Amex High Yield Savings Account

[Anonymous]

American Express is currently offering 1.65% on this account. Anyone else have it? Is it recommended?

[DaveInAZ]

Yeah, I've had a savings account since February, no real problems.

As for recommending it: Well, it is one of the higher yield savings account. But Amex doesn't seem to like alot of transfers, especially transfers out, but as savings account it's limited to 6 transfers per month anyway. I funded it with two transfers from my local credit union and used it to make payments on my Amex BCE & Everyday cards. But when I transferred money out to Discover savings to meet the deposit requirement for a new account bonus Amex gave me a call. The rep wanted to know if the local CU & Discover accounts were "personal accounts", I assured her they were and as I'm single they're in my name only, that seemed to satisfy her, but seemed like a strange call.

Now I have it fully funded again to my desired level and I just use it to pay Amex cards. My BCE has the 0% intro ending in August and my Everyday card 0% intro ends summer 2019, so it's a good place to park the funds to pay them off. I like Amex savings better than Discover savings as they're pretty fast with ACH transfers while Discover is pretty slow at ACH, especially pushing money out to external accounts.

[Anonymous]

First off, WHOA! I have never heard of a bank calling you because you are transferring money out of your account that is insane. I mean it's YOUR money  I mean, from a bank's perspective I understand why they would look down their noses at it, but it seems a little greedy and money hungry to call your customers because they are transferring money out. I guess you don't care about saving face when you're as big as they are.

Great data point, thanks for sharing!

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

Yeah, I've had a savings account since February, no real problems.

As for recommending it: Well, it is one of the higher yield savings account. But Amex doesn't seem to like alot of transfers, especially transfers out, but as savings account it's limited to 6 transfers per month anyway. I funded it with two transfers from my local credit union and used it to make payments on my Amex BCE & Everyday cards. But when I transferred money out to Discover savings to meet the deposit requirement for a new account bonus Amex gave me a call. The rep wanted to know if the local CU & Discover accounts were "personal accounts", I assured her they were and as I'm single they're in my name only, that seemed to satisfy her, but seemed like a strange call.

Now I have it fully funded again to my desired level and I just use it to pay Amex cards. My BCE has the 0% intro ending in August and my Everyday card 0% intro ends summer 2019, so it's a good place to park the funds to pay them off. I like Amex savings better than Discover savings as they're pretty fast with ACH transfers while Discover is pretty slow at ACH, especially pushing money out to external accounts.

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First off, WHOA! I have never heard of a bank calling you because you are transferring money out of your account that is insane. I mean it's YOUR money  I mean, from a bank's perspective I understand why they would look down their noses at it, but it seems a little greedy and money hungry to call your customers because they are transferring money out. I guess you don't care about saving face when you're as big as they are.

Great data point, thanks for sharing!

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

Yeah, I've had a savings account since February, no real problems.

As for recommending it: Well, it is one of the higher yield savings account. But Amex doesn't seem to like alot of transfers, especially transfers out, but as savings account it's limited to 6 transfers per month anyway. I funded it with two transfers from my local credit union and used it to make payments on my Amex BCE & Everyday cards. But when I transferred money out to Discover savings to meet the deposit requirement for a new account bonus Amex gave me a call. The rep wanted to know if the local CU & Discover accounts were "personal accounts", I assured her they were and as I'm single they're in my name only, that seemed to satisfy her, but seemed like a strange call.

Now I have it fully funded again to my desired level and I just use it to pay Amex cards. My BCE has the 0% intro ending in August and my Everyday card 0% intro ends summer 2019, so it's a good place to park the funds to pay them off. I like Amex savings better than Discover savings as they're pretty fast with ACH transfers while Discover is pretty slow at ACH, especially pushing money out to external accounts.

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So I am doing the Exact same thing to get the $200 Disco savings bonus... transferring funds from Amex to Disco... I've heard some interesting data points regarding the Disco bonus as a "cumulative" bonus... so I just transferred $8400... once it posts I'll send the $8400 back to Amex.. then send it back to Disco for a cumulative total of $16,800... as soon as it posts then send it back to Amex... then send it back to Disco for a cumulative total of $25,200... then I'll send back the $8,400 back to Amex with the $200 bonus and close the Disco savings account... super easy and fun way to get $200 bonuse. also, the 6 transfer limit is a federal rule not a bank rule... Johnny

[Anonymous]

I started Amex at 1.45% and they raised their interest rates to 1.65% quickly... got to love that... while they not the highest rate out there.. got to respect that.

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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So I am doing the Exact same thing to get the $200 Disco savings bonus... transferring funds from Amex to Disco... I've heard some interesting data points regarding the Disco bonus as a "cumulative" bonus... so I just transferred $8400... once it posts I'll send the $8400 back to Amex.. then send it back to Disco for a cumulative total of $16,800... as soon as it posts then send it back to Amex... then send it back to Disco for a cumulative total of $25,200... then I'll send back the $8,400 back to Amex with the $200 bonus and close the Disco savings account... super easy and fun way to get $200 bonuse. also, the 6 transfer limit is a federal rule not a bank rule... Johnny

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Interesting, I hadn't heard anything about the Disco savings bonus being "cumulative" but the wording is a bit vague, it just say "deposit $xxx by x/x/xx to receive a $150 or $200 bonus ($15k/$25k). I just deposited $15k and left it there until the bonus was credited, depositing another $10k just for another $50 in bonus didn't seem like a very good deal, unless they can be cumulative deposits. Let us know if the cumulative deposits work.

And yes, the 6 transfer limit is a federal rule for all savings accounts. And be aware that Discover bank bonus are once per lifetime, you only receive a bonus once for a checking account and once for savings.

[Anonymous]

I tried to open an AMEX high yield savings account earlier this year, hit some sort of snag during the online enrollment process, got irritated and went with Marcus by Goldman Sachs.  I'll likely take another crack at it in the fall, I have had otherwise stellar experiences with AMEX with their credit cards.  I did just move some money from my Marcus savings to a 12 month CD at Marcus and it was easy and seamless.

[Anonymous]

 I have an Amex HYSA.  I transferred in a substantial amount of money from three other bank accounts without any problems.  Then one day I wanted to transfer a few hundred dollars back to one of my checking accounts to meet a short-term need and I noticed that the transaction did not go through.  I tried transferring again and the transaction was not executed.  So I called up Amex and I was told the account was suspended and that I had to wait for a letter from them . I insisted they fax me instead and the document they went was Affidavit of Identity.  I took it to my neighborhood Chase branch and the banker verified my identity, notarized the affidavit, and faxed it back to Amex.

When I call to make sure they had received my fax, no on could say it was received; and it took two days before they could tell me they got it.  Then a few days later I got a call from their Security Department and they linked me into three-way calls with each of the banks I had originally transferred funds from, and I listened in as they asked each bank if I was the owner of the account(s).

Fortunately I had other funds available to use but I could not use any of my funds with Amex for a week while they went through this process.  Since then I havent had any problems with them but I've been slowly transferring the money there to a Marcus Savings account and a 2% interest Checking account with BCU.  I still have about $10K with Amex but I'll probably reduce that since Marcus pays slightly better interest and they are rumored to start issuing credit cards with Apple next year so I want to build a relationship with them in case the rumor turns out to be true.

  But I've also noticed that Marcus held one transfer longer than the required 5 business days and when I got on chat and asked a rep I was told that he couldn't tell me why.  But then the transfer was made "available" the next day.

[DaveInAZ]

Wow, MaizeandBlue, you sure have much more patience then I do. I would have stopped them right there at the Affadavit of Identity: "You want to verify my identity? No problem, mail me a check for down to the last cent in my account, and when it clears you'll know it was me".

Earlier this year Chase called me when I tried to ACH pull in a couple grand from an external account. The rep wanted to conference call me into that bank to verify I was the owner of the account. I told her I didn't have the time for that nonsense, just cancel the transfer. Then I ACH pushed the funds in from the other bank's side.

[Anonymous]

The hassle of withdrawing money has me a little concerned. I don't plan on withdrawing the money but if I ever do I don't want to be held hostage. Hmm..