ShoreBank Direct is the online banking piece of ShoreBank, a commercial bank formed about thirty-five years ago by four friends. It has over $2.2 billion in assets and is the first environmental bank in the United States. It has a pretty serious mission statement on community development and conservation lending. Conservation loans finance preserving natural resources while their community development loans help in communities that are below the Chicago median levels. They now have two banks held by the ShoreBank Corporation – one which is in the communities of Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit and the other – ShoreBank Pacific – in the Washington and Oregon areas.

ShoreBank Direct has online access, $1 to open, direct deposit, and 3.5% APY. To open an account with ShoreBank you need to be 18 years or older, have a U.S. bank account, social security number, driver’s license or state ID, and information on loans and other ways to further identify you.

Now, this is only available to individuals so businesses cannot apply. They also list that ShoreBank Direct is able to keep their rates high due to the “online” piece which allows banking to be handled 24/7. Once you are approved, you will get an email telling you about the trial deposits that have been placed in your funding account. You need to check with your funding bank and verify those amounts to ShoreBank Direct online, like with most online banks. Your first transaction needs to be with your U.S chartered bank and the funding transaction could take three to five business days.

Statements on the online account follow the ecological footsteps of its mission statement and are available online and you will receive notice about it via email. You can always ask for a paper copy or just print it from your screen.

Now for some of the stipulations on having a ShoreBank Direct online account and getting good rates. You need to save! Which means more than six transactions a month and you will be charged a fee for each excess transaction. You do this too many times and ShoreBank will close your account. They are serious about this and the charge is hefty – $15 per each excess transaction. Most of you who read my blog know I believe savings accounts are for growing money – especially in a wobbling economy. Save it, don’t raze it! Anyways, this bank will charge you for this. You have been warned.

Another downside to the bank is if you do need to take money out for an emergency, there is no ATM card. You need to transfer from ShoreBank Direct to your funding bank and that could take some time, a few days.

All in all, I like this bank. They are no-nonsense, give you good rates, make it not too easy to blow through your savings, and are very environmentally as well as community oriented. I am all for saving!

Tags: account, community awareness, environmental concerns, online savings, ShoreBank Direct

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 4:50 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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