Capital One 360

[anothermacuser]

Currently have PNC for checking and savings accounts and have had for three years and have been reasonably happy with them. But recently my savings account interest dropped to 0.01% because I'm using an American Express Blue Cash (since April) for daily purchases and recently got a Capital One Quicksilver for the places that don't take Amex. Both of these cards give me cash back and pull from the above-mentioned checking account.

I'm 21, single and have never carried any balance on any card and have no student loans. I have the two banking accounts mentioned above as well as the Amex and the Capital One Quicksilver. I have about $2,000 a month coming in on direct deposit from four different employers.

I know that the pitiful interest rate from PNC is just kind of a sign that retail banking is soon becoming a thing of the past. Also, I know that PNC will only become worse for me as I lose my status as a student two years from now and am no longer eligible for student checking/savings deals.

Anyone have any experiences with Capital One 360 for checking and savings? Is Ally unilaterally better or situationally better or not better at all? Capital One 360's savings account interest rate of 0.75% seems to beat the hell out of the 0.01% PNC is giving me.

No referal codes yet and I'm still in the research phase of this transition.

 

[postmortemIA]

even 1% is far below the inflation.

Savings account is almost thing of past. All you need is certain amount of cash to get you through some major life event, and invest rest of overflown money in 401k or somewhere else.

Lots of resources on the web for personal finance, you can research many forums with focus on that.

 

[Fenixgoon]

capitalone360 is useful if you want to get *something* while still having your cash handy.

if you want a referral, i can send one over to you. we both get like $20 or something if you start an account.

 

[anothermacuser]

Fenix, have you used their investment interface?

Their website makes it look nice'n'integrated.

Yeah, it's below inflation but it's 75x higher than PNC's rates, and it'll be even better than that when PNC starts charging me monthly fees. I figured I was planning on only putting 10k in the savings and splitting whatever else sat on top of that between the Capital One investments thing and my 403b.

 

[dabuddha]

ING Direct became Capital One 360. I've been using them for over a decade now. It gets the job done.

 

[minendo]

I've been a member of Ing Direct/CapitalOne 360 since the '90s and it has continued to decline. I keep the account active to link to my paypal account. Other than that I use a local credit union because they have much better offers.

 

[glenn1]

ING Direct became Capital One 360. I've been using them for over a decade now. It gets the job done.

Yep, Capital One surprisingly wasn't able to fvck up ING Direct when they bought them and have left everything the way it was. Their investment interface is good - the acquisition of Sharebuilder a while back also was a huge win for customers also. If it's your primary investment account it's not quite as nice as Schwab or whatnot, but it's still more than sufficient for almost any investor. And with the Sharebuilder integration to the 360 site it's about the best platform out there if you need to save money for your kids.

FYI, the site still offers pretty good signup deals periodically so if OP isn't in a super hurry it might be worth it to wait for one; for example over Independence Day they offered a $176 bonus for opening both checking and savings account.

No experience with Ally Bank but wouldn't touch anything related to General Motors with a 10 mile pole - Ally is just the old GM Financing arm with a rebranding.

 

[cbrsurfr]

I switched from ING (Now Capitol One 360) to Ally. Ally pays more (not much but anything is better). I leave a good amount of emergency funds parked so that little bit more is nice. Ally also has better CD rates if that's your thing.

 

[PricklyPete]

I use 360 for my primary/emergency savings. Works well and really has not changed since the ING days. I've been using them for well over a decade.

 

[TheSlamma]

I had an ING Direct mortgage on my last house and paid that off, from start to finish it was awesome.

Now with it being CapOne360 my wife and I sold that house and bought a new house last December, both have 800+ FICO's, put down almost 80%, been in our jobs for over a decade, had a closing date set for over 60 days and they STILL pushed us all the way to the closing date to get everything done.

Every time we turned things in they had something they wanted changed or they would add things out of the blue that were not listed before, they wanted us to have things like checks that have the processing info on them, but hello we moved into the age of cashing checks with our apps (they have one themselves even) so of course there was no transaction info on them that is why we supplied the monthly bank statements with the transaction info on them too. Getting them to accept info from accounts we have with them for over 10 years was like pulling teeth. When they would reject stuff like this they would sometimes update the notes on the website and sometimes not, never got any calls either, they would just reject the document and leave us hanging.

If I go into my account right now it not only lists our mortgage but it STILL lists our application for the mortgage as processing. Just tells me it's not a clean system, I told them about this but they don't do anything about it, but I also changed my address on file to the house they just financed for us 3 or 4 times and they never took it, just kept sending mail to the old house we sold back in August 2013, then one day we got a letter from them saying the postal records show we have a new address so they changed it to reflect that.. umm okay thanks we told you 4 times before ourselves.

MISERABLE experience and I have to say I miss ING so bad. Once we pay this house off we're gone from 360 and on to Ally that same day.

 

[Capt Caveman]

ING Direct became Capital One 360. I've been using them for over a decade now. It gets the job done.

Yeah, I have an account originally from ING Direct. I don't use it though as I found a bank that pays a little higher interest rates(1% Savingins, .25% Checking).

http://www.salemfivedirect.com/

 

[anothermacuser]

...their investment interface is good - the acquisition of Sharebuilder a while back also was a huge win for customers also. If it's your primary investment account it's not quite as nice as Schwab or whatnot, but it's still more than sufficient for almost any investor. And with the Sharebuilder integration to the 360 site it's about the best platform out there if you need to save money for your kids.

FYI, the site still offers pretty good signup deals periodically so if OP isn't in a super hurry it might be worth it to wait for one; for example over Independence Day they offered a $176 bonus for opening both checking and savings account.

No experience with Ally Bank but wouldn't touch anything related to General Motors with a 10 mile pole - Ally is just the old GM Financing arm with a rebranding.

Yeah, I was also interested in their sharebuilder interface to get my feet wet in investing.

I just saw that Independence Day sale. I'll let a billing cycle go around to make sure I'm satisfied with Cap1's Quicksilver card before I toss my checking and savings over to them. Also, I'm going to be in and out of the country a few times unto February, and I know how PNC works overseas (they refund me their ATM fees and French banks don't charge me fees in the first place), so if a $176 bonus comes up again in the mean time or shortly after I get back, I'll jump on that.

That's how I feel about Ally as well. If they're in such bad shakes that they have to be half-owned by Uncle Sam, I probably shouldn't give them my money.

There is still this juvenile part of me that's afraid of moving all the way to online banking. Even though I know in reality that anything I go into a PNC for I could do over the phone or online. And that PNC is actually more likely to 'lose' things.

 

[smackababy]

Do you know why they call it Capital One 360? Because, when you see it, you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

 

[Exterous]

Do you know why they call it Capital One 360? Because, when you see it, you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

so you spin in a circle and then walk towards it?

 

[anothermacuser]

Yeah, I have an account originally from ING Direct. I don't use it though as I found a bank that pays a little higher interest rates(1% Savingins, .25% Checking).

http://www.salemfivedirect.com/

As much as I love all things Massachusetts, and I have an awareness of the fact that 1.00 is a larger number than 0.75, and that minute difference adds up over a couple thousand dollars, I'm more interested in something that's integrated with my Quicksilver card (only had it for four days but so far so good), as well as the ShareBuilder account that I should (after research) dump a couple thousand of my savings into.


PEOPLE WHO'VE USED SHAREBUILDER:

Free to move money from my savings to my sharebuilder account?

And then there's a $6.99 charge for every stock I buy and sell? And then I get 1099'd at the end of the year for whatever profit I made at year's end? And there's no such 1099 if I only buy and don't sell (as would be the case for the first couple of years)?

 

[glenn1]

PEOPLE WHO'VE USED SHAREBUILDER:

Free to move money from my savings to my sharebuilder account?

And then there's a $6.99 charge for every stock I buy and sell? And then I get 1099'd at the end of the year for whatever profit I made at year's end? And there's no such 1099 if I only buy and don't sell (as would be the case for the first couple of years)?

Yes, pretty sure no charges to fund your Sharebuilder accoutn unless you're doing it via wire transfer or something. Transfers from a 360 savings account would credit immediately to the sharebuilder account, they even provide a handy button post-transfer saying "make a trade now?" or something like that.

$6.99 sounds about right for a live market or limit order. They also have a service where the trade is a bit cheaper but it's not live (they batch run batch all the trades received this way at noon or something).

If it's a taxable account you'll get various flavors of 1099 depending on what happens in your account (dividends, interest paid, trade proceeds, etc.). You'll likely get a 1099 for divs and interest even if you don't sell any stock that year. If it's an IRA account you'll only get a 5498 form for you contribution unless you make a withdrawal, at which time you'll get a (you guessed it) 1099 form.

The site actually has a "knowledge center" which can answer these types of questions for you better than we can. Yahoo Finance and similar sites are your friends also.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Fenix, have you used their investment interface?

Their website makes it look nice'n'integrated.

Yeah, it's below inflation but it's 75x higher than PNC's rates, and it'll be even better than that when PNC starts charging me monthly fees. I figured I was planning on only putting 10k in the savings and splitting whatever else sat on top of that between the Capital One investments thing and my 403b.

nope, haven't done anything with their investment services - i just have a 360 savings account and that's it.

 

[anothermacuser]

Do you know why they call it Capital One 360? Because, when you see it, you turn 360 degrees and walk away.

Anecdotal horror stories aren't going to scare me away. There's a small part of me that feels like online checking is one of those things that could disappear at any moment, but the reality is that so could anything I have in any retail bank.

PNC once misplaced my federal tax refund check and only acknowledged it when I had a receipt, and even then only said "oh, sorry.". Ever since then, I've only done mobile deposit with them. So that's just another example of why I don't need to be paying for retail bankers.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

I have had Capital One 360 nee Ing Direct for many years and been a satisfied customer. These are the drawbacks to me:
*Limited amount of withdrawals allowed per month from the savings account
*Checking ATM withdrawals are only free if you use their in network machines
*You can have multiple savings accounts, but only one checking.

Because my checking is joint with my wife, i opened a separate checking at Ally. Previously I had been with Wells Fargo nee Wachovia, but I dropped them once they started adding minimum balance fees. I also tried out Schwabs online account and it was PATHETIC. I've ranted about it on here before, but it was just terrible.

Ally has been great, and EVERY ATM is free (they reimburse monthly).

I also use sharebuilder. Mostly for periodic scheduled investments. If you use their automatic investment system and let them buy on their schedule, you can get really reduced commissions. If you are a costco member, even more so. I pay $2/trade. http://content.sharebuilder.com/mgdcon/jump/partner/costco/pagec/

Sharebuilder operates the same any other brokerage in terms of taxes. You can instantly transfer money in from your Cap 1 360 account which is useful.

 

[Arcadio]

so you spin in a circle and then walk towards it?

It's an old joke.

 

[cbrsurfr]

*Limited amount of withdrawals allowed per month from the savings account.

This is a federal limit with any savings account anywhere in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB)

I've hit it with ING and they just sent me a warning. I'd imagine if you regularly go over 6 they might make you close the account or switch to checking.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

This is a federal limit with any savings account anywhere in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB)

I've hit it with ING and they just sent me a warning. I'd imagine if you regularly go over 6 they might make you close the account or switch to checking.

Interesting, didn't know that. Thx.

 

[dabuddha]

This is a federal limit with any savings account anywhere in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_D_(FRB)

I've hit it with ING and they just sent me a warning. I'd imagine if you regularly go over 6 they might make you close the account or switch to checking.

Maybe but I never had any limits when it was ING direct. Only started getting warnings when they became Capital one 360

 

[anothermacuser]

I also use sharebuilder. Mostly for periodic scheduled investments. If you use their automatic investment system and let them buy on their schedule, you can get really reduced commissions. If you are a costco member, even more so. I pay $2/trade. http://content.sharebuilder.com/mgdcon/jump/partner/costco/pagec/

You can instantly transfer money in from your Cap 1 360 account which is useful.

Good to know. I know a handful of people with Costco memberships but I don't know if $55/year makes sense for me for half off of automatic/recurring trades. Especially since I accomplish this with my 403b. I know it's not exactly the same thing, but it's similar. My intention in using sharebuilder is to sock away some money I won't need for a decade or so (for a house down payment) whereas the 403b is money I can't logically touch until 2052.

Hardcore, Ally has better interest rates but no integration with credit cards and stock accounts, it seems. And that ATM thing is certainly noteworthy for some, but because I have a Cap1 card and an Amex card, I go weeks without touching cash. I looked at a map for my city and the difference seems to be having to walk an extra three blocks on the rare coincidence that I need cash and I've burned up the small reserve I regularly have floating in my wallet.

 

[anothermacuser]

I use 360 for my primary/emergency savings. Works well and really has not changed since the ING days. I've been using them for well over a decade.

So I just kind of wire my money from my PNC account to the Capital One 360 account and that's it? I still have this fear that my life will radically change somehow when I no longer have a storefront to go to.

N.b., a storefront that has a history of giving bad advice and making big mistakes.

Besides no longer being able to deposit cash (something I no longer do as all of my pay is direct deposit), what do I lose?

A PNC storefront is really just paying for someone to open up my online banking account that I could just as easily do at home. Right? It certainly seems that way.