E*Trade Max-Rate Checking and Complete Savings Reviewed
May 27th, 2008 by David Weliver
If you’re a bank teller, we apologize. We think everybody should ditch their branch bank for E*Trade. Here’s why.
As the Fed keeps dropping benchmark interest rates, online banks are struggling to sell “high yield” banking products when—let’s face it—yields aren’t so high.
Today, to win the lion’s share of new deposits, banks must do more than simply bump their rate one tenth of a percent.
While some banks are throwing in the towel Emigrant Direct, once the undisputed interest rate king, has scaled its rate back to 3.00%, E*Trade is stepping up to the plate with its Max-Rate Checking Account and Complete Savings Account.
Yes, E*Trade’s Complete Savings Account rate is higher (now 3.30%). If all you’re looking for is a great online savings rate, you can’t go wrong with E*Trade Complete. There are no minimums and no fees, and you can withdraw your cash via your linked accounts or ATM. But it’s not just E*Trade’s interest rate that we’re so giddy about.
If you’re looking for more from your online bank, E*Trade will not disappoint.
E*Trade’s Max-Rate Checking Account pays you 3.25% on balances over $5,000 and offers ATM fee reimbursement, free online bill pay, and – best of all – real paper check writing…all free! Even if you don’t keep a $5,000 monthly balance, you’ll still earn 0.50% APY on your balance, and can avoid any maintenance fees with direct deposit.
Although a lot of banks have been trying to kick off online checking the way online savings accounts took off several years ago, consumers don’t seem to be responding. E*Trade, however, may finally have gotten it right.
Open an E*Trade checking or savings account now, or read our high yield savings account reviews.
Tell us what you think. Do you use a totally online checking account? Would you consider it? Or can you just not bear to leave your branch?
On Jun 11, 2008, Terence said:
If you were to keep a balance of over $5000 grand, is there any benefit of having the savings over the max-rate checking? I have both but I’m trying to figure out why I don’t just close out my savings and dump it all in the 3.25% checking account. Assuming I plan on always having at least $5000 in it, does that make sense? Thoughts?
On Jun 13, 2008, Money Under 30 said:
Yeah, Terrence, you raise a good point. I didn’t think of it before writing this, probably because I’ve never seen a bank offer a better rate on checking than savings.
In this case, if you keep more than $5k in checking at all times, it would make sense to dump the savings account.
On Jul 22, 2008, Chris Campbell said:
It looks like the Max-Rate Checking APY has now dropped to 3.01%. The Complete Savings rate of 3.30% APY is definitely better now.
On Jul 28, 2008, Craig said:
They probably did that to encourage people to have both the max rate checking and the complete savings….I just signed up for it…looks like a very interesting package!
I’ll keep most of my cash in the Savings account, and i am going to set up DD to the checking to avoid the fee, since i won’t be keeping the $5,000 in the checking…..