An email from ING Direct, dated January 31, 2007, announcing the new Electric Orange checking account. It has your standard online bill pay that everyone offers, but also a number of pretty interesting and unique elements. For one, this is not an entirely paperless checking account. You can write checks from the […]

If you have at least 5,000 and no understanding of economics, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. would like to hold your money for you. I had logged in to check the balance of my checking account when I noticed a promotion for Chase’s savings accounts. I’ve reproduced the ad here for your amusement. […]

It’s time that the people at VirtualBank rethink their referral program. While on one hand it offers a very nice theoretical payout for converting all of one’s 50 available referrals, $1000, the way the program is structured makes it very difficult to actually receive that amount.
I’m not saying it’s misleading to suggest […]

Without giving away the keys to the store, I thought I’d write a few general pointers on how to convert ING Direct and VirtualBank referrals.
First, respond to a request for a referral immediately. You have to anticipate that, with the hundreds of readily available web pages offering referrals, the person making the request has […]

From an email dated January 16, 2007 from HSBC to its Online Savings Account customers. It seems they’re done revamping the web site, but I fail to see much difference. HSBC’s web site is still very cluttered and confusing. I like the color scheme, bold red accenting thin black lines, and the […]

That depends on what you’re looking for from an internet banking account. The best internet banks offer high-yield savings accounts with rates that compare well with (and sometimes exceed) rates on CDs from traditional banks, but keep your money accessible. The traditional banks just can’t match internet banks for rates on savings deposits […]

That depends on what part of a savings account you value the most. If the best savings account is the one with the highest interest rate, then the Grand Yield Direct account from New York’s Apple Bank for Savings may be at the top of the list (check the sidebar for the current rates). […]

New on the online savings account scene is the Grand Yield Savings Direct account, an account of New York’s The Apple Bank For Savings, which compares favorably with Emigrant Direct’s American Dream Savings AccountTM and HSBC’s Online Savings Account (check the sidebar for current APYs).
The account itself seems pretty good, but I have a few […]

8.33 is the magic number for savings. 8.33% represents the portion of your monthly income that you would have to save to have a month’s pay socked away at the end of a year. For example, if you take home $2000.00 a month, and save 8.33% of that ($166.60) each month, after 12 […]

On December 16th, I received the following email from HSBC, where I have an Online Savings account. HSBC has some of the most extensive online account security I’ve seen, so it’s not surprising that they’re willing to make periodic announcements about it. The email reads as follows:
How secure are you? How many […]