Closing of Emigrant Direct Account Delayed

Last weekend I emailed Emigrant Direct to close my account. While there isn’t really additional issue that prevents me from shutting down the account immediately, I did get a notice from Emigrant Direct early this week, warning me that if I close the account right now, the interests earned so far this month will be forfeited as they will be credited on the last day of the month. This information is actually on their website, under Account Disclosures:

Compounding And Crediting Of Interest: Interest will be compounded on a daily basis and credited to your Account on the last day of the month. The balance on which interest is computed for your Account is determined by the daily balance method, which applies a daily periodic rate to the balance in the Account. If you close your Account before interest is credited, you will not receive the accrued interest.

Though I have only $145 in the account and the interests for the month will be less than $1, I decided to keep the account open till August 1st when I receive the credit. No big deal to wait a few more days.

BTW, it seems that to close the account, I will need to move all my money out before informing the bank my decision, as indicated by the notice from Emigrant Direct:

To successfully close your account, we ask that you first transfer all your funds in your savings account to your checking account. Once that is completed, we kindly ask that you send an email informing us that you would like to close your account.

I wonder why they don’t do the transfer. When I closed bank accounts before, I either got a check in the mail or an ACH trasnfer to my linked checking account. I was never asked to do the transfer myself.

BTW, Emigrant Bank, the parent of Emigrant Direct, has rolled out a new online bank Dollar Savings Direct with 4.0% APY. Check it out.

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