dunroving

With interest, I hope?

BritGuyTN

I have an account with ING but have made it redundant because of emmigrant

ING don;t keep up with the rest of the savings market

fatbrit

Do Emmigrant have nice features like:

1. Being able to specify what you want doing with the interest on a CD and what to do with the money when it matures at the time you are setting it up.

2. Accounts linked electronically to external checking accounts.

Also I like Ing coz, for example, they don't have an opt-out privacy policy but an opt in one! Makes a nice change.

But I'm quite happy to swap for a better rate provided the hassle factor doesn't rise too steeply. Sell 'em to me!

BritGuyTN

I have no idea about the CD aspect of things - the savings account is kind of like a 'holding area' for me while I work out more lucrative investments.

all i know is that give the choice between a 9 month cd at ing at 4% or easy access at emmigrant then i know what i prefer

i used to be a big ING fan but then they just started to drop the ball

emigrant allows you to link up to an external checking account for online tranfers

check this:

http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/...linking_1.html

setting an account up is more hassle and not as slick but i think it is worth the initial effort

Emigrant have been around for about 200 years apparently, are FDIC

fatbrit

Unfortunately, on looking thorugh their web site, Emigrant don't seem to do CDs. Being a boring fart, I actually divide the emergency, liquid US funds into 5. One of these remains in a MMA and the other four are rotated through 1-year CDs, with one expiring every 3 months. I play this game coz it really requires very little effort on IngDirect. On my calculations, it probably gives a slightly higher rate than Emigrant.

Agree that Ing have dropped the ball though -- they used to be #1 across the board in savings.

BritGuyTN

i haven't quite got my head around cd laddering, maybe i'm too much of a control freak that i can't stand the idea of not being able to get my money if I want it

even my UK ing account has gone from being great to merely mediocre

quite frustrating

fad_shen

I will be employed in a small town called Macomb, IL

The banks they have are in:
http://www.macomb.com/banks.html

I was thinking of opening an account with CitBank as well as one of the local banks. May be get a mortgage from the local bank as I have already had a chat with one of their guys and they are happy in principle (I was worried about not having a credit history in the US).

Fady

antjen

neither do i?, could anyone explain for me?, thanks!!

Anthony

dbark

FB, do you have an account with IngDirect? Are they really easy to use - the Ing account I had in the UK was linked to a current account, which I didn't realise - closed it & couldn't get at my funds for aeons - did eventually however.

BritGuyTN

they are really easy to use, i have one both in the Uk and the USA

interface in the USA is a bit different

however there are many other online savings accounts that pay more interest than ING, who have not done a lot to keep up with the competition

fatbrit

Yep, they're very easy to use after the initial set-up, which takes a while. Have read of some people having problems here, but I have had none. Would suggest you open with $10 rather than $10k in case you run into problems. Some of the problem is, I believe, the Patriot (paranoid) Act.

You can connect with up to three checking accounts and it's all great after that -- you can flick money around your Ing accounts and linked checking accounts at will. It takes a few days for transfers and there is a hold on new money for a few days, too. Believe this is the antiquated US banking system rather than Ing's fault.

looselips

Just want to bump this to see if anyone has used HSBCdirect.com as their online savings account?

They are at 4.25 % and there is a code for $25 bonus right now and just looking at them versus ING & Emigrant. TIA

paul_TX

I'd go for Bank of America. Open a checking account and get a debit card linked to USAirways. This way you'll get rewards for using the debit card (ATM card). Also, open the "keep the change" option and basically they will round up every uneven dollar amount up and put the difference into a savibgs account. They will match your contributions for the 1st 3 months so e.g. when you buy gas, always let it go $0.01 over so the 99c get's put into your savings and they will match the 99c conrtibution! In simple terms, this means if you buy gas for $25.01 you will be debited $26.00 and they will credit your savings account $1.98. I know it's a small amount each time but it will add up. Also, having it linked to USAirways you'll get frequent flyer miles too

If you're anything like me you will be using your debit card a lot when you first get here because you won't have a credit history to get credit cards!

As always, don't take advice from us blindly, go on to their website and read the small print.