Online savings accounts are increasingly becoming a commoditized market with the sheer number of banks entering into the arena. It seems that customers have no brand loyalty and will go to whichever bank offers the best interest rates, features and customer service. M&T Bank decided to that they too would like to compete for your savings dollar and recently opened its own online savings account which currently is offering an interest rate of 3.25% APY.

This bank offers an excellent interest rate given the current market. Some of the big names such as ING Direct and Emigrant Direct are offering 3.00% APY. The 3.25% APY from M&T Bank is one of the best that you’re going to find right now.

The major down-side of this account is that there is no system to do ACH transfers from your online savings account with them. If you have another bank that allows you to do ACH transfers, you can deposit money and withdraw money from your external account, but there’s no system that allows you to do it from your M&T Bank online savings account. You can also deposit by mailing in checks or making deposits at one of their branches.

The account features no minimum balance and no monthly service fee. You’re allowed to make a maximum of 4 withdrawals per month according to federal regulations from your M&T Bank e-Money Market Account, any additional withdrawals and you’ll be slapped with a $1.00 fee for each transfer.

M&T Bank is a larger bank and has branches in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, so chances are it’s going to be around for a while. The bank is also FDIC insured so your money is safe in the event that the bank were to fail.

Overall M&T Bank is providing a pretty good account, the only major down-side is that you’ll need an existing checking or savings account somewhere else that will allow you to perform electronic transfers, if that’s not an issue for you, it’s a great place to keep your money.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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