It's the min to open and min balance to earn APY. You don't have $10 to leave in the bank?

I don't know of a bank where the min to open was actually less than the min to avoid fees (i.e. min to open $100, min to avoid fees $1000).

LK238 said:walletfart said:Yikes, I wouldn't consider going to one of the branches. They are in Compton on Crenshaw Blvd, and in Massachusetts in Roxbury. Is this a gangsta-owned bank or what?

"In the past two years, we have financed over $350 million in loans, including churches, affordable housing, office buildings and retail stores - most in low to moderate income communities such as South Central, Compton, Liberty City and Roxbury."

According to the FDIC they have been FDIC insured since 1982. The primary regulator is the FDIC. They list eight branches and a main office at 133 Federal Street in Boston.

I know, I opened with them, it's just a little awkward seeing a bank that caters for the "ghetto" in a sense. But that's exactly what they're main mission statement is, so I guess it's good to be helping out.

Also, I read their earnings sheet and the # of loans overdue or charged off has decreased significantly in the last few years. The trend was to the better so I felt like they're doing a good job operating in those environments. Plus, FDIC insured of course.

AlwaysWrite said:For most people, it's probably irrelevant if they're just using it as an online-only bank.

Exactly, I don't think are any benefits and I don't find it humorous how people have to point out that an African American owned bank has branches in the "ghetto". Whtat exactly was this conversation trying to prove?

AlwaysWrite said:Not to put too fine a point on it, but Crenshaw Blvd. doesn't run particularly close to Beverly Hills. That realtor trying to sell you property in "Beverly Hills" with a Crenshaw address is lying. Crenshaw Blvd ends at Wilshire Blvd; guess thats actually Koreatown, past Beverly Hills and just past Hancock Park at that intersection.

Clocks said:I am still on the fence. I have GMAC and that is at 5.10%. Not sure it is worth opening a new account at this point. It seems like a nice deal though.

Can anyone that had recently opened an account with them talk about their experience. Is it fast and easy? I still have nightmares from the HSBC debacle.

I posted above a bit about opening. I just did the application and am waiting on funding to enter my account.

I chose this account because no hard pull, online verification, electronic funding, no fees and basically no minimums. I see this as very non-committal and one of the highest rates.

The online application is simple, they ask you for the standard info like SSN/drivers license #, they will then prompt you with some challenge questions from your credit report (e.g. which company is your mortgage with) with multiple-choice to verify you more.

After that, you can fund the account electronically. They will want to verify the account that you are funding from. To do this, you can either do instant verification (at least with my bank you could), but they wanted your online username/password to do this, and I didn't feel comfortable giving that to them. The slower way is that you can do deposit verification, which is what I did. It only took 1 day for my deposits to hit my account (applied on Sunday, deposits posted on Monday - hoping this is indicative of their ACH in general).

After you do deposit verification, you log back into the link, verify the deposits, and then that says your account is ready to be funded after application completion.

I'm waiting on the funding to be completed now, but if I remember, will post the results.

I don't see any downside to this from here, it's a big jump over ING, and it supposedly helps out low income areas.

I am still on the fence also.

Walletfart - please keep us up-to-date once you are fulling functional. I wonder how fast there transfers are, etc......thanks

I think I will hold off.

jpsmoney said:I'd watch out -

another person's experience

follow up

Yikes, that's a little scary, but also kind of overstated I think. A lot of the banks have similar stories (look in HSBC thread e.g.) of accounts taking a while to open and access.

I only did starting funding with $10 (the minimum) in case of any problems, so if I run into problems accessing the bank, it's not too much loss (except giving someone my personal info again). Also, she mentions 6 months inactivity fee, but that is not on their Truth in Disclosure, so I'm not sure if she has all the facts straight.

walletfart said: Generally, you (or maybe just I) don't associate wealth/banking/financing with low-income areas. So, it's a little awkward that a bank is specializing in those areas.

Keep in mind that WalMart became what it is today by putting stores where no one else would bother.