Comenity Direct
Related Posts
10/11 - Comenity Direct Savings drops To 2.15%, CDs drop 5 Bps
9/13 - Comenity Direct Lowers All Rates By 10 Bps, Including High Yield Savings
8/16 - Comenity Direct Lowers All Rates, Including High Yield Savings
7/29 - Comenity Direct Drops All CD Rates By 15 Bps Or More
7/11 - Comenity Direct Drops all CD Rates by either 10 Or 15 Bps
6/27 - Comenity Direct Rate Drops, Including 3 Bps On High Yield Ssavings
6/22 - Comenity Direct Dropping CD Rates
5/7 - Comenity Direct 1-Year CD Earns 2.86% APY
4/25 - Comenity Direct Unveils High-Yield Savings, 2.48% APY
Comenity Direct - Good Rates And Good Online Experience
Comenity Direct overall has been a good banking experience. The opening process (both for the initial savings account and for a CD) was simple and fast.
Easy to link external account for ACH, and allows for external accounts to push/pull. A few notes about transfers:
* Transfers initiated by Comenity are usually same-day, and start earning interest right away. When scheduling a transfer in the morning, the money was already transferred by the afternoon - both on Comenity's website and my credit union's. This is nice to have this speed, but keep this in mind if you try timing transfers.
* Transfers initiated by Comenity are subject to holding period of a few days, earning interest but not available for withdrawals.
* Comenity allows for external push/pull ACH transfers. These usually showed up in 1 business day, and were not subject to the holding period (part of available balance as soon as credited).
Their App and Mobile Experience work great - they have added daily accrual amounts to savings accounts, and now have the account number and routing number listed.
I only needed customer service for password resets. Experience was fast, pleasant USA-based representatives that were able to understand and assist promptly
Some items I wish Comenity would address:
* The ability to set up Beneficiaries for all accounts online
* The ability to change CD-Renewal/Maturity instructions online. Currently these require you to contact Comenity within the 10-day grace period, unlike other CDs (Alliant CU, Live Oak Bank) that allow you to provide guidance after opening the CD and modify as needed on the website.
Overall I have been surprised and happy by my experience with Comenity Direct and can recommend them if you are looking for a good online savings account.
$10,000 Per Day Withdrawal Limit Can Be Increased
Withdrawal Limit: I was surpised to find that there was a $10,000 per day online withdrawal limit. This was not mentioned anywhere in the account agreement. Combined with the 6 online withdrawls per month limit, that means you could only withdraw $60,000 per month on-line. You can do a larger withdraw by check ($15 fee) or wire ($25 fee). I emailed Customer Service about this and they raised my daily limit to $100,000. I am glad because otherwise I would have closed the account and they are among the top current interest rates 2%.
NO CUSTOMER SERVICE
Waited 13 minutes on hold, hung up
Called again another day waited 28 minutes
Tried the CHAT - haha will call back
Very regretful that I put my money here
AVOID. Awful Service!
AVOID!!!
From what I could tell, they are are a questionable credit card lender that is now also trying to play bank. The problem is that the whole operation is used to dealing with people that owe them money (credit cards) instead of them owing you money (banking deposits). As a result, customer service is absolutely abysmal. It takes them a full week to respond to inquiries online (that is not hyperbole/exaggeration either), and their phone customer service is cold, disinterested, and with no power to assist whatsoever. It's basically an answering service that can look at your account details.
On the phone, I never once spoke with anyone with any true authority to assist me, and for one of my phone calls where I demanded a rep (I never got one), so I could get a response (because nobody was responding online to my questions regarding my sizable jumbo deposit) I never even received a call back. Even the banking customer service reps revealingly and scarily refer to themselves as "the call center". Holy cow.
Flatly, NO. Huge red flags!
Unfortunately though, I discovered all this after the fact. I was lured by a high interest rate for a jumbo-sized CD deposit, which I applied for and received. However, very soon after I demanded my money back without early withdrawal penalty, which they had to grant because I laid out a firm and glaring case before them clearly showing that they were not holding up their end of the bargain - they brag that they provide excellent service and quick replies, but deliver on neither, with zero care about the shortcoming.
Very strongly advised: AVOID COMENITY. Sketchy doesn't even come close to describing the experience. Just google what people who have Comenity credit cards have to say about them then take cautionary note! The scary reviews are endless! And that's the same company that will be handing your banking!
I wish I did and saw public consensus before getting tangled up with them. Truly awful. But, I'm truly thankful that I was able to get the heck away from them in the end unscathed. I consider myself very lucky to have done so.
Data as of Q3 2019
Health Grade Components
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| FDIC Certificate # | 27499 |
| Year Established | 1989 |
| Employees | 629 |
| Primary Regulator | FDIC |
| Profit Margin | |
|---|---|
| Return on Assets - YTD | 3.53% |
| Return on Equity - YTD | 25.95% |
| Annual Interest Income | $2.39B |
| Assets and Liabilities | ||
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $13.84B$13.76B |
| Loans | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $10.58B$10.67B |
| Deposits | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $5.34B$5.33B |
| Equity Capital | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $1.87B$1.75B |
| Loan Loss Allowance | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $676.9MM$674.0MM |
| Unbacked Noncurrent Loans | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $440.7MM$431.3MM |
| Real Estate Owned | Q3 2019vs Q3 2018 | $0$0 |
This section lists recent deals, promotions and rate changes submitted by our community within the past 90 days. Always verify official rates and promotions with the bank or credit union.
Comenity Direct Savings Rate Down To 1.90% APY, Cds Fall As Well
CD Rates also all dropped:
12 month, 2.00% APY (was 2.10%)
24 month, 2.05% APY (was 2.15%)
36 month, 2.10% APY (was 2.20%)
48 month, 2.10% APY (was 2.20%)
60 month, 2.10% APY (was 2.20%)
These new rates were delivered to me by the mail robot at DepositAccounts.com because I "follow" this bank there. I decided to post the change explicitly in case other users don't use the "follow" function. I received no notice from Comenity Direct.
Comenity Direct Lowers All Rates
CD Rates also all dropped:
12 month, 2.10% APY (was 2.25%)
24 month, 2.15% APY (was 2.30%)
36 month, 2.20% APY (was 2.35%)
48 month, 2.20% APY (was 2.40%)
60 month, 2.20% APY (was 2.45%)
The savings account rate was 2.48% APY back in May when I set up my account here. While the 2.00% today is disappointing, I'm encouraged that this bank has only now gotten around to matching even 48 bps of the FED's decline of 75 bps for the same period. Other institutions that I watch have already fallen 55 or 60 bps overall, and some reached such a mark over 2 weeks back.
Always verify rates and promotions with the bank or credit union. We are not Comenity Direct; we are a rate comparison website and cannot provide official rates or promotions.
Comenity Direct Savings Account Rates
| APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.90% | $100 | $10m | High-Yield Savings Account |
Comenity Direct CD Rates
| APY | MIN | MAX | ACCOUNT NAME | VIEW DETAILS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.10% | $1.5k | $10m | 3-Year CD | |
| 2.10% | $1.5k | $10m | 4-Year CD | |
| 2.10% | $1.5k | $10m | 5-Year CD | |
| 2.05% | $1.5k | $10m | 2-Year CD | |
| 2.00% | $1.5k | $10m | 1-Year CD |
Comenity Direct is an Internet only bank and does not have branch locations. Its headquarters is located at 1 Righter Parkway, # 100 - Wilmington, DE 19803