American Express Online Savings Account 1.50% APY
Jun 16, 2009 
Sun
Here’s another high-yield savings account offer, even though the rate isn’t as good as the rate from Ally Bank I mentioned last week.
The new offer is the High-Yield Savings Account from American Express. The credit card issuer received permission from the Fed to become a bank holding company last November. Right now the savings account has an yield of 2.00% 1.50% APY. There’s no minimum deposit requirement to open an account (of course, you will have to have at least $1 in your account to earn interest). The account has no monthly fee either and it’s insured up to $250,000 by the FDIC. AMEX uses trial deposits to verify account ownership. Once the verification process is completed, you can link external bank accounts to AMEX account and make electronic fund transfer (ACH). For the savings account, interests are compounded daily and credited every month.
In addition to savings account, AMEX also has CD products with maturities ranging from 3 months to 5 years. The 1-year CD rate is currently at 2.00% APY and 2-year at 2.50% APY.
Well, there isn’t much information on their website about the new savings account offer if you want to know more about it. When I look at savings products, the only thing that matters to me is the rate. Without a good rate, there’s just no basis for any other features. To be fair, 2.00% 1.50% APY is quite appealing for a savings account in a weak environment (you can find comprehensive, updated rate information for popular online savings accounts). Here are what AMEX’s competitors are offering right now, to give you an idea of where it is,
- Capital One InterestPlus Savings Account 1.45% APY
- Ally Bank Online Savings Account 1.49% APY;
- Dollar Savings Direct Savings Account 1.50% APY;
- EverBank Money Market Account 2.25% 3-month bonus rate, 1.51% APY for the first year.
Speaking of savings account, I am still considering whether to get an account with Ally Bank (a savings account and a no penalty CD) or not. If it weren’t the rate cut last week, I probably had one already 
I think there’s something to be said for having an account with a well known and reliable brand name such as American Express. BTW, American Express Personal Savings is now at 1.85% which is much better than Ally’s current 1.64% (or any other bank right now). Setting up the account was also very easy yet it still has great security built in.
I’m also a bit annoyed that Bankrate has yet to include the new American Express PS account in it’s rankings. It’s been around for 4 months now and it’s not like they are a no-name company. Get it together BankRate.com!
Does your bank (not America Express) charge you a transfer fee when you electronically deposit to or withdraw from the American Express Savigs Account?
No, American Express Personal Savings does not charge for electronic transfers. I have several online savings accounts and I’ve never had one that charged for electronic transfers between banks. However, some banks are much slower than others in executing transfers so sometimes you might lose one or two days interest during the transfer. HSBC was notoriously slow so I finally ditched them. I’d say American Express Savings is about average for speed of transfers (i.e. not too slow, not too fast).
BTW, the rate for American Express Personal Savings recently went down to 1.7%. It’s still ranks as one of the top rates.