At least, to me anyway.
No minimum balance my ass.
They closed my account without warning because my balance has reached $0, where according to the CSR, it was closed “automatically.” Here’s a fun final statement:
Clicky click
Yup. You read that right.
Interest Bearing Days = 25, Average Daily Balance = $13,000+, and Interest Earned = $0.
About a week ago I transferred the majority of my money from Emigrant to ING, to take advantage of ING’s higher promotional rate. A day or so after the withdrawals, I could no longer access my account.
I called Emigrant Direct. They told me to email them and request for a password reset. I emailed them, and they told me they’ll be happy to reset my password, just call the customer service support.
Uhh…
So I started to suspect that they closed my account, and when I came across Jonathan’s recent post, I knew right away that they had indeed closed my account.
It took four additional calls for someone to give me the real answer. CSR told me there’s a minimum of $1. They closed my account and because the account was closed before interest was credited, I’m not getting the interest for the 25 days. According to the CSRs, my account was also reopened. I didn’t even request it. They closed my account automatically before interest is credited, then reopen it soon afterwards.
Geez thanks.
I hardly rate chase, but I also haven’t been with Emigrant for long, so I can understand that from a business perspective, I’m not a profitable customer and there’s little reason to keep me. No biggie, I understand. In fact, for some reason, I’m not even that mad about the interest lost. Probably because I should have known better.
Still, spouting no minimum while requiring one is rather annoying. I mean, $0 and $1 is not a big deal, but please be upfront about it. If you have a policy of “automatically” closing accounts with $0, tell us! At the very least, hide it somewhere in your account disclosures, or terms and condition. It’s not even there!
Kinda funny how they spend the time & money sending out those silly hats, thanking people for their business – but when their customers balance reach $0, they drop them like pancakes.
Anyway, I’ve been working on a full Emigrant Direct review… I’ll try to remain objective as I finish up the review. heh.
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30 Comments to “Emigrant Direct Sucks”
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February 3rd, 2006 at 8:05 pm
that stinks.
Thanks for the info (the other post helps too)
I’ll be sure to keep some crumbs (maybe $10) in any accounts I move around from now on
I guess you took one for the team…thanks
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:50 pm
That certainly not very nice of them. I think you’re taking it quite well…I’m sure I’d be a bit more upset (understatement)
February 4th, 2006 at 1:05 am
Yeah keeping at least $1+ sounds good. I’ve had $0 in balance over at ING & HSBC for months without issue, but it would probably be a good idea to keep $1+ there too.
Jeff: actually I’m saving up all my anger and rage for the full account review I’m writing. lol :)
I don’t know, I would normally fight it.. but they already don’t care to have me as a customer, so there goes that leverage.
February 4th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Ouch. The double whammy of interest due you not credited and the fact that they don’t just say the minimum is $1 (or 1 cent fer chrissakes) cheeses me off. And the money they spent on those “stupid hats” just makes it worse ;) Go get em Cap!
February 4th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
i tried to open an account with them in the beginning of january. they made the initial deposits to my funding account. i used the link they sent me to verify those deposits and then i patiently waited for the information i needed to log onto my account online. i never got anything else until i recieved my “final statement” in the mail dated 1/17/06. “total days in statement period: 14″ what the hell? they never even took the one dollar out of my funding account for the initial deposit. and needless to say i did not get my bonus.
February 4th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Not giving you the interest is BS, but most banks will close your account if you have a balance of $0. In fact, to close an account at PNC (at least it was like this 4 years ago), you simply wrote yourself a check for your account balance and the account would be closed at the end of the month.
February 5th, 2006 at 4:28 am
I still think its because I used ING to withdrawal the money.. my ING was still linked to my ED account. that was probably a red flag. heh
I mean I guess their policy changed, because I opened the account with $0.. and it was $0 for almost a month till I start putting money in there. they didn’t close it then. or maybe the $0 opening was the reason why I had trouble accessing account.
I actually withdrawal about $15,000 back to ING.. and had a couple hundred left which I moved to my checking a day later. should have left it in there. ah well, I wasn’t thinking. like I said, I should have known better.
but yeah the interest lost sucks. I’m going to mail that stupid hat back to them with a few choice word letter. lol
February 5th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
oh just to add, HSBC does require a min. of $1 to obtain APY, clearly stated in the account rates page.
erica: I think I got the same deal when I first opened my account, I’m looking at my past statements and I saw one with “final statement” on it too.. even though I just opened the account.
February 10th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
I too recently took advantage of ING’s 4.75% promo. I have ING and emigrant linked, so it took only one day to transfer every single penny I had in emigrant! A few days later Emigrant actually called me to see what’s up! I flat out told them I transferred it to ING due to it being a great rate, and advised them that I would promptly transfer it back when the promo was finished. After this post I’m hoping the emigrant police don’t come for me!
February 14th, 2006 at 5:23 am
wow at least they called you! just keep a few bucks in your ED account and I think you’ll be fine.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:49 am
One problem with the statement. They may not have a minimum balance policy, but they can have a policy that you must maintain A balance. $0.00 would not be a blance. $0.01 would be, but only if it is calculated on the pennied. This would make their statements correct.
There is also a consumer protection angle there too. Some people drain out an account then leave it for years. This keeps active banking on their records and can affect credit scores.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
I’m pretty sure my ED account won’t show up on my credit report, but yeah you’re right, I do understand they probably have a policy (even if its not stated) that I must maintain some balance.
According to post on fatwallet’s forum, people are leaving $0.01 and they’re fine too.
regardless it seems to be pretty standard practice to close account without a balance, and it’s something I should have known without reading some T&S, so I’m not going to give ED too much beef over this.
March 3rd, 2006 at 4:30 am
That seems like a very poor way to do business. Especially when they gave you the run around.
But at least you got your money into something that bears more interest.
April 13th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Wow… you’re a real dumb-shit! maybe you should read the terms of your account before you transfer the entire fucking balance!
April 13th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
heh it’s not in the terms. find it for me, unless they added it recently.
April 24th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
it’s a dollar folks… the matter of “principle” is hardly worth fighting for.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
I started of with Emigrant and $100. Since the website was so crappy, I didn’t dare trust them with any more. Glad I didn’t. I had to email them and tell them the “Withdraw Money” link was nowhere to be found. Get people in, then make the have to suggest that you make a way to get your money out. Hmm.. sound like a good scam idea… but i digress. They replied and displayed the link, so at least that was good. But talk about un-professional.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Today Emigrant has implemented a new ’security’ mechanism for theit site and it’s so overloaded, you can’t get at your account. Their CSR doesn’t understand that that’s ridiculous for a bank that only has a web site. Federal banking agencies need to take a look at these ‘fly by nights’…their interest rates aren’t that good.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
hmm thanks for the notice, Bill. I’m checking other sites and the ED site myself and yeah it’s definitely down. Lot’s o complaint going on over at Fatwallet finance forum.
Overall it’s something to be expected from online banking, server downtimes—but not very good when you’re suppose to roll out a new site by today, and totally telling everyone and their mom about it.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:15 am
24 hours later, and the site is still basically unusable…I got through on the phone last night and asked for my balances to be transferred to linked accounts …of course we won’t know if that’s been done for another few days. In my experience with online banks, ED, Metlife and Cap1 are the worst and I’ve stopped doing business with all of them. ING is marginal and the only good ones I’ve found are the real banks – Corus and Citi.
August 24th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Wow, I would have dropped these customers too. Emigrant Direct is under no obligation to do business with money-losing clients. If you are always shifting money around, how is the bank going to have it to loan to other people? (rhetorical question) I recommend ED with the warning that you shouldn’t expect great customer service. If you are a low maintenance customer, you and ED can get along very well. Invest my money well, ED, and thanks for not wasting it on fickle clients.
August 24th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
thats the first time I moved my money in about 3-4 months. otherwise I didn’t really touch the account, except to make a few deposit once or twice. if that’s rate chase, then eh, I’m not the only one that’s fickle.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Sorry, Cap. Didn’t realize the site was your personal blog. You have right to write whatever you wish on your personal blog.
August 26th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
ah nothing to apologize about, plus I understand your point too anyway.
September 16th, 2006 at 5:44 am
I’ve been with ED for a year now, and I have no complaint’s, a nice savings, and friendly service.
May 30th, 2007 at 10:38 am
You’re probably not going to like me for saying this, but I don’t know of any financial institution that would keep an account open with $0 in it. To squabble over the fact they said no minimum balance, being $0 and $1 is ridiculous. My brick & mortar charges $3 if the account drops below $200. Besides that and the measly .25% interest rate, is the reason I switched to Emigrant. I opened my Emigrant Direct account in July of 2005 and have not had any problems whatsoever. I also have a Bank of America account. Both of which I opened online and deal with only online as neither are close to me. I even added a second funding account to Emigrant and it was processed in a short amount of time. I transfer funds between accounts all the time and again, have had no problems. Just my 2 cents, for what it’s worth.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:35 am
I’ve been looking around the net for reviews of emigrant. I’ve had my money in there for over a year. It suits me fine. I’m not the type of customer who’s going to open & close accounts just to get a slightly higher interest rate. As Mearie & Joe said emigrant wants people to deposit money and leave it. I really don’t have the time to run all around the net searching for a bank that pays 1% more interest. It’s not worth my time.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I have had Emigrant Direct for over 3 years now. I have not had one single issue with them. I open my account with $200.00 and already have over 7 grand in there .. Never had any issues with them closing my accounts or getting the proper interest.
Emigrant Savings Bank is the oldest savings bank in New York City and the largest privately owned bank in the country. I like it so much that I now have CD accounts which pay 4.0% … on my initial account, the one I began with. the interest is at 3.0 % … as I stated, I am happy with Emigrant.
They are friendly and easy to deal with. I link with them with Wachovia and USSA Federal! If I found another place on line that offered 1 % more, I would still continue to bank with Emigrant.
March 12th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
A rep promised me a duplicate copy of my 2009 tax statement would be faxed to my accountant, who waited all day for it which never arrived.
Customer service stinks. I would never recommend this bank to anyone.