| 5 star: | (18) | |
| 4 star: | (4) | |
| 3 star: | (5) | |
| 2 star: | (3) | |
| 1 star: | (10) |
Tried to transfer money from DSD account to external savings account. ACH was initiated from the external savings account. DSD charged the money back to DSD account. Called DSD, then found out they do NOT allow transfer out initiated from external account.
Another limitation is that they only allow linking 2 external CHECKING accounts. can NOT link external SAVINGS account.
With their 3.5%APY now, this bank is not for me.
I opened an account with DSD back in October 2022 and quickly learned how restrictive they are about funds transfers. They flat out refuse to accept any transfers made from outside of their own website, so you are basically locked in to moving money in or out to your original external account used in the initial funding process. You are granted a total of (1) external account be attached to your DSD account. The same external account you would have used in the application/funding process.
Couple this odd policy with the fact that their once competitive 3.50% APY rate has not budged since it was posted months ago, despite dozens of other banks raising their rates well beyond the mid 3s in November, December and soon January.
I was left feeling much too limited with my DSD account to continue actively using it, so I went out searching for a more satisfying online bank. I found several including Customers Bank and UFB Direct.
Needless to say, I pulled all my cash out of my DSD account back on December 1st and have not looked back. Just too many more attractive and flexible options out there right now to settle for second best.
*Great Rate at 3.5% * Excellent Capitalization Ratio at 26%, That's more than double than the average bank. *Great user friendly website with a lot of useful account information details. Includes message center, add/edit beneficiary, shows current interest rate.
I have had accounts over the years at various high interest banks. Opening the account with DSD was very simple and straight forward. Zero complaints. The website is simple but just fine for setting aside emergency funds and getting reasonable interest. I jumped through hoops opening a brio direct account earlier this summer. But they were paying good interest. I closed my account as soon as I realized they never updated the interest to the current rate. Shameful act on their part.
My UFB account offers 3.16 which is the highest of any on line bank so far so the DollarSavings rate of 3.5 was attractive. But I have a centralized account for all cash transactions (plus I dont like banks dictating how I need to withdraw my own funds) .
In short I have a Chase account where all my transactions are done from chase. I prefer all cash exchanges to funnel through one website especially since I conduct many transactions per month and also large transactions. So it makes sense to centralize a cash in/out flow from 1 source.
The problem is Dollarsavings will not allow me to withdraw DollarSavings funds from my Chase website. They will allow me to push a deposit into the Dollarsavings account from the Chase website but I must go on to the Dollarsavings website to make a withdrawl. I verified this before I went through any kind of application hassle (they answered quickly so 5 stars for that)
Thats too bad. Ive done business with many banks and 5 online banks (Ally, Bask, Sofi, Synchrony, CIT and UFB) and none of the banks do business like this.
The other concern is some on line banks take 2 weeks to process withdrawals. I had this problem with CIT which resulted in account closure.
So Im passing on what seems to be a rather atypical withdrawal rule in the banking industry. If they changed this rule they would get more customers as Im sure Im not the only one who prefers 1 centralized source for cash flows
I usually shy aware from banks that limit my external accounts to just the funding account, but in the case of Dollar, they have high transfer limits and move funds very quickly. Opening a new account is quick and easy. And, unlike some banks, they pass along interest rate increases without having to either ask or open a different account.
"At the present time, no sooner than 60 days after the establishment of your DollarSavingsDirect savings account, a second external account can be added. We can only accept your personal checking accounts as linked accounts." (End of quote)
Initial funding must be done by mailing a personal check. Adding an additional external account must also be done by mailing a personal check.
ALL ACH WITHDRAWALS MUST BE TO A PERSONAL CHECKING ACCOUNT ON FILE ! No savings or brokerage accounts permitted.
You may add a second checking account after a 60 day period, from the time of opening your account.
My experience with customer service has been better than average.
DSD rates are always at or near the top.
DSD does SUPER FAST TRANSFERS, withdrawals complete the very NEXT day to your external bank.
They were around online since at least 2005 and the bank is around forever. It is a part of Emigrant Bank. This is no flyby night.
Application was straightforward, yes they have their rules (seems transfers must happen from their site, seems a push into the bank failed for me) but the rate is high and they seem very reliable. Also, they only allow one account at startup, and you have to fill out forms to add another.
Easy to add Joint or Beneficiary.
The rates now are the highest you can get, if you need more interest and don't want to deal with individual banks, look into Brokered CDs at a Brokerage like TD Ameritrade.
Just as an fyi, there was apparently a court order prohibiting the opening of an account with Dollarsavingsdirect by anyone living in various counties in Ohio or Pennsylvania containing the brick and mortar bank Dollar Bank (not the same as Dollarsavingsdirect).
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.
UPDATE 1/5/2018 : It has been 1 year since I opened up this account and they are awesome. I even had another rate increase again to 1.6. I have no idea why people are trashing them for only having 1 way to move money back and forth. I can move the money with no problems. But why would I move my money from here when they have the best rates and continue to have the best rates each quarter.
Moved over to this bank after old bank CITBank would not give me there new rate with out opening up a new account. I have good credit so setting up the account was painless. As for this waiting 60 days to take out your money? It looks like you do need to keep the money in for 60 days but then you can use your connected account to transfer money out. So that is ok with me. If anything changes when I move to another back with a better rate, I will update this review then. But this bank is fine. The rate is 1.4 now so its even better.
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.
Dollar Savings Direct reserves the right to hold your money for 60 days after you notify them of your intention to withdraw your money.
"Refusal to Permit Withdrawal
The Bank may refuse to permit withdrawals in cases such as, but not limited to, the following:
The Bank chooses to exercise its legal rights to require up to 60 days advance written notice of any intended withdrawal from this Account and the 60 days have not passed since we received the required notice from you;"
From: https://www.dollarsavingsdirect.com/DollarSavingsDirectWeb/en/common/help/consumer/AccountDisclosures.jsp
So while the interest rate might be nice you are potentially locking up your money for 2 months. So if you want to invest in the stock market during a financial crisis you may not be able to do it with money on deposit at Dollar Savings Direct.
For comparison purposes most other internet banks only reserve the requirement of 7 days advanced notice for withdrawals.
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.
Evidently, the only way you can withdrawal your money through ACH is by initiating it from their website. You can't have another externally linked bank debit the funds. Interesting however that you can have an external bank deposit the funds, but the same bank cannot withdrawal them. Totally unacceptable in my opinion. A stupid policy like this is an excellent way to lose customers.
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...