemed nice and helpful. I guess I will just wait and see what happens here but was wondering if others have had a similar experience. I want to be reassured there are no bugs in the system before I deposit funds in the account.
Anonymous - #19, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 1:03 PM CT
Addendum to note of 10:14 -- I've learned that other people with Macs have experienced some compatibility problems, too, so I imagine the IT people are working on it. As for the login information, you do have to include the last 4 digits of your SSN, and you can change your password once you log in, so I guess that's why they felt it was okay to send the UserID and initial password by E-mail.
Anonymous - #20, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 2:03 PM CT
I opened one over the weekend online. Received password/login on Monday.
There was a problem wtih my documents (interest rate noted wrong), so I called, left message after hours. Received an e-mail back from someone who had heard the message, and the problems were corrected. Now waiting for pull from account.
Anonymous - #21, Tuesday, May 12, 2009 - 6:28 PM CT
I just checked Choice Financial's website and the Savings Account rates have dropped significantly!
Anonymous - #22, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 5:48 AM CT
Thanks for the warning. I am cancelling /blocking my opening deposit transfer and messaged them I am doing so and withdrawing my account application immediately.
dimossi - #23, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 10:36 AM CT
Anonymous, @ 3:48 AM
How are you going about canceling / blocking the initial ACH transfer? Because I want to do the same thing. And can you let me know if you were successful in doing so?
dimossi - #24, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 10:37 AM CT
I haven't been able to log into the online banking using the username / password I was chose either.
Anonymous - #25, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 1:39 PM CT
I monitor a variety of national online bank rates, and although the rate has dropped recently, the rates still seem pretty competitive. For example, their savings intro rate at 2.76% is only for 30 days, but after that the lowest tier rate is at 1.76% which is better than ING direct at 1.50%.
Randy - #26, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 - 10:27 PM CT
Look out! I applied for the 13 month 3.01% CD online on Monday and received the confirmation number to include on the check I was mailing. Lovely CSR confirmed the rate locks with the application and that there was a 7 day period for them to receive the funds. I mailed the check Tuesday
Today, Wednesday, I received an e-mail stating: "Unfortunately, the qualification guidelines for this account have not been met and the requested account cannot be opened at this time. You will receive a notice by mail detailing the decision."
I have no clue as to what "qualifications" were not met, and am now wondering about the status of the funds presently in the mail to them. VERY shoddy, unprofessional and puzzling!
Anonymous - #27, Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 4:25 PM CT
this bank is a joke, big rate drop in less than a week.
better off with a 3 months rate lock account.
Wil - #28, Saturday, March 6, 2010 - 11:39 AM CT
RateBuilder CD dropped to 1.65% on March 2, 2010. RateBuilder Savings account also down, to 2.06% APY.
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Mary - #1, Friday, May 8, 2009 - 10:27 AM CT
They, also, have a Health Savings Account that works very well. Even though I am across the country from them, I have had the HSA for three years and it has been a well functioning account.