Salem Five Direct: Now eOne Checking and eOne Savings Accounts

Salem Five Direct has moved from its traditional high interest checking account offering to a pair of account offerings: eOne Checking with an interest rate currently in the range of 0.75% to 0.85% (with a 0.5% Cash Back debit card) and an eOne Savings accounts currently offering 1.55%. Moreover, when I logged in today, I noticed that it is now possible to link external accounts for ACH transfers. The $25 bonus for direct deposit on new accounts is still available.

I absolutely hate this move. I'd rather have just the checking account at 1.4% than the savings at 1.55% and the checking at .75% with a .5% rewards debit card. I'm tempted to move what I currently have at Salem Five to Leominster Credit Union Remarkable Rewards Checking, which earns 4.01% and is available to a good majority of MA residents. Though, the offering at Salem Five is still competitive and I need something that offers good ATM coverage for both deposits and withdrawals.

We should complain about this move, although I haven't yet. If you take a good look at their annual report, they say they are good at listening.

mlkrgr said:

We should complain about this move, although I haven't yet. If you take a good look at their annual report, they say they are good at listening.
They already know it sucks, A guy in my car club works in there office that comes up with these things. I saw him on Sunday and he told me about this new account and I just laughed.

MrFresh said: If they convert my existing checking account to this junk, I guess it is time to find a new bank.

It is a shame as I have been very pleased with them up to this point.

They are not converting accounts, your checking account will remain the same, the rate will be lower of course.

Noticed a few things: There's a $1.25 fee if you use non salem five ATMs on a eOne Savings Account and also they charge $10 if you exceed the debit limit of 6. So there's no getting money out of savings at the ATM (since I have no Salem Five ATMs in my area); only out of checking.

Still, it is among the best deals for a B&M that allows both deposit and withdrawal transactions at the ATM. Though, I am seriously thinking about Leominster Credit Union, which offers the same convenience that Salem Five does in a rewards checking, but again there's no branches in my area and they require to open the account in branch, even though I am in the area to be eligible for the account and then I would need to do the 10 debit transactions a month.

A savings account is a limited transaction account that permits up to six pre-authorized, automatic or telephone transfers per month to third parties or between deposit
accounts within the Bank. Debits in excess of these limitations are assessed the excess debit fee.

ProfessorB said: I don't like this change. "eOne" checking was named "eOne" because it was supposed to be: "High Interest Checking. Money Market Rates with Checking convenience. All in one account."Maybe they should rename their accounts "eTwo"

mlkrgr said: I absolutely hate this move. I'd rather have just the checking account at 1.4% than the savings at 1.55% and the checking at .75% with a .5% rewards debit card. I'm tempted to move what I currently have at Salem Five to Leominster Credit Union Remarkable Rewards Checking, which earns 4.01% and is available to a good majority of MA residents. Though, the offering at Salem Five is still competitive and I need something that offers good ATM coverage for both deposits and withdrawals.

We should complain about this move, although I haven't yet. If you take a good look at their annual report, they say they are good at listening.

I hate this move too. Even more, I hate the sneaky way Salem Five did this. All I got was a generic email (nothing in snail mail) announcing "changes" at no point did it mention that my interest rate would drop over 50%! And when I called to complain the rep I spoke with didn't seem to care about the loss of business. Although I've had no issues with Salem Five until now, I'm also planning on leaving soon.

With regard to Leominster Credit Union Remarkable Rewards Checking as an alternative, do you know the specifics? Obviously they must require you to jump through hoops to get that interest rate...

I found Danversbank (another bank in MA) as another possibility. Although they recently just dropped their online savings rate to 1.65 (down from 2.05 a week ago), they offer 4% checking, which only requires direct deposit & 12 transactions on your ATM card a month. As long as you do both, it's 4% checking with all ATM fees reimbursed. Link

I have stuck around for a few weeks thinking Salem Five would recognize their mistake in pissing off their current customers...but it doesn't seem a change is coming. I had even asked the rep about current customers keeping just checking at the 1.4% rate, but they said they had no plans to do that.

Well, the Leominster Credit Union rewards checking looks like you need to sign up for it in a branch. Though, its a nice account with everything that I want, including the SUM network for withdrawals without having to worry/wait for withdrawal reimbursements and also they do have the shared deposit network so you can deposit at any participating machine. So, I guess it depends if you happen to have a LCU branch in your area or even making the trip may even be worth it (it would be like a 40 minutes each way drive for me and I am seriously considering it). Let me know if they do offer online sign ups.

As for Danvers Bank, its probably not a bad consideration. But I don't have a Direct Deposit right now (I don't know what's a recurring ACH, so maybe I should ask if a Chase credit card payment qualify for that), so LCU would be a better choice for me if I can pull that off since it looks like I can qualify with LCU by paying my Chase Credit Card. Though, I do like Danvers Bank since if the account should go over $25K, they do not drop your rate on the whole balance and they just drop you on the excess and then you can also put the excess into their online savings. LCU drops you on the whole balance should you go over to 1.01%. So, good find and I'll have to call someone from Danvers Bank to see if I can work it out and see if the account fits my needs.

Well, I still rate Salem Five better than BofA. Though, BofA has a good special to earn $100 for opening an account with 2 bill payments and a debit card purchase. But it doesn't pay interest and I hate how long it takes some things at BofA to post.

mlkrgr said: I called today and Danvers Bank only has shared deposit to make ATM deposits at other bank's ATMs in MA and they are not a part of SUM. So they aren't as quite as convenient as Salem Five, but LCU still looks good to me.

Thanks for the update. Since Salem Five has been so good to me (until now) I figured an executive deserved a call before I left, and I'm supposed to speak to their VP on Friday. I'll let you all know how it goes...

mlkrgr said:

As for Danvers Bank, its probably not a bad consideration. But I don't have a Direct Deposit right now (I don't know what's a recurring ACH, so maybe I should ask if a Chase credit card payment qualify for that).
I just pull some money from a linked account once a month and that qualifies as receiving an ACH. Danvers is great, Very responsive and best of all they kept my account at $100k max

I spoke to a VP today about the "changes" to our account and how disappointed we are that they have killed the high-interest checking (which was the reason most of us signed up for eOne to begin with).

I explained my reasons (listed in my posts above) for being upset, since we weren't even notified except via a generic email. After listening to me explain why I would have to soon leave Salem Five (due to low interest rate in checking) I was told they felt customers weren't as concerned about having a checking & savings account. I think they're crazy, they used to offer something few banks did: a higher interest checking account. Now they offer something that practically EVERY bank offers: low-interest checking & high(er) interest savings.

I'm giving them a week, then my money is moving to Danversbank (and its 4% Free Rewards Checking).

Sad ending for what was a great bank. They are going to lose a lot of customers with this move, and they are now one of many banks offering the same amount (1.65%) on an online savings account. And, as we know from the Fatwallet posting, there are many banks offering more than 1.65% for online savings, too!

moulder3 said: Sad ending for what was a great bank. They are going to lose a lot of customers with this move....
Agreed. I really liked Salem before they neutered the rate on eOne, and I had planned to stay with them long-term.

I am in the process of moving my primary checking account to Alliant CU (and will close my Salem account).

When you withdraw from your checking account through a SUM ATM there's no charge at all , when you withdraw from an ATM other then SUM there is a charge but it's reimbursed, With the savings we know there is a charge for non Salem ATMs, but why is there a charge for SUM network ATMs????