AmTrustDirect itself isn’t a bank, but is rather an online division of Ohio Savings Bank, much in the matter that Grand Yield Direct is a division of The Apple Bank. Ohio Savings Bank was founded in 1889 and has nearly $16 billion in assets. Its one of the 20 largest mortgage lenders in the Untied States and offers a wide variety of financial services. The bank has about twenty branches in Ohio and is given a very strong rating of four out of five stars by BankRate.com.

AmTrust Direct’s savings product, their E Money Market Savings, offers one of the best rates in the industry, coming in at 4.00% APY. If you’re chasing the best interest rate on for your savings, this is the place to go.

There’s a minimum opening amount of $1,000. There are no monthly maintenance fees or balance requirements. There is however, an inactivity fee after 12 months, which is a $20/year charge. This shouldn’t be a problem assuming you put money in your savings account ever so often.

Transferring money to and from your AmTrust Direct e Money Market Savings is also a very easy process. You can link your saving account with them to six different checking or savings accounts. You can also do the sign-up process for external transfers online, so you won’t have to fax or mail in any forms to be able to move money back and forth. There are no fees for ACH / electronic transfers, but there is a limit of $100,000 per day and $2,500,000 per month in ACH transfers.

Money in your Money Market Savings can be used to fund an AmTrust Direct Certificate of Deposit. You can also move money from a closed CD back to your AmTrust Direct Money Market Savings.

There are a couple of down sides that account openers should be aware of. There’s no ATM card available and check-writing privileges are unavailable. If you might need to get at your money fast, you might want to use an online-savings account which offers check-writing privileges. There’s also a $1000 initial deposit required, which is a bit steep, and there’s no sign up bonus for a new account.

Another downside is that some users have reported that the bank may do a hard-credit pull. This means that when you sign up for an account, your credit score might decrease slightly for about six months. If you’re going to buy a new house or make another very major loan, you might want to wait until you make it before signing up for this account.

Overall AmTrust Direct is offering a very solid product with their high-yield savings account. They offer one of the best interest rates on the market, and have very good customer service. If you can handle the minor down-sides, AmTrust Direct would be a great place to open an online-savings account.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 8:06 am 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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