Direct Banking Bargains

Find the best online saving rates

There has been a recent increase in the popularity of online "direct" banking. For the few of you reading this page who don't know what that means, basically, banks are offering savings accounts with rather high interest rates and minimal customer service. Most or all deposits are made online through electronic transfers from your existing bank accounts. Since your account costs them almost nothing, you get excelent interest rates. However, this is not for everyone! If you demand constant customer service, you may find yourself disappointed. Most such accounts have a minimum deposit of $1 or a similar trivial amount. One way that I use such accounts, rather than chasing the absolute highest rates, is to categorize money. I have a savings account for the coming baby, a savings account for "just for fun" money for Nadja, a savings account for specific coming expenses, etc.

The point of this page is to provide a rather large list of providers and their current interest rates, as well as their historical interest rates (that is, when I update this page, I will not erase old interest rates, but rather move them to another column). I hope this page helps.

Bank name	Minimum balance (deposit)	ABA routing number	Comments	Interest rate: 6/27/07
FNBODirect	$0 ($1)	104000016	Promotional interest rate until at least 9/29/2007	6.00%
HSBCDirect	$0 ($1)	022000020	One can also get a free checking account	5.05%
EmigrantDirect	$0 ($1)	226070319		5.05%
UFBDirect	$0 ($0)	274070484 (bank name: SkyBank)	Hard to transfer online. Only good if you can push money in/pull money out through another account	5.31%
PayPal	$0 ($0)	N/A	Not a bank account. Interest not guaranteed/not FDIC insured. Makes a good spending account due to debit card with attached cash back and no limit on number of transfers.	5.04%
ING Direct (Orange Savings)	$0 ($?)	031176110	The original direct bank	4.50%
GMAC Bank	$500 ($50)	031176136	Fees of $7.50/month if you do not maintain a $500 average daily balance	5.30%
Washington Mutual	$300 ($1)	322271627	Fees of $4/month if you do not maintain a balance of $300 every day	5.00%
CitiBank Direct e-Savings	(unclear)	021000089	Tied to a Citibank checking account	4.50%
VirtualBank eMoney Market	$0 ($100)	067092200	Tiered interest rates, but higher rates start at $50,000	4.60%
iGObanking	$0 ($1)	026072928		5.30%
eTrade Complete Savings	$0 ($1)	256072691		5.05%