Comments on: Emigrant Direct Sucks

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:05:15 +0000

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.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:42:35 +0000

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.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:35:57 +0000

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.

By: Meari

Meari — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:38:32 +0000

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.

By: RIP

RIP — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:44:13 +0000

I’ve been with ED for a year now, and I have no complaint’s, a nice savings, and friendly service.

By: Cap

Cap — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 19:51:17 +0000

ah nothing to apologize about, plus I understand your point too anyway.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:55:23 +0000

Sorry, Cap. Didn’t realize the site was your personal blog. You have right to write whatever you wish on your personal blog.

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 06:34:04 +0000

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.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 05:16:11 +0000

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.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:15:57 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:51:42 +0000

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.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:41:11 +0000

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.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 25 May 2006 06:00:57 +0000

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.

By: maria

maria — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 21:55:19 +0000

it’s a dollar folks… the matter of “principle” is hardly worth fighting for.

By: Cap

Cap — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 04:35:08 +0000

heh it’s not in the terms. find it for me, unless they added it recently.

By: Mike W

Mike W — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 04:23:52 +0000

Wow… you’re a real dumb-shit! maybe you should read the terms of your account before you transfer the entire fucking balance!

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:30:08 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 04:11:15 +0000

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.

By: MichaelAB

MichaelAB — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:49:31 +0000

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.

By: Cap

Cap — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:23:42 +0000

wow at least they called you! just keep a few bucks in your ED account and I think you’ll be fine.