Banker
If you have money to save, where would you put your money? In particular, which bank?
First we can rule out the big 6 banks. They offer lower return on investment and a bunch of convoluted fees that I don't care to get into.
That leaves these remain banks in our discussion.
Citizens bank
HSBC Direct
ING Direct
ICICI
In addition to return on investment rate, I evaluated them based on ease of use and features available.
ICICI
ICICI providing the highest return on investment, one may wonder why this bank is not popular. Well, if you ever sign up with them, you will know. First, if you ever run into any problems and you contact customer service, you get Indians who's accents are so thick, they might as well be speaking Indian. I have nothing agaisnt Indians...just as a customer, I would want clear communication. Half the time, I am guessing what words are coming out of their mouths. Then, I ran into a problem where my account was locked and couldn't sign in. I had called customer service only to be told that they are looking into fixing it and I should call back in two weeks. I ended up calling back every two weeks for two months!
Enough said, I don't want to get into any more details with issues with ICICI. I do believe this bank is an honest bank, but just too many issues hurdle over to get anything done.
ING
I think ING must have been the first bank to challenge the big 6 banks with their high interest rate savings account. Rightly so, they did and was very sucessful. So successful, many other bank followed suit with a high interest rate savings account of they're own.
The High Interest accounts have now matured and ING has a lot of competition. Although ING still offers the High interest on your return, it no longer offers the features available on other banks such as HSBC Direct.
HSBC Direct
This bank offers equivalent high interest savings as ING, but this bank offers something more! In fact, lots more. The ability to pay bills with the HSBC Direct account online. The ability to withdraw funds using any HSBC machine and they give lots of promotions that are actually good. Well, at least they have given lots of promotions. I got two cameras, lots of extra money deposited in my account and promotional higher interest rates. Watch for those promotions! ING's promotions are really just contest. I don't gamble to win on contest because well, I never do :(
Citizens Bank
This small Vancouver based bank has an even higher interest rate account called "Ultimate Savings Account" The interest rate is higher then HSBC and ING and often equivalent to ICICI and they can speak clear english. However they don't offer the same perks as HSBC. There are no machines to withdraw the money from. When the money it stores is this tight, I usually classify it a locked investment. Not because it's locked, but because it's too hard to get to.
Hence, my pick is
HSBC Direct
(I have run into one bad incident with one of the employee at HSBC Direct, but overall they service is good....so far)
| 8/21/2008 6:52:59 PM |
