EmigrantDirect's 5.15% Savings Rate

EmigrantDirect.com is increasing the rate for its savings account to 5.15% APY effective July 28th. This would be the highest rate of the nation, unless some other competitors like HSBC bank (5.05% currently) or Citibank (5.00% currently) announces a rate hike before that.

EmigrantDirect is also offering good rate on CDs to its customers only -- currently the rate is fixed at 5.35% with maturity from 6 months to 10 years -- whatever one prefers. Although the bank has not announced yet, we can guess this rate is also likely to go up on or soon after July 28th.

We prefer EmigrantDirect or IngDirect (currently 4.35% APY) more than others because they transfer money either way within next business day (they say 2-3 business days but they are always prompt). Other banks have hold period of 2-3 days when your money just sits and earns nothing -- a disadvantage if you have large amount of cash.