When I was first putting effort into managing my finances I was reading all these things about online banks. Most people were with ING & HSBC but the rates weren’t as good as I really wanted. After much research I found iGoBanking, at the time their rates were at the top of list and at 1.85% APY (as of 04/05/2009) are still extremely competitive.
About the Bank
iGoBanking is the online banking arm of Flushing Savings Bank, a brick and mortar bank headquartered in Lake Success, New York. Flushing Savings Bank was originally organized in 1929 and is currently a division of Flushing Financial Corporation (NSDQ: FFIC). They have been FDIC Insured since July 1, 1943 (FDIC Cert 16049).
Sign Up
It has been a while since I signed up but it was simple and all on line, I was able to fund directly out of another account and only had to fund with $1. There were some issues regarding discrepancies in my wife’s name and public record so I had to deal with their customer service department, all of which was very easy and they were very helpful. Once you are all setup you can login and be presented with your summary page:
Transfers
Transfers into and out of your iGoBanking account will require that you establish links to your external accounts, configuring these links just requires your routing and account numbers, they will then make trial deposits which you will have to verify and then you are all linked up. The account has a next day transfer feature for up to $2000.00 at no cost to you, otherwise your transfers take three days and are capped at $100,000 per transfer no more than $500,000 in total transfers per month. Configuring the transfer is as easy as filling out the form and selecting your transfer method, you can also set it up to do recurring transfers into our out of linked accounts.
Overall Opinion
I am extremely happy with the account and they have managed to keep their rates competitive so I am sticking with them for the long haul. I am not a rate chaser so as long as they keep the rates in the ballpark it is a solid place to stash some of my cash. Do you have any experiences with iGo? Leave a comment and let the rest of us know about it.
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IGOBanking is almost the best. DollarSavingsDirect.com is the best right now.
I disagree with DH. I have also opened an iGObanking account and I am VERY happy with all of the services they have to offer.
I have even heard that they are going to launch more products for us online bankers!
Stay away from this bank if you want good customer service and any sort of control over your account. I have been with this bank for 2 years as my primary bank using their bill pay. Their website is horrible and time intensive to navigate, but I eventually got used to it. It took almost 30 days to get all of my accounts set up because their system is so archaic and Customer service is only available 9-5pm EST M-F, so if you are on the West, you only have until 2pm. Even then, after all that effort I stuck with them because I was too lazy to move elsewhere. They have no overdraft, and if you make one mistake, their bill pay company Metavante will freeze your account for 5 business days which cancels all pending payments. Recently their system duplicated a payment which overdrew my account, but Metavante still won’t unfreeze my account even though the bank asked them to because I have had 4 overdrafts in …. wait for it….. 2 years. And some of them were bank error with funds sitting in my savings and transferred to cover the error same day. Now suddenly I am locked out of my online account with no access at all and of course customer service isn’t available because it’s 3:30 PST. Not worth the aggravation. I just moved everything to Ally where they have overdraft, 24/7 customer service and equal interest rates. All of my accounts were set up in about 2 hours compared to 30 days with iGo. iGo elsewhere and can’t get there fast enough.
Stay away from Igo banking!!!
Wow! Stay away from this bank! They put a freeze on my account and charged me $125 all because I have the same name as someone that has a judgement against them. I have nothing else in common with this person, however they froze my assets and did so the same week that I was buying a house! I now have to sue them and try to undo all the damage they caused. It is unbelievable that a bank would freeze the account of someone just because they have the same name. I even live 3000 miles away from the person! Take my advice and STAY AWAY from igo bank!
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