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M1 Finance Review: The Fee Free Self-Directed Brokerage

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As a long-term investor, I do everything I can to ensure that my returns are as high as possible over the long haul.

What sort of things am I doing to ensure that I come out ahead?

I'm doing my best to keep my investments diversified, and keeping the costs for my investing low. Typically people can see fees, commissions, expense ratios, and account costs eat into their end returns, and it doesn't have to be that way.  There are now free alternatives!

I recently discovered a new hybrid brokerage and robo-advisor called M1 Finance. They give you the flexibility to invest in their preset portfolios using diversified ETF index funds, or you can invest in individual stocks, like with a traditional brokerage.  Best of all, they're fee-free!

In this review, we'll take a deep dive on M1 Finance and what they have to offer, so let's get started.

M1 Finance Founding

M1 Finance Review

M1 Finance launched in September of 2016. 25-year-old Stanford graduate, Brian Barnes, founded the company. From Business Insider:

When Brian Barnes graduated from Stanford in 2012, he had a hard time finding a tool with which he could invest in the stock market on his own. This prompted him to start his own online brokerage site, M1 Finance, at 25 years old.“What I was trying to do seemed relatively basic,” Barnes penned in a recent post on M1's site. “I wanted to be able to pick my investments, and have recurring deposits automatically added to those allocations.”And that's exactly what M1, which has $60 million under management, allows users to do. M1 users can pick the stocks they want to invest in and then they can determine what percentage of their portfolio they want each position to make up. M1 automatically updates as you put in more money and as stock prices fluctuate to maintain your preferred portfolio allocation. So if you want Apple to make up 25% of your portfolio, M1 will balance your portfolio as such. That means you can't buy one Apple share, or one Amazon share. It's all about the portfolio.  

M1 Finance gives you the automated investing tools of a robo-advisor, with fine control over your individual investments like a traditional brokerage.

The cost of using M1 Finance is pretty darn cheap. It's FREE to use the basic service! So let's get into the details.

M1 Finance  – Opening An Account

M1 Finance review homepage

To open an account with M1 Finance first you have to choose what type of account you want to open:

  • Taxable Investment Accounts
  • Roth IRA
  • SEP IRA
  • Traditional IRA
  • Trust Accounts
  • Rollover IRA

There is a 3-step process.  First, you'll enter basic details like name, email, and password, and then you proceed to:

  1. Build Your Portfolio: M1 Finance's “Pie” portfolio concept will be introduced, and you'll walk through the process of creating your portfolio.
  2. Start Your Brokerage Account: Choose your account type and complete your profile details for your account.
  3. Deposit Money Into Your Account: Link your account that you'll use to fund your M1 Finance account.

There is no minimum amount to open an account, but to invest you'll need at least $100 in your account.  Personally, I decided to drop $1000 in there right away to get started. Your free account can be opened through the link below.

Open Your FREE M1 Finance Account Now

The Details Of How M1 Finance Works

M1 Finance is one of the most flexible robo-advisors available at this time.  Many robo-advisors will give you the option of only a few pre-built investment portfolios, ones they've built for a general audience.  Usually, the only changes you can make are to the ratio of stocks to bonds included in the account.

M1 Finance gives you granular control over your investments if you want it.

Pie Investing

M1 Finance has an investing concept that they use where they call individual investment portfolios “pies”.

Pies are the basic organizational structure for your investments. The pie can have as many as 100 slices to it. Each slice can be an individual stock, an ETF, or even another set of investments via another pie.

Each slice that you've added to your pie is assigned a percentage of the total pie, and when dividends are paid out, or funds are added to your account, the system will do its best to ensure that the percentages stay consistent.

If you're not adventurous and want M1 Finance to do the work for you, they have over 60 pre-built pies that you can choose from.  Want to choose one of their pies and then add a couple of individual stocks to it? You can do that too!

Pie Types

The pies that M1 has created are broken down into 8 types or categories

M1 Finance Review Pies
  1. General Investing:  Build a diversified portfolio that's based on your personal level of risk tolerance.
  2. Plan for Retirement: Invest in a portfolio tailored for you and your target retirement date.
  3. Responsible Investing:  Invest in socially and environmentally friendly investments.
  4. Income Earners: Choose investments based on dividends and income returns.
  5. Hedge Fund Followers: Aims to emulate the strategies of successful investors and hedge funds with good reputations.
  6. Industries and Sectors:  Invest in specific sectors like aerospace, biotech, and more.
  7. Just Stocks and Bonds: Gives you a highly diversified portfolio with a total world stock fund, and a bond fund.
  8. Other Strategies: Other popular investment strategies that you can use to meet your goals.

Create Your Pies And Start Investing

Once you have chosen a stock pie from M1, or have customized your own, the pies will now live in your dashboard. You can add as many (or as few) pies to your account as you want, with the one caveat that a  “portfolio generally cannot hold over 500 individual positions“.

Once your pies are built and saved in your dashboard, there are a few things to remember.

  • All trades are made by M1 Finance at 9 AM central on days that the New York Stock Exchange is open for business.
  • Once the amount of cash in the account reaches $10, it will be auto-invested.
  • For every new contribution or dividend deposit, M1 will invest those funds into under-weighted slices of your pies to bring them into balance. New contributions and dividend reinvestment will aid in automatic re-balancing.
  • You can do a manual account re-balance as well through your dashboard, either on a specific pie, or on your whole portfolio.

M1 Finance Apps On Mobile

M1 Finance has well-reviewed mobile apps available for both iOS and Android.  I've tried it and it looks great!

The apps allow you to do most things you can do on the website including creating your portfolios, setting up automated investments, re-balancing your portfolio pies, and more.

M1 Borrow

Earlier this year M1 Finance announced a new feature of their accounts that would allow you to borrow money from M1 Finance at a rate that is extremely low, 4%.

How does it work? Let's say you want to build a deck on your house. You can instantly borrow up to 35% of your account balance at a low rate of 4% to make that happen.

There is a caveat.  Your brokerage account has to have a $10,000 balance or greater.

How does 4% rate compare when looking at other traditional loan types? It compares pretty favorably.

M1 Borrow From M1 Finance

The nice thing about borrowing from your account is that there is no paperwork, credit checks or application denials to worry about. Just have an account with $10k balance and you'll be able to borrow up to 35% of the balance at a rate lower than you can find in most other places.

M1 Finance Comissions & Fees

One of the biggest pros that M1 Finance has at this time is the fact that they are a fee-free service, and there is no minimum to open an account.

If you want to invest your funds there is a $100 minimum with a taxable account, and a $500 minimum for retirement (IRA / Roth IRA) accounts.  That's still a pretty low bar for most folks.

M1 Finance used to have an annual management fee for assets under management, but they made a positive change and dropped that fee. The following things are all now fee-free:

  • Management fee: FREE
  • Trading fees: FREE
  • Re-balancing fees: FREE
  • Dividend reinvestment fee: FREE

If you're looking for where some fees might reside, M1 Finance does have fees related to transferring funds via wire transfer, or to do a full account transfer out. That's pretty standard though, and regular electronic funds transfers (EFT) are free. To see a full listing of their administrative fees see their fees disclosure page.

M1 Finance – Flexible, Low Cost, Easy To Use

M1 Finance is a cool new investing platform, and it's one of the best I've come upon in the last few years.

They're similar in some ways to other robo-advisor platforms in that you can deposit your money, and choose a preset investment portfolio, and set it to auto-invest, but they're much more flexible than most.

Not only do they have pre-built portfolios, but you can create your own investment pies that include any combination of stocks, bonds, or other pies.  Just find what you want to invest in and add it to your pie – there are no trading fees!

M1 Finance is one of the more innovative, low-cost investing companies available for regular investors. I recommend giving it a try.

Open your free account through the link below.

Get Your M1 Finance Account Now!

M1 Finance Review - Invest Now

ShareBuilder By Capital One Review: Discount Online Stock Brokerages

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I‘ve been doing a lot of research when it come to discount online brokerages lately.  It seems like just about everyone has a service that they like best, and that they prefer using.  The first one I had heard recommended was OptionsHouse.  It has  a good mix of research tools, low cost and ease of use.  Definitely one to look into, especially for active traders.

ShareBuilder by Capital One is another one that I had heard good things about, and since I already have a savings account with the same company, Capital One 360, I thought I would give it a once over.

ShareBuilder by Capital One History

From Wikipedia:

ShareBuilder (formally ShareBuilder Securities Corporation) is a United States based online brokerage firm founded in 1996 (as NetStock Direct). It encourages recurring, automatic purchases of shares of stock, ING Mutual Funds (Class O) and exchange-traded funds. All transactions occur online and are entirely at the discretion of the account holder, thus it is an execution-only service. The company does not have brokerage sales representatives or advisors. Account holders can use ShareBuilder’s online research tools to investigate stocks, similar to other online brokerages such as Scottrade, TD Ameritrade and Fidelity. In 2005, ShareBuilder began offering 401(k) plans to small businesses. On November 19, 2007, ShareBuilder Corporation was purchased by ING Direct, a subsidiary of ING Group for US $220 million. In June 2009, ShareBuilder moved its headquarters from Bellevue, Washington to 83 King Street, in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington. In February 2012, Capital One Financial Corporation completed its acquisition of ING Bank, fsb, and its subsidiaries, including ShareBuilder Corporation. ShareBuilder is no longer affiliated with ING Group

Company Awards

sharebuilder by capital oneShareBuilder has earned a bunch of awards and has been recognized as one of the top online brokers for beginning & long term investors. Among the awards:

  • Forbes Best-of-the-Web awards in January 2003 and January 2004
  • Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranked Sharebuilder #1 in “25 Ways to Invest $1,000.”

ShareBuilder Fees, Commissions And Minimums

Probably one of the most important things to consider when opening an online brokerage account is to consider what fees, commissions and minimums you’ll see when using an account.  Here is what you’ll find at ShareBuilder:

Stock Trades

Sharebuilder has competitive fees when it comes to stock trades.  They have  $6.95 stock trades. Compare to some others like OptionsHouse at $2.95 or TradeKing at $4.95 a trade, and they are a bit higher, but there is a caveat.

If you’re less of an active trader and more of a buy and hold investor, their automatic investments may be a good fit for you, and more affordable.  Automatic investments, done on Tuesdays,  will cost only $4.   If you sign up for their Advantage plan, you’ll get 12 per month for free included in the $12/month subscription, and it’s only $1 for each additional.  They offer a dollar cost averaging plan as well.

Options Trades

Sharebuilder has a fee for options trades of $6.95 per online trade,  + $1.25 per contract. 

Fees And Minimums For An Account

ShareBuilder doesn’t have account maintenance fees, monthly minimums or inactivity fees.  All prices are charged on a flat rate, and what you see is what you pay.

There is no  minimum account funding level, although if you want to get the $25 bonus mentioned above, you need to fund with at least $25.

Here’s a basic fee comparison with other discount brokerages:

Account MinimumMutual Fund CommissionStock CommissionAnnual IRA FeeReviews
OptionsHouse$1,000$9.95$3.95noneOptionsHouse Review
Motif Investing$1000$9.95 (per motif/bundle of stocks)
TD Ameritradenone$0$9.99noneTD AmeritradeReview
Zecconone$10$4.50$30
TradeKingnone$14.95$4.95none
Scottrade$2500$17$7.00noneScottrade Review
Vanguardnone$0$7.00$20
tradeMONSTERnone$15$7.50none
Fidelitynone$0$7.95none
Schwab$1,000?$8.95none
ShareBuilder by Capital Onenone$19.95$6.95noneShareBuilder by Capital One Review
EtradenoneUp to $19.99$9.99none
optionsXpressnone$14.95$14.95none

Other Investment Account Types

ShareBuilder offers a plethora of other investment account options for investors. Among them:

  • Individual Account
  • Joint Account
  • Traditional/Rollover IRA
  • Roth or Conversion IRA
  • ShareBuilder ESA (Education Savings Account)
  • Custodial Account

ShareBuilder Research & Tools

investing-tools-sharebuilde

In the past ShareBuilder may have been a bit short when it comes to the research and education departments.  Within the last few years, however,  ShareBuilder has really built up their library of educational tutorials and investment tools.

They now have a variety of tools including such things as an investment screener, a portfolio builder, fund/stock/ETF selectors, reports, simulators and calculators.

They also have a wide variety of investment information for beginning investors including tutorials and articles in their investor library.

Capital One 360 Savings Or Checking – Easy Linking

Another thing that I like about ShareBuilder is that you can easily link it to your Capital One 360 Savings or Capital One 360 Checking if you have them.  I personally already have an Capital One 360 Savings account and being able to easily link the accounts for automatic investments is nice.

Conclusion

When considering an online discount brokerage ShareBuilder is definitely one of the best options out there for long term investors who want to set up automatic investments and do long term dollar cost averaging. If you’re more of an active trader you may want to look elsewhere for a slightly lower cost option, although they're still pretty competitive.   But if you just want a plan that will allow you to automatically invest over the long term, ShareBuilder would be a good place to check out.

Have you used ShareBuilder, or considered using them? What has your experience with them been like? Are you happy with them?   Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

To open an account with Sharebuilder by Capital One click here

TD Ameritrade Review: Highly Rated Discount Brokerage

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In the past year I've reviewed quite a few online brokers on this site. Many of them were very highly reviewed by customers and industry press alike. One that stands out among the pack, however, even with all the other great brokerages out there is TD Ameritrade .

TD Ameritrade has received accolades from such publications as Barron's, Kiplingers and Smart Money.  Their slate of investing tools, research and commitment to customer education is second to none.  It's a great place to invest, especially for long term investors.


So today I thought I'd do an in depth TD Ameritrade review, examining the history of this company, talking about the multiple awards they've received, as well as ticking off some of the important details like fees, mobile options and more.  So here we go.

History Of TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade has a history that goes back to the 1960s when it's investment banking business roots started via a company called Rahel, Knack and Co. From Wikipedia:

The company started as an investment banking business named Rahel, Knack and Co. in the 1960s in Omaha, Nebraska. It was purchased in 1975 by J. Joseph Ricketts, Robert Perelman, and David G. Kellogg, renamed First Omaha Securities, and became one of the first firms to offer negotiated commissions.

Ricketts acquired the company completely from the other two founders in 1981. The company became AmeriTrade Clearing in 1983. In March 1997, Ameritrade became a publicly held company. In 2005 Ameritrade acquired TD Waterhouse and was renamed TD Ameritrade.

TD Ameritrade has grown significantly since those early days inthe 60's and now they have over six million customers in the U.S.  If you include international customers it's even higher.

TD Ameritrade is member of SIPC, which means your investments are protected by SIPC insurance up to $500,000 and $100,000 of it can be in cash. This means that you are protected against TD Ameritrade becoming insolvent, although this of course does not mean that you are protected against market losses.  Investor beware.

td ameritrade awardsAccolades And Awards

TD Ameritrade has consistently been ranked among the top brokerages in the industry.  Among the awards they've received in just the past few years:

  • Kiplinger named them #1 Best online broker for 2011 and called them “a great value proposition for long-term investors“.
  • Barron's ranked TD Ameritrade #1 Best site for novices in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
  • Barron's ranked TD Ameritrade #2 Best site for long term investing in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
  • Barron's ranked TD Ameritrade #3 Best site for options traders in their 2012 annual review of online stock and option brokers.
  • Smart Money recognized them as the #1 discount brokerage firm, tied with one other company in SmartMoney's 2011 review of online brokers
  • Stockbrokers.com ranked TD Ameritrade #1 overall broker in their 2012 broker review.

So if you're a long term investor like me you can see that they're a great value proposition for us, as well as being rated #1 in many reviews on online brokerages.  So you know they're going to be well worth a look.

TD Ameritrade Fees, Commissions And Minimums

One of the most important things when it comes to your retirement accounts are the fees, commissions and minimums on the account.  Depending on how much you're paying, it can cut into your gains pretty significantly.  TD Ameritrade has no account minimums, no maintenance fees and low costs when it comes to other things you'll need to do.

td ameritrade fees

Stock Trades

TD Ameritrade has a low cost $9.99 stock trade, which is in about average or slightly above average for the industry.  Considering all the tools and research you're getting, it's definitely a decent price.

Options Trades

For option trades, they also charge $9.99 per trade, plus 75 cents per contract.

Account Minimums and Fees

There are no monthly minimums, inactivity fees or account maintenance fees with TD Ameritrade

Broker assisted stock trades are $49.99. To see a full schedule of their fees, head on over to their site.

Want to open an account?  There is also no minimum account funding level to open a cash account.  The minimum is $2,000 to open an options or margin account.

Trading Tools

TD Ameritrade Tools

If you're looking for trading tools, TD Ameritrade has a bunch of great tools that you can access on their site. Their Trade Architect tool-set has custom charts, earnings and probability analysis, watch lists for your favorite stocks, as well as an integrated community to help you out when you've got a question.

TD Ameritrade's Thinkorswim Trading Platform was given the honor of being the number one trading platform by Barron’s, so you know that their tools will be helpful. Add to that the fact that they have award winning mobile trading apps.  Apps are available for Blackberry, iPhone, Ipad, Android, or Windows phone. Making trades while not at home has never been easier.

If you need research, TD Ameritrade has reports available from Jaywalk Consensus, Research Team, Market Edge, S&P Columns, and S&P Research.  You can also buy Premium reports from a variety of sources for an extra cost if you need more in depth analysis. Most people probably won't need that, but if you do, it's there.

Available Account Types

TD Ameritrade has a variety of investing and saving account types to choose from.   You'll have the standard IRA and Roth IRA accounts along with a variety of other savings and specialty accounts.

  • Standard Accounts: Individual, Joint Tenants, Tenant in Common, Community Property, Tenants by the Entireties, Guardianship or Conservatorship.
  • Retirement Accounts: Traditional and Roth IRAs, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA
  • Education Savings Accounts: 529, Coverdell ESA, UGMA/UTMA.
  • Specialty Investing Accounts: Trust, Limited Partnership, Partnership, Investment Club, LLC, Sole Proprietorship, Corporate, Non-Incorporated Organization, Pension or Profit Plan for Small Business.

Open An Account With Award Winning TD Ameritrade

A Great Investing Option

TD Ameritrade is one of the first options I would recommend when opening an online brokerage account. They are definitely one of the most awarded and most recommended options by industry press, receiving countless awards for long term investors over the past couple of years. Their fees are low or in line with industry average, and the commissions are more than reasonable. They also have a great slate of trading tools, investing research and mobile apps.

Definitely put them on your short list of places to open your next online brokerage account.

Have you got an account with TD Ameritrade? Tell us about your experience with them in the comments!

Open An Account With TD Ameritrade. Get Details Here.

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Betterment Reviews User Feedback And Lowers Fees, Adds International Funds And IRAs

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A while back I wrote about one of my favorite new investing sites in this comprehensive Betterment.com review. Betterment is an investing site that looks to make investing easier and more accessible for everyone.  Betterment says their site is:

“A personal investment account that's simpler, smarter, and better. Everything you need.  Nothing you don't.“

That's exactly what their site is – a simpler, smarter and better way to invest. I loved pretty much everything about the site when i reviewed it. The fact that you can set up automatic deposits and invest regularly in good low cost ETFs, all while having your portfolio asset allocations regularly balanced for you, without your intervention. You just choose your allocation between stocks and bonds and let their service do the rest. Easy investing anyone can understand.

Betterment Lowers fees

The one thing that I wasn't super happy about were the annual fees that they were charging. Today, however, Betterment announced that they would be lowering their fees across the board. While I was using the site before, with the new lower fees I can wholeheartedly recommend investing with Betterment for just about everyone – even more so than in the past.

Much Lower Fees For All Betterment Users

Ok, so what are the new lower fees, and what were the fees in the past?

In the past if you had anywhere from $0-25,000 invested with the service you would pay an annual management fee of 0.9%. $25,000-100,000 the cost would be 0.7%. $100,000-500,000 your fees go to 0.5%. With a balance of $500,000 or more, the fee was 0.3%. So the fees ranged anywhere from 0.3%-0.9%. Most of my readers are were most likely falling into the 0.9% annual fee bucket – and for me that wasn't a fee structure that made a ton of sense for most people.

Betterment was good about seeking out feedback from their users and from personal finance bloggers, and today they announced a couple of big pieces of news. The first and most important piece of news was that they were dropping their fees across the board.

betterment lower pricing

As you can see from the chart above their fees are dropping, and the amounts you need to invest to get the lower fees has dropped.

  • No minimum:  You need to deposit $100/month and you'll get a 0.35% annual fee.
  • No minimum, no deposit:  If you can't commit to $100/month, you'll be upgraded to the “Better” plan with next day deposits, and be charged $3/month.
  • $10,000 minimum:  You'll get a 0.25% annual fee and next day deposits.  No required monthly deposit.
  • $100,000 minimum: You'll get a 0.15% annual fee, next day deposits and if you want, a custom portfolio.  No required monthly deposit.

So the fees went from where most people were paying a 0.9% fee, to a situation where most people are going to be paying anywhere from 0.25%-0.35%.  That's quite a drastic drop in fees, and it will save people a lot of money!  I think it makes Betterment extremely attractive to newer and seasoned investors alike.

More International Exposure

Another change that happened a little while ago was that Betterment started including some international ETF funds in their investment mix.  If you look below you'll see what Betterment currently invests in, with the newer international ETFs in bold.

  • 25% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
  • 25% iShares S&P 500 Value Index ETF (IVE)
  • 25% Vanguard Europe Pacific (VEA)
  • 10% Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)
  • 8% iShares Russell Midcap Value Index ETF (IWS)
  • 7% iShares Russell 2000 Value Index ETF (IWN)

I know a lot of folks were clamoring for them to include more international stocks in the mix, so I think it's great that they've diversified the holdings in that way.

For Treasury bonds, you get

  • 50% iShares Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Fund (SHY)
  • 50% iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP).

New Roth And Traditional IRA Options For All Users

Finally, Betterment announced today that they're opening up tax advantaged IRA accounts for all users now on their site.   Previously this option was only available for current customers.

You can now open up a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA, and if you're leaving an old company, you can perform a 401k rollover and use Betterment as your IRA custodian.

Conclusion

I loved Betterment before and signed up to use them, despite that I wasn't 100% happy about their costs/fees.  Now that they've lowered their fees drastically and made them super competitive, I really don't have any major reservations about their service anymore.  I can wholeheartedly recommend Betterment now, and I would recommend them to friends, family and anyone else as a great place to invest.

Betterment also announced today that there is a free 30 day trial period when you sign up, so there really is no reason to not give it a shot.  Plus if you make a deposit in your account right off the bat you may be eligible for their $25 account bonus!   Check it out below via the link:

Get a 30 day free trial & $25 bonus with your Betterment account.

bettermen300x250

American Express Bank Personal Savings Review: High Yield Savings Accounts

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On this site we've reviewed quite a few online banks from Ally to ING Direct to Perkstreet. In general we've talked about how people view their customer service, what kind of rates they have, the histories of the companies and so forth.

One bank that I missed that has apparently had an online bank for quite a while now is also the company that I had one of my very first credit cards through, American Express.   I'm not sure how I missed this offering, but it recently came to my attention.  They're currently one of the higher (albeit low) rates right now, so I thought I'd do a quick review of American Express Personal Savings.

American Express Savings Review

History Of American Express Bank

American Express has been around for just over 150 years, so they're no Johnny come lately. From Wikipedia:

American Express Company (NYSE: AXP) or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card, and traveler's cheque businesses. Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US, the highest of any card issuer.

BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 22nd most valuable brand in the world, estimating the brand to be worth US$14.97 billion. Fortune listed Amex as one of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the World.

Amex hasn't always had a savings account and for much of their 150+ years they have had more of a focus on the credit card and charge card markets  (can you say “more profitable”?), but only after our recent financial downturn did they speed up customer acquisition for their deposit accounts.   Seems like a lot of companies would like to have that consumer cash on hand nowadays.

Amex Savings Are FDIC Insured

American Express is a FDIC insured bank so you don't ever have to worry about losing your money, as long as you don’t have more than $250,000 per depositor.  In other words, each spouse would be covered in separate accounts for up to $250,000.

American Express is a widely known and highly stable brand, however, so I don't think you have to worry about them going out of business anytime in the near future.  You're good to go.

American Express Savings Account Benefits

An American Express savings account has a lot of features and benefits, similar to a lot of other online banks. Among them:

  • 24/7 Account Access by phone or web.
  • No fees to open or maintain a High-Yield Savings account.
  • $1 to open an account.
  • Set up automatic transfers from a linked checking/savings account.
  • Rated 5-star Safe & Sound by Bankrate.com
  • FDIC-insured to $250,000 per depositor

Opening An Account With American Express

American Express has made opening a savings account quick and easy 4 step process, very streamlined and painless.

American Express Savings Review

  1. Gather your information: Bring together your Social Security number, address, email, date of birth and existing bank account information if funding your account electronically.
  2. Submit your application: Choose what type of account you want (Savings/CD) and apply online or by phone anytime at 1-800-446-6307.
  3. Receive confirmation: If your account is approved you'll receive an e-mail confirming that your application is approved. You will also receive a Personal Savings welcome kit in the mail.
  4. Fund your account: Then you just need to fund your account and start earning interest!

There you go.   As mentioned you should get an email confirming that your account is approved and that you're ready to go.  Look out for that welcome kit in the mail!

Conclusion

American Express is one of the most recognizable brands in the world.  Most people know about them because of their credit and charge cards (that's where I first came upon them), but they've also quickly become a good solid option when it comes to online savings accounts.

You're not going to find many banks nowadays with great rates – or anything really above 1% – but with that said American Express savings is currently near the top of the bank rates hill.

Add to that the fact that their FDIC insured, and are rated as a 5 star safe and sound bank by bankrate.com, and I think you've got a solid savings account option that I would recommend checking out. You can sign up for an account or get details through the links below.

Open Your American Express Personal Savings Account

American Express Account Signup



Ally Bank Now Offers Easy E-Check Deposit: Scan And Deposit Your Checks At Home

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A while back I wrote a review of Ally Bank and talked about how we had just opened an account with them as a place to keep our large emergency fund.  While we were getting out of debt we had only saved a $2000 emergency fund to cover small contingencies, but once we got out of debt we wanted to save upwards of 8-10 months of expenses.  You never know when you could lose a job or have a major health event to cause problems – and having that emergency fund will give you some good peace of mind to know that you'll be just fine – even if (and when) it does happen.

We've currently got close to $30,000 in our large emergency fund, and we signed up for an account with Ally about a year or so ago to stash that cash since at the time they had one of the best bank rates around.  While their rate is slightly lower than some competitors nowadays at slightly under 1% interest, we're staying with Ally for now because for the most part they've either been in line with the best rates or just slightly below.  In any event you're not going to get great interest really anywhere these days unless you're willing to do something more long term like a CD or riskier like peer-to-peer lending.

While their rates are slightly lower than average, we've stayed with Ally because we've had really good luck with their customer service – either on the phone or on their online chat.  Whenever we've called in they've picked up almost right away ( no long holds), and they've always been able to give us an answer to our questions.   They also have a great website – with a simple but effective interface that makes it easy to find what you're looking for.  This month Ally also announced another feature that makes their bank even more attractive.  Echeck deposits!

New Echeck Deposit – Scan And Deposit Your Checks

This past month Ally announced that they were going to be rolling out to all customers the ability to take physical checks that they've received and deposit them online, without having to actually mail the check in to Ally – or go to a connected bricks and mortar bank to deposit the check and then transfer.

While this may seem like a simple thing, for a blogger like me that gets a lot of checks every month from a lot of different vendors, this is going to be a major time saver.  In most months I would end up making 3-4 or more trips to the bank to deposit checks of varying size.   It was a major time waster.

Now instead of driving to the bank every week or so all I have to do is fire up the computer, login to my account at Ally Bank, and go through their check scanning process.

Scanning Your Check In At Ally Bank

ally bank echeck deposit

So how does the process work to scan your checks in for deposit? It's extremely simple, although at times there have been hiccups.

  1. Login to your account at Ally Bank.
  2. Click on the “make a deposit” link in the left sidebar as shown in the screen capture above. (  The site states that it takes 10 minutes or less to scan and submit a check.   Deposits submitted before 4pm ET post the next business day)
  3. On the deposits page you can click on “get started” button to deposit a check by scanning it in.
  4. The site will popup a screen with a wizard that will walk you through the scanning process.  First they'll confirm that you signed the check correctly with your signature, “For Ally eCheck Deposit only” and your account number.
  5. Next they'll ask some questions about your scanner.
  6. Enter check amount and details, and then scan the front and back of your checks.  It will ask you to confirm all information including account numbers are visible on the check.
  7. You're done!  You'll get a confirmation screen like the one shown below.

ally echeck deposit

I've now deposited probably 8-9 checks via the Ally e-check deposit wizard.  The first time I went through it I had some issues with the wizard not auto-cropping the checks quite right and the account numbers got cut off.  That was easily fixed by re-cropping the already scanned check image.

Ally advertises that it only takes 10 minutes to deposit a check.  The first time I did it I had issues and it was more like 15 minutes, but since then it remembers my settings and it takes more like 5 minutes each time.  Much easier than a 30-60 minute trip to the bank.

More Features On The Horizon: Mobile Banking

Ally also announced this month that they'll be releasing mobile banking in 2012.   While most folks would like to see that sooner rather than later, it sounds like they're taking the time to do it right and not release a half baked banking app that doesn't function correctly.  It sounds like they're also hoping to release a mobile check deposit functionality at some point where you take a picture of your check and deposit it that way, but that will come after the mobile app is released.

Since I don't currently have a smartphone I can wait on those things, but I know some others would like to see these features as soon as possible.

Conclusion

I've been with Ally Bank now for just over a year for our high yield savings account. We're using the account as a place to keep our large 10 month emergency fund safe in case of a job loss or other large emergency.   So far we've been pleased with Ally and their customer service, and their site is easy to use and navigate.   The new echeck deposits just make it that much more convenient and easy to bank with Ally.  I'd highly recommend them.

Have you used Ally's new eCheck deposits tool? What do you think? Does your bank have a similar functionality and does it save you time?

Open your Ally Bank account with easy eCheck deposits!