Ebank

Sounds like a good alternative to those who don't have a DD and can't qualify for Presidential.

fallentimes said: Has anyone had any experiences (good or bad) with Ebank?

I have (i have their Efree Checking which pays 2.25% and ESavings which pays 3%).....It is a one branch bank in Atlanta, Georgia that has web customers all over the U.S. (very much like the "USAA model"...lol)...The Customer Service is very good, and they set you up pretty fast...Their Online Banking has a nice interface (not as fancy as BOA/WAMU/CITI, but nice)....Their Bill Pay is Checkfree and it is the fast version (1 business day on the electronic payees).....

No charge for atm usage on their end, and you get UNLIMITED next day refunds of any atm surcharge, worldwide, regardless of the number of times or the amounts.....On the foreign country atm charges, they only thing they don't cover is the currency conversion charge.....

Regarding ACH Transfers, you can pull or push for free from other banks/cus but they do not have their own external bank transfer service....My experience with this bank has all been positive....

It's a really excellent deal (the 5% apy...even though it does have the $2500 min bal req) i e-mailed them about it...they said it is not a "teaser rate" the only question i would have is if they are planning to keep the rate "competitive" in the long run...if they are, this is a really excellent deal....

So ePremium's regular APY is 3%, now this is a special offer, I wonder how can special offers not be teasers... It's just that it takes time to setup bill notifications and payees etc. It would suck if they bait and switch.

craig10x said: rockets said: So ePremium's regular APY is 3%, now this is a special offer, I wonder how can special offers not be teasers... It's just that it takes time to setup bill notifications and payees etc. It would suck if they bait and switch.

I worry about that too, rockets....i did call them and the CSR insists that they plan to keep the rate "competitive" with the likes of WAMU/CITI/HSBC online savings rates...and will not tier structure the account....at least that is what they say, if you take them at their word....

Oh, and yes, their bill pay does allow e-bills as well....it's a Checkfree interface...

Well at least they don't require direct deposit, so it makes it that much easier to switch if the rate falls off. That is what I am stuck with presidential right now. It's more fun to go to the dentist then it is to change direct deposit at my company. Lets just say the payroll person is the niece of the CEO.

Grobe said: If you read the Bankdeals blog I cited:
"I just spoke with the customer service rep and was told that this rate increase occurred last night, and the website is not completely updated with this change. The new 5% is advertised on the home page, but the rates page is still showing 3%."

So this is saying the website has not been completely updated, so it is not a special/teaser rate. On the other hand virtually none of the great rates seem to last a long time.

Yes I did see that. I was just saying that, if you click on the link you provided, on the same page you see,

Special Offers, 5 Star Checking

then the last bullet says, "No confusing teaser rates".

Special but no teaser seems an oximoron.

Anyhow, I gave you green. I just haven't decided if I want to jump on it.

Hard pull I assume given their disclaimer about credit report and Chex. Anyone know what agency?

Do they do any sort of mail-in deposits? Prepaid?

Looks like very interesting alternative to Presidential, especially since they offer checkfree and atm rebates (no ATM rebates on pres).

xoneinax said: g10ny said: and the absence of ACHDo you mean that they do not offer their own ACH interface ? Or do they not allow an ACH initiated from ING, HSBC, ED, etc to go through ?
According to the original post, this means they just don't have an interface (such as Yodlee FundsTransfer or CashEdge).

exactly, they don't have their own "external bank transfers" feature, but you can push or pull from other banks without getting charged by EBank....I know, it is a little confusing when the say "No Teaser Rate" yet, call it a "Special" though,

as i mentioned, the CSRs there are stating that they plan on keeping it "competitive" (i had mentioned to them about WAMU/CITI/HSBC all being "competitive" in that 5% rate catagory....so, it's a matter if you want to take them on their word and give them a shot...

Like g10ny, I am not going for it, simply because i am happy with my BOA Checking w/NEA Savings Account, and use my Efree Checking mainly for the free rebates and to give me extended atm coverage beyond BOA (not that BOA doesn't have lots of atms....lol)

But if someone would like the convenience of a 5% Checking with unlimited free rebates, it's certainly worth taking a shot, i would say...i have been with them for over a year, and they seem to be a very good bank.....

Apparently none. But since they are located in Atlanta... watch for possible Equifax pulls!
Edit (in answering to the next post): I have an account with them since this fall, if this matters.

It says right on the first page of the blog that they do a hard pull from Equifax. See OP.

wlau said: I have a checking account with eBank for over a year and I love it. The free ATM fee is great. I business travel a lot, so I don't bring much cash with me and withdraw when needed. When the withdraw is posted to the account, only the cash amount is posted, not the surcharge, so it's as though the surcharge from the ATM owner was never charged. I've used it all over the country and never had a problem. This is small bank with one branch in Atlanta, GA. I direct deposit my paycheck to this account and use the Star ATM shared deposit network to deposit some rebate checks every now and then. Overall, I am very satisfied with this bank.

Are there any fees to deposit using the Star ATM shared deposit network? Or is that a fetaure that is paid for by ebank?

thecpa said: This bank will likely discontinue this offer:

Banks that offer high rates on checking accounts offer higher rates on their savings accounts, this bank doesn't.

They're a small one branch bank. When their rate is posted on Bankrate.com, they will get bombarded with deposits since bankrate lists their rates in all major newspapers. The same thing happened to Security Savings in Las Vegas which had a 5.50% savings account until it was posted in bankrate.com.

They offer unlimited ATM withdrawal fees. Realistically, how long do you think a small bank will be able to do this?

They discontinued the free overnight deposit method offered in the past.

As a current EBank customer (who has been with them well over a year) i would say this:

1)They didn't discontinue the free overnight deposit method (UPS QUICKPOST) in fact, they loved having it for their customers, the problem is that the owner of the processing company for it, Netbank is having financial trouble and decided to dump the operation, so it wasn't EBank's fault, it was Netbanks (this why you can't do it at USAA anymore either)...

2) They have had the Unlimited ATM Rebates, since even before i got my accounts with them....it's unlikely they will drop the policy as it does encourage people all over the US to open accounts with them, and as a small bank, they need that....

3) They offer good rates on Savings, not top yield....i get 3% apy in my ESavings...and even my Efree Checking gets 2.25% which is better then alot of bricks and mortar banks

4) They say they plan to keep the rate competitive and that is is not a promotional rate....but on that one, i can't give you a "guarantee" (lol) that it won't change in the future, but then what bank does???

01LX said: What is meant by "Free ebank custom checks"? How are these different from traditional checks?

That's just referring to the style (design) of the checks...there is a particular style that they order for free sets, if you want other designs you have to pay for them....On my EFree checking, only the first set is free, which i have gotten and it happens to be a nice design...With EPremium checking, you can get all the free checks you want (of that one style that they offer)....

have to go along with xeon..."unlimited rebates" is a nice "feel good" kind of policy...it's nice to know you are not limited to a specific number of them, but practically speaking...unless you are a bit "mentally unbalanced" (lol) will you be running to the atms to make withdrawals 30x per month just because you know you have unlimited rebates? Of course not....I think the most i ever did in 1 month was about 8 (2 per week) and average more like 4-6 per month most of the time....

thecpa said: Xeon852 said:

Other than the fact that this is checking and not money market - how is this any different than what GMAC offers? Other than the fact that it doesn't match the way banks traditionally work and the additional cost to process multiple transactions, does it really cost a bank much more for a checking account than a moneymarket account?

Presidential offers a pretty close rate (only off by 0.5%), and plenty of other banks offer ATM refunds. Although most banks don't do unlimited, I bet they still only average $2-4/mo per customer. Everbank imits me to $6 I think, but I've never used more than $4 and usually do like $1.

GMAC has a six transaction limit, doesn't give unlimited checks, safety deposit boxes, unlimited atm refunds and bill pay service all for free.

Presidential: dito.
Both give you free checks to start - and GMAC a nearly full box that I will never make it through. GMAC gives you 4 ATM refunds for month - which should be all most people need. Both of these are things that "sound" like great bonuses but the truth is most people will take a few years to go through their first box of checks, and few will do more than ~$5 of rebates a month.

Presidential gives you free billpay service.

Their minimum balances are significantly lower, $500 and $1000 respectfully.

Since you said it will be all internet users, what does a saftey deposit box matter? Also, no one has quantified what transactions actually cost a bank. Are most money market savings accounts savings accounts because that is the traditional way it is done in banking, or is there a significant (like $1 or more) cost per transaction?

It does look like a very good checking account, but its not so far beyond other products on the market that I would label it as "too good to be true" yet.

This seems to be a good deal for us, since we are relatively close to their B&M location (~45 minutes away). We've been banking online for around 10 years, and only had something that we needed a B&M for once, but who knows in the future.

As has been mentioned, I just worry about how long the high rate will last. Plus, my wife pays most of the bills, and she hates it when I talk about changing banks.

Was considering a credit card AOR soon, so if we were thinking about opening an account here, I guess we should submit the application the same day as the AOR, right?

althes said: Any idea which CRA they pull.

Equifax

It looks very likely that the 5% rate will not be a long term thing with Ebank....They revised their rates page and it is being called an "active promotion rate" and shows that the normal "post promotion rate" for EPremium Checking (which is what this is) is 3% APY.....So, i suspect that they will give this rate for a few months, and then drop it back to their normal rate of 3%....Apparently, despite what the csrs there told me, they are not planning on keeping this competitive with the highest yielding accounts, but rather are just looking to grab in more depositors....

Sorry to have to report the bad news about this....i have been with ebank for awhile and did like them alot....but i was mostly using them for the atm surcharge rebates...now that i found a good credit union that is on the allpoint and co-op networks, i feel that i have enough extra free atm coverage (besides all my BOA branch/atm access) to let them go...i will be closing my accounts with them shortly....

I suspect that they've run the numbers on the 2.25% APY checking accounts and saw that, while they pay for ATM surcharges, are still getting a low deposit flow (I only have currently about $130 in the account).

And thought that, while they're at it, why not give a promo with a higher min bal, for roughly the same costs?