E-Trade Bank Online Savings Account Review
Choosing a high-yield online savings account can be quite a headache, so hopefully this review will help you in your search for an online savings account.
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:
Account Opening Process: 
5 out of 5
Rate Competitiveness: 
4 out of 5
Ease of Use: 4 out of 5
Customer Service: 
3 out of 5
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.
- E*Trade Complete Savings Account – Official website
- FDIC E*Trade Bank Information – FDIC.gov
October 27th, 2008 at 4:18 am
Nice review! Really liked all the detail and screenshots. This is stuff I’ve had trouble finding elsewhere on the web.
Any chance for a Fidelity MySmart Checking review?
October 27th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Thanks. I usually try to include at least one screenshot in all my reviews so that people can have a better sense of what I’m talking about.
I don’t really have a high-yield online checking account as I usually keep a fairly low balance in my Bank of America checking (and transfer funds in as needed). But I might check out some of the current offerings in the near future.
Just FYI though ING’s Orange Checking easily beats out Fidelity’s MySmart Checking in terms of rates, and I’m fairly sure there are some 2.0+ APY online checking out there… but of course rate isn’t the only thing that matters, especially when it comes to a checking account.
I’m assuming you’re thinking of Fidelity because you have other accounts there, and it’ll make accessing all your accounts easier. There’s one obvious good perk for the Fidelity MySmart Checking though — if you couple it with a Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa card, you can get 1.5% unlimited cash-back into your eligible Fidelity accounts (checking, IRA, etc)
October 27th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Wow, I am glad you had a much better experience than I did with them opening up cd accounts. It was very confusing and they made mistakes that one account rep said that I had to pay for. I finally got it straightened out but ended closing the account as soon as I could. I am all for services online, but it would take a lot for me to go back to them.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I love ETRADE, always fast and easy. Once you have an account it’s really easy opening new ones. Closing CDs are really easy and fast by using their online secure message. They close my CD accounts and transfer the funds to my savings/checkings within a business day. Best ACH in the business.
October 27th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
very helpful.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Thank you Cap. Am looking to Fidelity mostly because of that 1.5% cash-back. The ATM fee refunds are also nice. Would also like to consolidate my local checking accounts into one big Fidelity account, for simplicity.
What I’m missing is a review of the Fidelity app process and web site.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the info. My present money market gives 3%, but I need to keep $10,000 to get that rate. If it falls below (at times it will), the rate falls to 1.85%. I just got off the phone with E-trade and everything checks out. I will be moving my money there.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I have had E-Trade securities accounts in the past and was satisfied. However, I have read several accounts in recent months that the company may be in poor financial condition. Certainly FDIC deposits are protected and I do not wish to be a fear monger, but feel that people should do their own investigation and include this aspect in their comparisons.
January 15th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I think the description fits the Etrade of the past because this days its always bringing up some question page when you try to navigate to another page and that waste a lot of time that’s why i stopped using the account.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Wild.
Clicking the ETrade ad above that says ‘2.50% Savings’ gets to an ETrade account of ‘Max Rate Savings’ of 3.01% but simplying going yourself to ETrade.com shows a saving account of 2.50%.
0.49% difference. Not bad.
February 7th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I meant.. 0.51% difference.
February 8th, 2009 at 4:43 am
thats strange. maybe etrade had a mix up with the sign-up page you saw.. or it was a browser cached version? I checked and it shows 2.50% APY… would be nice to get that extra 0.51% though ;)
February 8th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Hmmm.
I still can get to the 3.01% page, but only sometimes. Refresh the page and it reverts to the 2.50% page.
Only can get to 3.01% using Firefox on my Linux machine. IE on Windows get 2.50%.
Unfortunately, click through to start the sign-up process on Firefox fails.
So not getting very far… :-(
March 7th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
While in the Philippines, where my wife and I reside part time, I tried to transfer money, but not one of the identity confirmation questions made sense to me, so I couldn’t answer them. As a result, they froze both of my accounts and when I tried again a day or two later, I was told that I would have to call some sort of specialist (can’t remember what term they used _ wasn’t keeping notes). On Saturday when I called the no. I was given, I was told that they would not be answering the phone until Monday. When I called again on Monday, a guy who’s “English” I could barely understand at times gave me some impossible to understand instructions, including telling me that I would have to send him a fax with a bunch of I. D. details within something like two hours to free my accounts. When I told him that it was late at night where I was (Barangay Lower Talay), and I had no idea where I could find a fax machine to use, he responded by telling me OK, I’ll hold off until 9:00, but you must send the fax at exactly 9:00. I tried to determine which time zone he was referring to, but he didn’t seem to understand what I was saying, so, realizing I was waging a losing battle, I hung up. My advice to etrade: get “experts” that understand and speak English and who know what a time zone is.
April 18th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Etrade is a piece of crap! I have a brokerage account with them. They charge you $40 for ‘inactivity’ if you don’t constantly trade and shuffle money from left to right.
I tried unsuccessfuly to set up wire transfers from etrade to another account from the web. They needed several weeks to do ‘test transfers’ from etrade to the other account, to be sure the wire transfer actually works (like they are launching a rocket or something) – it never worked!
To get a checkbook from them you actually have to send them by snail-mail a copy of your driver’s license for some reason. They say it’s ’security purposes’, but I don’t believe it – I think it is to make it more difficult for people to withdraw money, to create a barrier. Even closing down the account is an adventure. The people they have on the phone are not helpful at all. Stay away from Etrade…
June 6th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I’ve had E-trade accounts for years. Online service has always been solid. The online transfers (in and out) are easy and fast.
I have a hi-yield complete savings account that I transfer money into each week. I recently received notice that the interest rate was dropped to 0.95
% – so it’s more like a normal (lame) bank savings acct., not higher yield account. I’m probably going for an Orange Account next.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I have been with ETrade since ‘98 and have really liked it when they linked banking with trading but lately ETrade has gone down hill. There was the issue of trying to cancel a bill pay a week in advance, they messed it up and wanted to charge me and I still had to FAX, yes fax in paper work. Then recently I tried to make a VISA payment to a regular company that I have made payments with before but because the other payments were around $100 and this one was $400 they said it was out of my spending habit and needed verification. So a company claiming to be from VISA Fraud called (robo call) asking for my CC number. I hung up and called Etrade. They said it was most likely a scam but the calls keep coming all day. So I called the company and they said that they do work for Etrade and I should call Etrade. So I called Etrade back and after asking them 10 times if they were sure this company was not ligit they finally said “oh yeah we do do business that way”. Didn’t sit right with me so I’ll be leaving.
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:38 am
Back in November, I stated that E-trades money market rate was 3%, but only a month later did that all change. Just like a financial institution, they use teaser rates to get you and then change everything shortly afterward.