ShoreBank Direct - High Yield Savings

Average Score:

•   Very good

  I have been apart of ShoreBank Direct - High Yield Savings for a few months now. it is my first bank, so i may be a little inexperienced, but im sure i made the right choice choosing this bank. i was unsure about it at first but i loved that i could do everything online (although it sometimes takes a long time to get things done). It seems like a decent and reliable bank. i can always count on them. The best thing about this bank would have to be the people. I absolutely love the people who work here. always so courteous and friendly.i also love that they don't change their rates to often (always a good thing). I Do not like however the times that they open and close.it is sometime very in-convention for me. dealing with my account can sometimes get difficult and confusing (like with any bank) . On the positive side, Once when i came inside to cash a check the person behind the counter was extremely helpful, friendly and kind. we are actually now very good friends. This bank is a good place to have a savings account. i would highly recommend it as place to start your first account, it has been wonderful to me.

  Posted by ilahfire -- Oct. 24, 2009

•   Savings Account

  I have had this account for just under a year now. I originally chose it because of the social investing the bank does. It also has one of the highest rates and lowest minimum balance requirements.

  I liked the bank account because of the high rates and ease of opening. I rarely use the account however due to the clunky interface. There are too many frames and there are few graphics. Very outdated and not very user friendly.

  Best thing is the high interest rate; worst is the clunky interface.

  I keep my long term savings in this account. I get the high rate and rarely use the actual website. Best of both worlds.

  I would recomend this bank if the user was not planning on being active with the account. Great place to hold money!

  Posted by selenay17 -- July 13, 2009

•   A little clunky, but overall good

  I just recently became a shorebank direct customer and in general like the bank.

  Positives:

  * Entire process was online - never had to mail anything
  * They seem not to change their rate too often, and actually emailed me to tell me when they were dropping their rate! The only bank I know that does this.

  Negatives:
  * The website is a little clunky. I had to verify trial deposits with the same checking account TWICE - once to originally fund the account, and another time to link the accounts for future transactions. Waste of time.
  * Online statements are a little weird. Every month they send me a pdf statement via email that has a password on it. Different than most banks that just send you a link and you download the statement.
  * Online ACH transfer seem to take forever - was about a week to clear my most recent transaction, but they did send me emails to keep me updated on the transfer progress which was nice.

  One extra benefit is that they have a socially conscious lending mission - nice to know you can get a good rate and still help the world.

  Posted by jay_squared -- June 3, 2009

•   Double Bottom Line That Works?

  Shorebank pitches itself as a double-bottom line bank. Now I think the concept and intention of double-bottom line enterprise is great, however I've always been skeptical of the implementation. I just think that at the end of the day, it's really difficult to manage towards 2 objectives of 1) Investing almost exclusively in socially and environmentally beneficial projects, and 2) Delivering the highest possible rates for your customers. However, taking a look at their website, reading through their history, and just looking at their rates, it appears that ShoreBank has somehow managed to walk this line successfully for the recent past - and for me, that gives them a step, however small, over the immediate competition.

  From a pure online banking perspective, ShoreBank has put together a great product. Their High Yield Savings account can be applied for entirely online (with nothing to mail in) with only a soft credit check required. Money is transferred into and out of the account exclusively through ACH - no mailed deposits, no wire transfers, no ATM or debit cards. Their system has a respectable $100k/day transfer limit (on both deposits and withdrawals), and they also permit external banks to initiate ACH transfers as well. Joint accounts are allowed, but unfortunately no beneficiaries - and no word from their CSR on any plans to add them.

  I know that ShoreBank is never going to provide the highest rates, but they've seemed to be able to provide competitive rates while doing good. That's great to see, and I hope they can keep it up.

  Posted by garcia -- March 23, 2009