How to Referral a Friend with Zecco Refer

• Sign up for a Zecco Trading account if you don’t already have one.

• Visit the Zecco Refer a Friend program site at: hello.zecco.com/raf

• Fill in your name and email address that’s associate with your Zecco Trading account.
• Fill out your friend’s name and email address. Click send. Your friend must sign-up with Zecco Trading using the same email address through which you invited them.
• If your friend signs-up and funds their account with $500 within 60 days, you’ll get a $75 cash referral bonus from Zecco deposited into your account. If you have an IRA with Zecco, you’ll receive a $75 Amazon gift certificate to your email address instead.
• You receive your reward in the first 10 business days of the following month after your friend has funded their account.

This post "Zecco Refer & Referral a Friend Program" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

As with all federal savings bank, E-Trade Bank is a member of the FDIC (certificate #30746), with all deposits in E-Trade banking accounts insured up to $250,000. E-Trade currently offers a few different options for their banking products, including high-yield savings & CDs, and high-yield checking.  For this review, we’ll be taking a look at the high-yield Complete Savings Account.

E-Trade Complete Savings Account Features:

• No minimums or account fees. FDIC insured.
• Yields more than 8x the national average.
• Easy access to money with Quick Transfer.
• Secure electronic statement.

Account Opening Process

After opening more than eight other high-yield online savings account, you’ll start to appreciate online accounts with simple opening processing. E-Trade made the account opening process fairly painless. You start with the usual personal information, follow by a quick identity verification (no hard credit inquiry, screenshot below).

Once you verify your identity, your account will be opened and you’ll be presented with a screen providing you with your Complete Savings account number. It is recommended you print this page or write down the account number so you can immediately set up your online account functionality.

Within about a week or so, you’ll receive a mailer from E-Trade Bank. This was a pleasant surprise as most other online savings usually don’t bother to follow up with a banking and website usage guide.

The E-Trade’s Banking Quick Start Guide provides you with three quick step to get you started. 1) Log-on to account 2) make a deposit 3) maximize your money (by setting up automatic savings, online bill pay, etc.).  Included in this mailer is also a sheet of deposit slip for those that needs it, pre-addressed envelopes,  account agreement terms, privacy statement, and rate and fee schedule.

You’ll also find an “Account Holder Signature Card” in the mailing, which you’ll need to sign and mail back to E-Trade to complete your account opening. If you forget to send in your signature card, E-Trade will send you another mailing in about a few weeks to remind you.

Account Usage and Transfer Speed

Although E-Trade’s site has more navigation and menus that you’d clear to examine, once you’ve logged in, the account usage is pretty easy and straightforward. You’ll be presented with an overview page, listing the type of accounts you have (screenshot below), along with a Quick Transfer interface, giving you quick access to the ability to transfer your funds in and out of E-Trade.

E-Trade’s Quick Transfer setup is the same as any other Automated Clearing House transfer setup, put in the routing number and the checking account number for the banking account you want to link to your E-Trade account, and you’ll be presented with two methods to verify your external accounts (screenshot above).

You can choose the instant verification method which takes only a couple of minutes, and is available if your financial institution has an online website. You provide your website username and password and E-Trade will verify your account ownership.

If you’re not comfortable with the online instant verification method, you can use the good old deposit verification method, which entails E-Trade making two small random deposits into your external account, which you’ll have to verify. The deposits usually takes about 2-3 business day to show up.

Once you’ve finished setting up the Quick Transfer accounts, you’ll find that E-Trade fund transfer is one of the fastest in the industry. Tested fund transfers usually gets withdrawal from external account at the very next business day (if you initiate transfer before 4 P.M. EST), and is cleared for withdrawal from your E-Trade savings on the evening of the 3rd business day after the day of deposit.

Without a doubt, E-Trade’s fund transfer is as fast ING Direct’s transfer speed (if not faster), and E-Trade clearly beats out HSBC Direct or FNBO Direct in terms of fund transfer speed.

Customer Service and Overall Impression:

Contacting E-Trade is straightforward enough. If you click on the “Online Service Center” link on the upper right hand corner of your screen, you’ll be brought to the Service Center page, which includes a link for you to send a secure message to an E-Trade representative.  Some basic questions regarding withdrawals and transfers were sent to customer service for testing, and an E-Trade customer service representative was able to reply (correctly) to the question within about 48 hours.  Not too bad, but nothing stellar either.

Customer service is of course, a your-result-may-vary issue that deeply depends on the complexity of your question or problem.  If you need immediate customer service, you should consider calling E-Trade Bank at 1-800-387-2331, from 7 A.M. to midnight ET.  You can also fax E-Trade Bank at 1-800-664-4641.  Take note that these customer service numbers are different than those of E-Trade Securities.

Overall, E-Trade’s Complete Savings account is a no frills high-yield online savings account.  It’s account opening process was easy to navigate, and they provide you with useful literature and instructions by paper mail once you’ve signed up. The annual percentage yield rate has been competitive with other high-yield savings, thus making rate-chase a lesser issue.

If you’re already an E-Trade brokerage customer, you’ll have instant access to your cash to/from your savings to your brokerage account.  If you’re looking for a new savings account, you should have little issues with E-Trade’s offering — whether you’re a veteran online banking user or a newcomer.

E-Trade Bank Online Savings Review Rating:

Pros:

• Account opening a breeze. Useful account usage literature provided after sign-up.
• Rate has been consistent and remains competitive, if not the best at times.
• Transfer speed is one of the fastest, compared to other high-yield online savings.
• Perfect for those with an E-Trade Brokerage account for faster fund transfer between savings and investment accounts.

Cons:

• Customer service via phone is a bit lacking.
• E-mail customer service is better but response time could be faster.

This post "E-Trade Bank Online Savings Account Review" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Here’s the list of best online discount brokers, ranked by best to worst:

Your choice of brokers will really depend on how comfortable you are with certain aspect of investing.  For example, if you like to manually crunch your own numbers to spit out Schedule D, then you wouldn’t need any special tax tools from your discount broker. On the other hand, if calculating your cost basis gives you headache, then you may want brokers will more involved tools.

Kiplinger also judged each broker on ease of use, and I was actually surprised that Fidelity got 5 out of 5 stars, as I find the interface requiring a bit of digging, but maybe that’s just me. It was no surprise though for TradeKing to receive 5 out of 5 stars for customer service, as TradeKing always promptly respond to any of my questions regarding trades (even when I made the mistakes myself – hah).

As for the other discount broker on the list that I also use, Zecco’s rating was pretty spot on. However, depending on your investment requirements, Zecco’s low cost can be a good choice.

At the end though, I believe most people will have multiple accounts at various discount brokers. Usually a central location for their IRA, 401k, and other supplement accounts for making various type of individual stock trades and options speculations (hah).

This post "Best Online Discount Brokers as Ranked by Kiplinger Magazine" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

In a move to no doubt better compete against other free online personal finance management tools, Quicken Online is now free (axing away the monthly $2.99 fee). I took the beta for a test drive sometime last year, but haven’t really checked back as I seriously had too many different tools to use.

Updated 9/14/2011: Quicken Online, for those that didn’t know, has basically been updated & replaced by Mint.com. It has same functionality and more features.

The above screenshot has one credit card account added (well technically three, with two balance transfer cards in the Chase account).

Geared for the fast and simple crowd, Quicken Online is fairly easy to use. You add in financial accounts of your choice (banking, credit, some investments), and Quicken Online will quickly chug out data on if you’re living within your means (money in vs money out).

Features of Note:

• Quicken Beam: Access your balance info faster via a smartphone friendly site: m.quicken.com or text BAL to 636363 to quickly get your balances.
• Set monthly budget at the My Budget tabs for categories you want to track.
• Am I Living Within My Means calculation on front page. Works well enough if your cash flow is simple and straightforward.

Once accounts are added, the last 90 days of data will be grabbed and chugged into your Quicken Online account. Transactions are categorized well enough, but you’ll most likely have to tweak quite a few transactions. You won’t be able to import data from your other Quicken products, but Quicken Online isn’t really designed for in-depth personal finance analysis anyway.

You can only add in major investment accounts, as I don’t see too many other discount brokerages listed in the add accounts page. Which is well enough, as besides balance and transaction listing, there’s not much you can do when you add in investment accounts.

Quicken Online is overall pretty light when compared to Quicken’s desktop offerings. There’s a small categorization bug where they listed a Jack in a Box transaction as a monthly bill, but other than that minor quirk the service can be attractive for those needing a simple personal finance solution, especially considering the new free price tag.

Look for a full review in the future when I get around to taking it for a deeper test spin.

This post "Quicken Online Now Free" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

FNBO Direct is running a $25 opening bonus for their Online BillPay account.

Promotion details:

• Open a new FNBO Direct Online BillPay account (FNBO Direct Savings required).
• $25 bonus credit to account within 30 days after opening.
• BillPay account will need to be opened for 90 days and you’ll have to make at least one BillPay payment during that period.
• Promotion ends on 9/30/08.

Seems straight forward enough, especially if you already have a FNBO Direct Online Savings account. Open the account, transfer in $50 bucks, make a payment for your monthly subscription to Cereal Digest Monthly and claim the $25.

Thanks to this promotion, I just remembered the FNBO savings account that I’ve opened over a year ago (with $102 in the account). It’s like finding five bucks under the sofa cushion. Sweet!

From [Blueprint for Financial Prosperity]

This post "FNBO Direct BillPay Account $25 Opening Bonus" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Welp, there it is.

This post "Mint.com Free Personal Finance Web-App is Now Live" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Well… two calls, two emails and two months later, it’s been reactivated. Huzzah.

The calls never did much, but the email through their site interface seemed to have worked.

This is a friendly reminder to everyone that high-yield online savings account (and to some extent other online-only banking accounts) are generally self-served accounts — expect lighter customer service in return for higher-yields.

This post "HSBC Direct Customer Service Prevails… 2 Months Later" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

One caveat: You’re not allow to ACH pull from outside sources. So the only way to withdrawal your funds are via E-Loan’s site.

This post "E-Loan Online Savings 5.50% APY" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Probably because of this:

According to the email, the incomplete transfer was due to insufficient fund—which made me realized that I must have tried to make the transfer from the wrong checking account. Having poor alphanumeric capability is quite a curse.

A quick phone call to the number above got me a service rep, telling me that only a “techie” can un-suspend bank-to-bank transfer, and that they’re only available at 8 AM EST.

Another call at 8:01 AM got me a different service rep, who told me that she’ll forward an inquiry to a techie, who’ll get back to me via e-mail or phone within 4 business days.

In the mean time, a friendly reminder to all who use HSBC Direct, if they ever encounter any problem with a bank-to-bank transfer, you will most likely have your bank-to-bank transfer service suspended immediately without notice. It’s all in the User Agreement.

Reinstatement shouldn’t be an issue. I hope.

In the mean time, the dinero was sent to the new Amboy Direct account instead.

This post "Woops, HSBC Bank-to-Bank Transfer Service Suspended" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Currently at 3.05% APY, Amboy Direct’s Premium Online Savings Account is another potential choice for high-yield online savings account.

Just like ING, Emigrant, and HSBC Direct, Amboy Direct features no fees and no minimums. Account opening is a breeze, rivaling ING Direct’s simplicity. You’ll need your driver license number and checking account number around when you fill out the application.

Four steps to opening an Amboy Direct account:

1. Enter your personal information
2. Agree to terms and condition
3. Make an electronic deposit from an existing account
4. Confirm and submit information

Amboy Direct account opening is fast. Really fast.

• 7/24/06 – Filled out application and submit, received email confirmation.
• 7/26/06 – Received email notifying account has been opened.
• 7/27/06 – Received confirmation trial deposit in checking account.
• 7/27/06 – Initiated test transfer of $10.
• 7/28/06 – Test transfer of $10 credited in Amboy account.

Need To Know:

• Minimum account opening is $1, maximum deposit of $250,000.
• You can link the Amboy Direct account to only one external account.
• If you close account before interest is credited, you will not receive accrued interest.
• Premium Savings not to be confused with eSavings or Maximizer accounts.
• Interest is compounded and credited monthly.
• AccessID to login instead of a username, ala ING Direct.
• You can only ACH push into Amboy Direct, but not ACH pull. To transfer money out of your Amboy Direct account, you’ll need to use the Amboy Direct website.

Website Interface:

That’s the gist of it for now. Expect full review after at least a few weeks (or months) of usage to fully utilize the account. So far so good.

Update: Amboy Direct’s Premium Savings is currently 1.51%. To get the current rate, please check the official Amboy Direct website.

Related Links:

• Best Online Savings Account – FiveCentNickel.com

This post "Preview: Amboy Direct Premium Online Savings Account" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

While server downtimes are to be expected for any online sites, today’s site problem doesn’t look good at all—especially since Emigrant Direct has been touting the brand new interface that was to be released today.

A customer’s comment from the Fatwallet finance forum sums it up nicely:

I have far lower expectations for non-vital services or utility services devastated by storms than I do for the institutions I trust my money with. This is not a natural disaster or unexpected, simply bad IT. If you are an online bank and you’re planning an upgrade there is no excuse for your bank being offline for an entire day. Worst case scenario your planning fails and you roll back to the old site until you remedy it. Sounds harsh but you’re talking about a failure of the core of your business for a full business day. If I weren’t an IT guy myself I might feel like thats unrealistic. Ymmv.

Thanks to Bill for the notice.

Related Links

• Emigrant Direct’s Online Incompetence from Fivecentnickel.com
• Emigrant Direct Changes Account Numbers from Mymoneyblog.com

This post "Emigrant Direct Continues to Suck" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I’ve been debating the question since last year, and like Jonathan of MyMoneyBlog, I’ve also been trying to gradually go from paper statements to electronic statements. But, in the end, I’ve decided to stick with paper statements. It’s just too easy to ignore emails, and it’s just too much of a hassle (for me) to manually backup these data myself.

There are always incentives and offers from companies to get you to switch to online statements, usually in the form of a credit to the account. Chase’s current incentive is a pretty good one:

In this method, Chase will be the one storing the electronic statements on their server. Sure, it’s not difficult to download and backup your statements yourself (to Gmail, CDs, etc.), but having easy access to 6 years of past statement is even better.

If everyone jumps on the 6 years of statement stored online bandwagon, I would be awfully tempted to try and go paperless again.

Related Post and Links

• Ditch the Monthly Paper Statements?
• Sticking to Paper Bills from MyMoneyBlog
• Don’t Get Electronic Credit Card Statements from Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

This post "A Room Full of Paper Statement, Still Rocks" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

To make our lives better, ING Direct will introduce some brand new, break-through, innovative, and state-of-the-art security feature—ala Bank of America’s SiteKey. Yay.

It probably won’t be so bad, especially if they’ll replace the current PIN key map with it.

The new security feature, ingeniously named Site Guard, is straight-forward enough to use. You choose a picture and phrase to associate with your account. When you see the picture, you’ll know that you’re at the real ING Direct site. If you see anything but the right picture and the right phrase, careful—you’re at a fake spoof site!

Related Post

• More Security – SiteKey from Bank of America
• Too much Security! Argh!

This post "Blood Test to Login Your ING Direct Account" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

It looks like Google Checkout is alive and kicking.

Direct competition to PayPal or not, it’s another alternative to simple online payment processing. Yehaw.

Here are some cool tidbits that I found as I snoop around:

Buyers:

• If you sign up with a Citi credit card, you’ll get $5 or 1000 ThankYou points for the first time you use Google checkout. Expires 9/15/06.

Sellers:

• A not-too-shabby price of 2% + $0.20 per transaction.
• Currently no additional fees.
• Earn free transaction processing if you’re an AdWords advertiser. For every $1 you spend with AdWords, you can process up to $10 of sale for free.
• More info at the Seller section.

From Okdork.com.

This post "Here we go, Google Checkout vs PayPal" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

• Savvy Saver’s problem w/ opening a joint HSBC account.
• lpkitten’s problems w/ opening an individual HSBC account.

It seems when you have anything to deal with the words customer service and bank, results will greatly vary.

I’ve opened my account quite awhile ago, before HSBC flung out their advertising ogre, so I think I’ll update my review when I get a chance to. Perhaps like many other banks out there, they’re too busy marketing their product and not spending enough time servicing the actual product?

Nahh. That can’t possibly be it.

This post "HSBC Direct, Not So Hot?" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

HSBC Direct started offering their online savings account back in 2005 with little fanfare, but they have since become much more well known through the years.  This is an in-depth review of the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account, with screenshots of account usage and bank transfer from over three years of account ownership.

You can read the entire review from start to finish, or skip all the way to the summary for a list of pros and cons.  If you have any feedback on the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account or this review, feel free to leave a comment below.

Account Opening Process

Opening an account at HSBC Direct should be a breeze for most people. You fill in the usual personal information and type in other information requested. HSBC’s opening application distinguished itself with a few convenient features:

1. You can save the application and finish it later
2. Different options for linked account verification

When you open an online savings account such as HSBC Direct, you will usually have to link the savings account to an existing checking account. To verify the linked checking account, most banks will usually do a two deposit verification method. In this method, two small trial deposit will be made to your checking account, which you later verify the amounts to confirm your identity as the account owner.

One of the account verification methods is an “instant verification” process, which simply requires you to input your online account information (the login & password) of the checking account being verified. The instant verification is limited to the Yodlee online banking solution, an online banking method that most major banks utilize.

The rest of the account opening process is smooth, albeit slow. Unlike ING Direct, which allows you to open an account without waiting for any mail — a problem with many online-only-accounts from traditional bank, is that the account opening process still heavily relies on snail mail.

HSBC has the same problem, but fortunately the mails were sent within a reasonable time period. You should expect to receive six separate mail piece:

1. Temporary login for online access
2. Temporary password for online access
3. Account number and ABA routing number
4. A letter informing you that the ATM card is on its way
5. The actual ATM card
6. The PIN for the ATM card

You will need all of the mail above, except #4, to have full access to your account. The time frame for the mail to arrive will vary depending on your location. It took about 12 business day for me to receive all the mail from New York to California. It’s understandable that this information was sent separately, as privacy and security is important — but HSBC can probably streamline the process better & faster.

Account Access and Interface

When I first got an account at HSBC Direct, the domain HSBCdirect.com was not setup yet — in fact, it wasn’t even called HSBC Direct yet. It took a bit of digging to find out where to login to access my account. Today, all you have to do is head to HSBCdirect.com and the link for account access will be on the front page.

The first page you’ll see when you login is fairly straight forward. You will be greeted by an Account Summary page, which gives you a quick summary of your account balance as of today. Click on the left picture below to see the Account Summary page.

The Accounts Detail page is self explanatory. You will see balance information such as bank balance, available balance, last state date, year to date interest, and the last nine transactions on your account. If you wish to view previous transaction, you will have to use the transaction search function, which allows you to search through different date and amount ranges. One feature that’s lacking is a daily update of interest earned for the month. You can click on the right picture above to see the Accounts Detail page.

You can also export your account data and specific transaction date ranges into three different file formats. HSBC supports Quicken (qfx, qif) and MS Money (ofx). Your account statements can be view with the eStatements tab, which also allows you to save & print the statement in pdf format.

Online Bank to Bank Transfer

This is the meat of an online savings account, the online transfer capability. Clicking on the Bank to Bank Transfer tab will bring you to an annoying Security Key screen. In order to create a Security Key, you will need your ATM card number and its PIN number, both of which will arrive via snail mail. In another words, you won’t have full access to your account until you receive both of those mail piece. You are required to use the virtual keyboard to input your security key. HSBC requires a certain length to the security key, so it can become quite a hassle to input the key. Click on the left picture below to see the Security Key interface.

Once you have input the security key, a new window will open up with the Bank to Bank transfer feature. In this page, you can add, remove, and transfer funds between accounts. The interface is straight-forward, adding accounts requires the usual two trial deposit verification. A great thing about HSBC’s Bank to Bank transfer is that it allows an unlimited amount of accounts linked. You can add your checking, savings, and brokerage account from various financial institutions. The Bank to Bank electronic transfer service is provided by CashEdge.

Be aware that some accounts cannot be linked to the HSBC Online Savings Account, such as the ING Direct Oranges Saving Account. According to HSBC, members of the CashEdge network can exclude themselves from being linked. Apparently ING Direct excluded themselves to be linked (an understandable action to prevent easy withdrawal of account funds to their competitors). You can click on the right picture above to see the Bank to Bank Transfer interface.

Bank to Bank Transfer Speed

Up untill this point, everything about HSBC Direct is decent enough. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a perfect banking experience, so here’s the drawback to the HSBC Direct account — the online bank to bank transfer speed. Compare to other competitors ACH transfer speed, HSBC’s transaction speed is ridiculously slow. Through my various transfer to and from various accounts, the transaction speed of HSBC is usually slower by 1-2 days, and at times, 3 days slower. Whenever I push a transfer from another source to HSBC Direct, the deposit will show within a reasonable 1-2 business day time frame. However, if the situation is reverse, and I pull the amount from that account to HSBC, via HSBC’s Bank to Bank transfer feature, the same transaction takes an extra business day or two.

There is a great HSBC Direct transfer speed experiment that can be found over at MyMoneyBlog.com. In the experiment, Jonathan conducted various transfer through different financial institutions. The result is quite interesting and correlates with my experiences with HSBC Direct. You should definitely check out Jonathan’s post for more information.

The lowdown on the transfer speed is that HSBC is probably keeping a day or two of interest through the ACH — interest that you’re not earning. When you utilize the Bank to Bank Transfer, you should pay close attention to HSBC’s transfer schedule, and make due sure you initiate transfer before the 8 PM EST cut-off. Looking at HSBC’s transfer schedule, the best days to initiate a transfer would probably be Sunday through Tuesday.

Customer Service Functionality

You can contact customer service via the Bank Mail interface in the online account, or by calling HSBC at 1-800-975-HSBC. The call center is 24/7, although the quality and availability of support will vary depending on the time called. Your best bet for non-emergency inquiry would be the online Bank Mail feature. Response time for my test questions were within a reasonable 4-8 hours time frame. Answers provided were thankfully not robotic responses. The response to my basic question about how-to use a function was written clearly and straight-forward.

Contacting customer service via phone definitely leaves a lot to be desired. The wait time at peak business hour can be quite long (over 10 minutes) and at times, you may reach a customer service rep that’s not knowledgeable on the HSBC Direct Online Savings Account. According to Gethuman.com, the fastest way to reach a human operator at HSBC is by calling 1-800-477-6000 — press 1, 3, then 0. It would be great if HSBC eventually introduces a specific number to reach operators that specialize in HSBC Direct specifically.

Overall Account Impression

As mentioned, HSBC’s questionable ACH delays can be a big turn-off to many, but in my opinion it isn’t a major issue for a savings account. It would have been great though, to use HSBC Direct as a central hub to transfer funds, thanks to the account’s unlimited account linking capability.

HSBC Direct’s APY rate is consistently competitive among other no fees, no minimum accounts. They have stay within the market’s rate, and at times have lead the pack. Although you are required to have $1+ to receive the current APR, unlike Emigrant Direct, your account at HSBC Direct will not be closed if the balance reaches $0. I’ve had $0 balance at HSBC without issue, but to be safe and avoid hassle, you should still leave a small amount in HSBC Direct.

If it wasn’t for the slow ACH transfer speed and a few other minor quirks such as the Security Key interface, HSBC Direct would be a pretty sweet high-yield online savings account. That said, HSBC Direct is still semi-sweet — like, kettle corn sweet.

Pros:

• Competitive high-yield rate
• No fee, no minimum, FDIC insured
• Unlimited account linking
• Decent account opening process
• Functional, error-free site

Cons:

• Slow ACH speed compare to competitors
• Hassle access to ACH due to Security Key
• Snail mail required for account opening

• HSBC Direct – Official Site
• HSBC Direct opening process
• HSBC Direct review – Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

This post "HSBC Direct Online Savings Account Review" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

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.

Related Post:

• HSBC, Emigrant Direct Opening Compared
• Emigrant Direct Woes
• You Can Have Your Hat Back, Emigrant Direct
• Emigrant Direct Continues to Suck

This post "Emigrant Direct Sucks" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

The per trade comission fees are now at various levels, depending on your relationship with the bank. $5 per trade for some selective customers, $7 for customers with selective checking accounts, and $10 for any customers wtih their basic checking accounts.

The decrease in comission fees (including some maintenance fees) are quite a big drop, but their investment service still has too much miscellaneous fees attached to these accounts. The rates from other online discount brokers are still much much cheaper.

Still, for those that are already using Bank of America’s investment service, this is a nice cut in fees.

Here’s a list of fees and comissions from Bank of America’s site.

This post "Bank of America Lowers Online Trading Fees" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

Actually it’s not so bad if you only log into your account from one computer, but if you use different computers, expect more security questions.

SiteKey basically helps you identify Bank of America’s real login site from the fake ones. When you setup your SiteKey Image, each time you attempt to log on, Bank of America will display that specific Image you’ve choose. If you don’t see the same image, you’re not at a real Bank of America website. If you’re using another computer, you’ll have another set of questions to answer before you can log into your account.

Here’s what it sorta looks like:

You can find more information about it on Bank of America’s website.

Despite my hate for extra security, this one’s actually a pretty good idea – the implementation isn’t so bad at all. I was worried that there will be an extra set of security key, but looks like that won’t happen anytime soon.

This post "More Security – Sitekey from Bank of America" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.

I’ve been scourging through the numerous online brokers lately, and it seems none are really solid. I guess you can’t expect great service for cheap commission rates. It seems the customer satisfaction rate for brokers are similar to the customer satisfaction rate from car dealership. Yikes!

Brownco seemed pretty good, but unfortunately it got bought out by another dinosaur too (E*Trade).

Interactive Broker looks to be okay, but I don’t think I’ll trade enough to make it worth while.

The ones I’m actually considering are Firsttrade and Scottrade. Low commission rate, no account maintenance fees, no inactivity fees, and other related fees are fairly low too. It’s a tough call still because I can’t find that many user opinions on Firsttrade, and the ones I do find for Scottrade are love ‘em or hate ‘em types.

Anyway, I think I should take some more time to establish what my needs actually are before I start throwing money away to wacky fees.

This post "Finding the Right Online Discount Brokers" is from StopBuyingCrap.com.