My Brand New Savings Account at Virtual Bank

Cruising around the personal finance blog-o-sphere, you see many bloggers with referals to online bank savings accounts. Usually, you will receive a bonus in your newly opened account and the blogger will receive something for referring you to the online bank.

I have been looking at those offers and thinking about them. The idea of an online bank sounds fascinating because of the great rates they offer compared to traditional banks. I also like the convenience of merely going online to make a transfer to a savings account.

Now, saving up an emergency fund before I paid off debt was something I didn’t want to do. It didn’t make sense to me to only make 2% or less on my money in a savings account and paying much more in interest to finance charges. But, those online banks with their higher rates (around 4-5%) combined with a bonus when you sign up tempted me.

There are a few banks out there offering these specials. I believe ING has a program where you can start an account for $250 and then receive $25 as a bonus. Taking $250 out of the debt payoff plan was a lot of money, and I wasn’t ready to go that far just yet.

Then I found Virtual Bank. For their offer, you only needed to deposit $100 into their account and you would receive $20. I thought it over for a few months, and then decided to go ahead and do it last month. I contacted a fellow blogger who already has an account for a referral (they receive $20 as well) and signed up.

I was very pleased with the application process at Virtual Bank. It was pretty painless overall to sign up. Once you sign up, they deposit two small deposits into the account you will be transferring money from and then you log back in to verify the deposits.

I hit a snag there…I didn’t remember the password, and I didn’t write it down! Almost all of our accounts have different passwords and so far I have been good about remembering them all – except for this one. I felt silly calling customer service, but I did.

OMG – a real person answered the phone! When I call my local bank I get a recording and have to go through the hoops of pressing numbers to speak to someone. That wasn’t the case here. A real person answered and asked how he could help. I told him I forgot my password and he transferred me right away.

I expected to hear some hold music, but instead I was greeted by the customer service rep immediately. I told her my problem, and she verified my identity and gave me a new password to use. It just took a few minutes of my time for the entire call and I was taken care of.

I was pretty impressed. A few days later, I received a letter in the mail welcoming me to Virtual Bank and it was hand-signed by my personal banker representative. No stamp or pre-done signature. Again, I was impressed.

Virtual Bank probably isn’t that big yet, and once they grow bigger some of the personalized touches may disappear. I hope they don’t, because for some reason I like the personalized touch. Probably because they are purely an online bank with no physical branches.

The only complaint with Virtual Bank that I have is that the online maneuverability once you are logged in isn’t as user-friendly as I would like. I have used the online features of many different banks and I had to hunt around the Virtual Bank site to find things I was looking for. I ended up just clicking on everything that was clickable just to get a feel where everything was.

I’m not ready yet to contribute to the account on a regular basis. I am more comfortable with paying off the debt right now. But, I admit, it’s nice knowing that I do have a little over $100 if I need it for something. And, the account will still be there when the debt is gone and it’s time to start saving

UPDATE: I have $20 Virtual Bank Savings bonus referral links if you are interested.

Posted by Tricia on November 18, 2006 at 9:56 PM in Saving Money | 9 Comments »
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debtinseattle responded:
Posted: November 18th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
Good for you for taking the step in starting that account. I had reservations when I started my ING account 5 years ago but now I don’t know why! It truly is the best thing – I set aside $25 every pay period & I don’t even think about it. I never check the balance either because I just keep it out of sight out of mind. The only time I access this account is during Christmas time because it has become my Christmas fund.

Keep up the good work!
Trent responded:
Posted: November 19th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
debtinseattle is spot-on – try an auto deduction straight into that account. Even $5 or $10 a week builds up a lot over a year ($260 or $520). When you get to $250, then bounce it over to ING to get their $25 bonus (if you want an ING referral so you can get that bonus, just ask!).
Save Sheila responded:
Posted: November 19th, 2006 at 8:28 pm
Good for you! I started one with ING back a while ago when I thought I had money–they gave me the $25 bonus. I am trying very, very hard not to touch it while I’m paying off my debt. I know it’s there in case I can’t find a way to make it, but with my blogging friends’ support, I can make it! I don’t do regular deposits; I transfer $5 maybe once a month, but at least it’s something!
Everybody Loves Your Money » Blog Archive » Carnival Of Personal Finance #75 responded:
Posted: November 19th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
[...] Tricia @ Blogging Away Debt reviews her entrance in to the world of online savings banks [...]
Brandon J. responded:
Posted: November 22nd, 2006 at 4:15 am
When I first looked at http://www.bankrate.com in 2003, Virtual Bank had the highest interest rate. There were several fees that were included. Have you encoutered any fees since you’ve started? They probably changed their fee structure since then though.
Tricia responded:
Posted: November 22nd, 2006 at 7:07 am
So far, there have been no fees. Probably with the competition with other online banks they have nixed them. If there was fees, I wouldn’t have probably signed up with them because I really dislike bank fees.
Virtual Bank Vs. ING Orange Online Savings Accounts : Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: May 15th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
[...] while most of my debt has an interest rate above 5%. The biggest thing that helped to push me to finally establish a rainy day fund was the availability of online savings accounts. With the ones I have, I am making 4.5% in [...]
The Evolution of Our Emergency Fund » Blogging Away Debt responded:
Posted: October 22nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
[...] months later, I was lured into into the online savings account arena and I deposited $100 into Virtual Bank and received a $20 bonus. I was going to stop there with our emergency [...]
geetha responded:
Posted: August 18th, 2008 at 1:17 am
I do like virtual bank for their easy transfer..,