Venture Bank Direct begins their website with some really cool animation of an owl (wise old owl) and their online savings account beginning at 3.75 APR as of August 25, 2008.

There are several pluses to begin an account with Venture Bank Direct. One is, as mentioned above, their 3.75% interest rate for opening an account and you can begin for as little as $1. You have to enjoy that.

Now let’s take a look at Venture Bank Direct. According to their website, it was originally founded in 1979 by a few local business owners. They have steadily grown and it appears worked together to look at the future of banking. However, it was hard to find any complaints or problems currently since they are so very new.

They are based in Washington State and currently have about $1.2 billion in assets. Like most online banks, it is FDIC secured up to $100,000 per depositor.

Now, how do you open a savings account at Venture Bank Direct? You just apply online with their application and fund the account with your linked bank account from your funding bank. The usual applies – 18 years old, valid social, legal US address, valid driver’s license, state ID or military ID, and a personal bank account in a U.S. bank. Once you finish that up, you will receive an email with you application number and then another email when your account is open and ready to go. Your account number is only available online via instructions from the email that is sent to you.

Deposits and withdrawals are done through your online banking accounts and are linked via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) and it takes about two to four business days. Verification to linked account is done by Venture Bank depositing two small deposits in your account and then you log into your Venture Bank account to tell them what the deposit amounts were in your linked account.

New deposits are available after verification of those deposits and future deposits can be withdrawn after five business days.The interest is compounded monthly and paid monthly on daily collected balances.

You can get a joint account and add a beneficiary to your account as well. Accounts can be checked on line.

The only down part of venture Bank Direct Online Savings is the inability to access via an ATM. However, they will be getting an online checking account soon so this may change.

After looking over Venture Bank it seems like it would be a good savings account to begin online. It has a good opening rate, no minimum balance, and the ability to export to MS Money, Quicken, QuickBooks, and other accounting software. Impressive little down home bank!

EmigrantDirect has a long history of serving clients. This is the online branch of Emigrant Bank ,which began back in 1850 when it first opened as a mutual savings bank by Irish emigrants. In 1920, it was the largest savings bank in the nation. Though they tout high interest rates, it is currently only 3.0% significantly below both ING Direct and HSBC Direct, as of September 2008.

Under the fun names category, EmigrantDirect has an American Dream Savings Account. It has the pretty standard requirements of eighteen years of age, valid tax identification number, legal U.S. address, and a personal checking account in a U.S. bank.

I have not actually applied for an account with Emigrant Direct but after researching it on line, I found only a few complaints and it was dealing with customer service. Several had a language barrier problem and others did not feel their needs were addressed. However, many people had their accounts there for a number of years and enjoyed it.

To open an account, you will need to submit an online application and you should receive a confirmation page with instructions on how to proceed. If they need more information, they will contact you within two or three business days. Your account can be funded by a check, for your first deposit only. After your first deposit, you will need to link to your U.S. checking account via an external transfer function with your secure account information. It will link to your checking account and EmigrantDirect via the Automated Clearing House and takes about two to four business days to process.

Accessing your account is relatively easy and you can transfer your funds directly back to your bank and it will take about the same amount of time, two to four business days.

They do have a relatively long hold on the time you deposit money to when you can withdraw it. It is a five day hold and initial deposits will take ten business days.

On the plus side, interest is calculated daily and credited monthly. Direct deposits can be linked as well to go from your linked funding company to your American Dream account.

Overall, I think there are better accounts out there currently. Unlike other online savings accounts, you cannot access by ATM – only by checking account – and you can only link up to two accounts to your American Dream account. Understandably, this is to be a savings account and not an extended checking account, however, if there is a significant emergency two to four business days seems like a long time to wait for your money.

At first view, the HSBC Direct Online Savings site is both attractive and functional.  As you begin to look at what HSBC has to offer it becomes even more attractive on a savings front. 

HSBC offers one of the best rates for interest in any of the current online savings through September 15, 2008 of 3.5% as compared to ING at 3.0% and then it become variable. 

When opening account it allows three choices – savings, payment, or CD account.  The site is very open regarding personal information and the fact they will need many forms of identification to ensure a customer’s privacy and security.  They also inform first time customers this will apply to businesses as well as individuals.

When you open an account, it currently lists six steps needed in order to open an account.  Reading other reviews from people who have accounts say this is the longest application process out of all of the online banking systems taking approximately two weeks to take care of all the paperwork.  The application must be completed within thirty days or the process begins again.

On the plus side there is no minimum balance or monthly maintenance fees and interest is accrued monthly.  It also only takes one dollar to open the account.  However, a customer cannot close an account within six months or a fee will be incurred.  However, charges for NSF fees, chargebacks, and stop payments are significantly less than my current brick-and-mortar bank.

Once a customer has signed up at HSBC Direct, the account which is funding HSBC will receive two trial deposits under one dollar.  These will need to be confirmed on the HSBC Direct Account.   Please be careful when doing this.  A customer will only have three chances to correctly enter the deposit amounts and then if not done correctly, your HSBC Direct account will need to be funded by a snail mail check. 

With an HSBC account, a customer can set up a recurring transfer from the account funded from and the amount you want to transfer and how often – from every week to quarterly.  There is no fee to set this up. 

Help is easy to come by either via the Internet or by phone, both in the U.S. and outside the U.S.

Security issues are always suspect when someone is dealing with their money online.  However, HSBC does a good job of using Firewalls to block virus and worms from their sites and has SSL encryption to keep you safe.  Because they use 128-bit encryption, access to a browser which can do that is necessary or upgrade so this is possible. 

HSBC has a new Security Key which is required for their Personal Internet Banking Bill Pay Service.  This helps to keep the password from being hacked by keylogging software.  This type of software used by hackers actually monitors keystrokes to get password information. 

However, if it takes too many log-in attempts to log on, HSBC will immediate disable online access and the only way to re-establish it is to contact them.  They will then send a password via snail mail.  However, with an ATM card associated with this account, the password can be changed electronically.

This may seem excessive to some people but to me, I want more security to keep the money I make from winding up in someone else’s hands. 

Withdrawing money is simple.  It can be done via ATM (if the customer has opted for a card), transferred to any linked account, or by snail mail check.

An added plus to the ATM card is though there are no charges to use the ATM card through a HSBC ATM, there will be fees if money comes from a non-HSBC ATM.  However, HSBC will fully reimburse the customer for up to three U.S. non-HSBC ATM charges per month which will post on the first business day of the following calendar month.

All-in-all, HSBC has many good things to offer a customer who is looking for online savings – good rates, easy transfer capabilities to linked-in accounts, and security.  Good reasons to bank with anyone I believe.