| 5 star: | (12) | |
| 4 star: | (2) | |
| 3 star: | (4) | |
| 2 star: | (1) | |
| 1 star: | (8) |
Been with dollar savings for about 6 months, in fact I invested in a cd recently. The one thing that blew my mind, is I've had a savings account with, I guess it's called there parent company, it' part of dollar savings direct, is Emigrant Bank, and I clicked on a link that said "earn interest three times what banks pay" Now mind you, I was getting 0.5% with no minimum balance. well when I saw this link, they were not kidding, now these are all internet banks, just like my Emigrant acc. they had rates that were from about 1.25% to around 1.80% all FDIC insured, with no minimum deposit. Called Emigrant, asked why didn't anybody tell me about Dollar savings direct, he mumbled something, if there ever was a no brainer incident, this has got to be it. Pulled my money out of Emigrant, and put a total of $440,000, folks thats when the good times started. Was getting $600plus interst, compared to $48 from my reg. bank. Not kidding folks. 1.8% vs .05 makes a really big difference. Ever hear the old saying, knowledge is power?
I've had a great experience with this bank! No problems what so ever. I love how you are able to see how much interest you have gained daily on their sight. Only problem is, now we have other savings options at 2% compared to 1.8 offered here. I will be opening an account elsewhere and transfering my money over next week unless im lucky enough for the rate here to climb before.??
I had my new home deposit money in Dollar Savings Direct many years ago - never any problem with transfers in either direction. I "zeroed" the account 7 years ago, so imagine my surprise to see it still available (inactive, but accessible!) Updated some information, and transferred funds in with no problem. While the interface is a little dated (but so am i), security has been improved with two-factor "auth", and the interest rate remains one of the highest for an account with no minimums. Still only a single checking account as your ACH interface, but if you can deal with it, this account is pretty seamless!
The trade off for the rate is that it's only good if you want to park money in an account and never touch it. They put 5 day holds on any transfer in (industry norm is 24-48 hours). They also won't let you wire money out to anyone other than your primary bank, and they have a 24 hour wire delay. Not worth the hassle when most credit unions will match the rate.
I have had a dollar savings account for over a year and they so far have had the best APR for an online savings that doesn't have really high minimums or stupid monthly fees. I waited a while too see if I got a teaser rate and so far it's only gone up. I have deposited thousands over time and have withdrawn a couple thousand for big purchases. I have read the negative reviews and have had zero issues. I have not been compensated for my review, just want to see a decent bank get credit where credit is due.
Dollar Savings Direct does not allow automated direct deposits. Why not? You would think that would generate more deposits for Dollar. Why not?
Had this savings account for a week, better than live oak bank. DSD website is fast, clean layout, all the details of the account is displayed just like Ally, respond to secure messages very quickly, transfers next business day even though the terms says 2-4, and best interest rate w/o playing games to get current interest rate offered.
Issues to keep in mind (because who writes a review with only nice things to say right?!), the terms state DSD may exercise their right to require 60 day written notice to withdraw money, and DSD said in email they never have exercised that right, and DSD has priors to raise interest then drop it back down after meeting quota.
They make you deposit money before they do small verification deposits. Isn't the verification deposits to verify first, why verify after they have taken money out of your account, isn't that verification enough. I wouldn't trust this bank. Every bank does verification first but not this bank and even though they will tell you that you can get your money out when you want, they do have policy, 60 days after written notice of withdraw before they have to release your money, sounds like a rip off.
No question the rate is fantastic, only issue I have is that you are restricted to only one beneficiary. They said because its an on line account. I don't agree with that as I have multiple ben. on other on line savings. They said I could open multiple savings and put one ben on each. Oh well. Not sure what I will do yet.
I've kept money for years at Dollar Savings Direct and never had any problems. But I've always put money in for long terms. Deposit rates, at 1.6%, are now the best around. The website is old fashioned but functional. I once called customer service on a weekend and sorted out my issue right away. My only question is why this bank keeps a large, shuttered street level location on 42nd Street in New York.
I used Dollar Savings for years until their rate dropped below another bank I used so I transferred out. Never a problem at Dollar Savings and now that their rates are the best in the nation I am transferring all my savings back to them.
When I transfer money from Dollarsavingsdirect to my checking account, the money is an available balance and I can withdraw the money the very next business day. It's an unbeatable feature, along with their always having the best interest rate.
Horrible choice. As an internet based bank, their technology cannot keep up with what is required to provide an adequate service. Will close the account soon so that I can have access to my money when I need to.
They can't send out emails for authentication for the whole afternoon, while I was waiting to access my account. When I called, no one knows what's wrong, or how to fix the system, and they couldn't guarantee when they will get back to me with an explanation. Basically, you don't have an access to your money until they fix their IT dep. Will not recommend, and will NOT use again.
DollarSavingsDirect, a division of the Emigrant Bank, is the worst online Bank for the savings account ever!!!
Not only it unreasonably limits how the account is funded, but also absurdly controls how the transactions between the linked external account, which strangely permits only one external linked account. Basically, once the money is in DSD savings account, you can hardly move it out of the account.
Moreover, it rejects any and all ACH debit originated from any external bank accounts, including the verified linked external account!!! This bank only allows inbound deposit into its account, but refuses any outbound withdraws via the same linked account. In a word, you can ONLY deposit money into the bank account, but you cannot withdraw any money from your own bank account via the same linked account.
Just image that this is an online only bank that does NOT permit online transfer out of your account other than use its own bank for both inbound and outbound transfers, which unfairly, if not illegally, gives the bank the monopoly to completely controls how you can move your own money. This kind of banking practice is extremely uncommon in the United States and it is an UNAMERICAN, if not illegal, practice! I have never seen or heard of such kind of restrictions imposed by ANY banks or financial institutions in the United States, big or small in recent history, ever!!!
Someone needs to start to investigate such kind of irregularity and absurd banking practice NOW!!!
The slightly higher interest rate is NOT worth the big headaches you would have as a result of the horrible banking experience with the control freaks at the DollarSavingsDirect/Emigrant Bank!
As others have posted, this bank makes it extremely difficult to transfer funds in or out of your account. For some ridiculous reason, the bank only allows an ACH or wire transfer to come from or go to a single CHECKING account which you designate. No savings accounts are permitted. In order to add a second checking account, they make you jump through numerous hoops, including mailing them a form. Other banks presently offer higher rates than theirs, so I'm looking to move to a more customer friendly bank.
DollarSavingsDirect tries to make life difficult for their customers. Any incoming or outgoing ACH transfers must be to a checking account, they cannot be from another savings account. This is a high yield savings acount where people will keep large amounts. Why link to only checking accounts? I never keep large amounts in my checking accounts since there is always a possibility that somebody can mess my checking account since its account number is widely available from my checks. So I really cannot use this bank at all.
I even talked to a supervisor about this policy and they say some savings account limit withdrawls so they cannot be linked. What? That may be a problem for the customer and the other bank what has that to do with Dollarbankdirect? The only reason for this policy is to trouble the customers.
Found another troubling policy. In order to set up an ACH account you need to do this: (1) Give information about ACH account to dollar, (2) Post (snail mail) dollar a form with a voided check to dollar (3) Now only dollar makes two deposits in ACH account (4) You verify deposit amounts (5) Finally the ACH account is set up. Readers compare this policy to what other banks ask you to do.
My first online savings account was with Emigrant Bank over a decade ago. I recall them having great rates, great customer service, and sending me thank-you gifts (which I'd never experienced from a bank before). I was a customer for years, but eventually their rates dropped too low and I moved on. However, the experience was so favorable that I decided to give DollarSavingsDirect a try recently, since they are also an Emigrant Bank product. The two websites are nearly identical--secure, informative and reasonably easy to use. I wish the process of linking additional accounts was not dependent on mailing in forms via snail mail. Otherwise, it's smooth sailing so far and I would recommend the product.
Very easy to open and fund account, but took 2 days for their approval and opening. There is a limit of $2 million, buried in their disclosures.
Adding additional external accounts is difficult. They require snail mailing forms to the bank! I sent a question to their CSR, which was replied to in about an hour with a complete answer.
Very nice web site, but signing in can be cumbersome.
Opened the account with zero problems . Looks and feels like my Emigrant online account. Same Bank better rate ! :)
Easy to open with no problems would like to see this bank bring back the thank you gifts they use to mail to customers!
Of all the online banks I've used, I found dollar savings direct to have the highest rate. When I used them most was when rates were around 4%. The interface is a little old looking, but I never had problems transferring money in and out of the bank. Overall I found that they offered a good service for what I was looking for at the time. If you're looking for a money market account I highly recommend Dollar Savings Direct. At the time I used them they also didn't have an export feature for tax files in TXF format. It was fairly simple to enter this information manually though. With rates at less than 1% I find that it is better just to keep the money in my brokerage account.
Rate is way to low to keep your account here...
I've had this account this 2007. At the time, they were paying a very competitive interest rate. I switched over from Capital One Online Savings Bank. Unfortunately, their rate has steadily declined to below average so it's now time to switch to another bank, American Express. Never had any real problems with them customer service-wise aside from the uncompetitive interest rate.
This is a wonderful e-savings account -- very easy to set up, use, and transfer in and out. The customer service has been excellent, the few times I dealt with them. I just wish their APY would rise (as of 11/15/10 -- 1.1%) after being on top of the USA a couple of years ago. Also, check the strength ratings of this bank...