Ivy Bank Indexed Savings Account

[mediocrebadguy]

Anybody familiar with the Ivy Bank Indexed Savings Account. The rate automatically changes each month based on the Treasury yield:

 https://www.ivybank.com/savings

(On a mobile, click the slider to get to the Indexed option)

Anybody know if there are times when online savings accounts are generally higher than the Treasury yield? That would be the only reason I could think of to not go with this. 

[Anonymous]

Ivy Bank is a trade name for Cambridge Savings Bank in MA. They have a good financial rating.

As to knowing anything about them? Nothing. You brought a new name to the table?!

[Aim_High]

Ivy Bank was at the top of my recent thread I started about High Yield Money Market Accounts, @mediocrebadguy.    I also noted them and researched them a bit (learned about Cambridge Savings Bank also as @Anonymous mentioned) but no one commented about IVY or the other top contenders.  

My experience on-the-whole with these types of funds is that the segment leaders frequently change over time.  A lot of new names pop up regularly, and I think sometimes they are trying to build business with a teaser rate that fades over time.  Noteably, in reviews on some of the top names on my list, I also saw reported issues with customer service or difficulty funding or accessing funds.    Chasing the absolute top rate-of-the-month can come at a cost. 

It has appeared to me that sticking with some large established lenders may be a superior experience while still earning close to the highest rates you (might) achieve with less-dependable long-term returns.  As I mentioned in that thread, I have accounts with Goldman Sachs Marcus, Capital One 360, Discover Bank, all of which dependably pay very good rates, have ease-of-access via web or mobile, good customer service, and in some cases are easy to watch since they are in the same account displays as some credit cards.  I also recently opened an account with AMEX. 

See >THIS LINK< for some reviews on IVY BANK from depositaccounts.com. (9 out of 18 reviews gave them only one star.)  I've found that is a good website to research lenders you may be considering.   If you do proceed, please update the community on your customer experience! 

[Anonymous]

@Aim_High

Over time I have become a skeptic about non-mainstream financials. It seems we see them come and go with little fanfare! Always wonder what happens to the clients and their funds.

It behooves us to research before we dive into the "it's too good to be true" ... as we know nothing in llife is really free.

[Anonymous]

---

@Aim_High wrote:

See >THIS LINK< for some reviews on IVY BANK from depositaccounts.com. (9 out of 18 reviews gave them only one star.)  I've found that is a good website to research lenders you may be considering.   If you do proceed, please update the community on your customer experience! 

---

While it certainly is a negative, a lot of people on depositaccounts will give one star if they are unable to open an account  (similar to posting in the MyFico credit card forum: "Avoid at all costs Amex REJECTED my APPlication!!!!!")  I am always more concerned by 1* reviews from those that have successfully opened accounts and things went badly wrong.   There are those here and also some five * reviews, so hard to really draw a conclusion!

I've opened lots of high yield accounts over time, and never really had a problem, except for falling rates, as, as @Aim_High mentions, rate leaders become mediocre or worse.  So you might want to wait for a bank to get a lot of experience, on the other hand you want to go in early while the rate is high!   

And in the rising rate environement, strange things can happen.   I had recently removed nearly all my money from Paramount Bank, their checking acount paid too little, but now it is up to 2%, so I might transfer some back from my "working" checking, which is currently paying 0.1%

[mediocrebadguy]

As requested, sharing my follow-up experience:

So I went ahead and gave it a try. I can't say it was a "bad" experience, but something about this bank just feels weird.

There was no problem completing the online application and being approved. Then I entered the routing info to pull the initial $2.5k deposit. Then it had me create an online banking profile. Successfully created online banking -- seems to be all good on my end. Then the next screen -- boom -- you are totally locked out of your account.

I called in and was told that it takes up to 48 hours for them to "verify your address" and until then you won't have access to anything. (I don't recall seeing a warning about this when creating the account, but it could have been there). There was a 30+ minute wait to get through to a representative, but once I did get somebody, he was extremely friendly and helpful.

In the meantime, I received an alert from my credit union (the funding source) asking me to verify the pull from Ivy Bank. I've done plenty of pull transfers out of that account and they've never asked me to manually approve one before. At this point, I'm seeing red flags everywhere, but I went ahead and authorized it.

Sure enough, two days later I'm able to log into my Ivy account and the initial deposit is there. The online interface is very recognizable -- they apparently use the same software as Affinity Credit Union and Workers Credit Union. (That was somewhat comforting.)

I haven't transferred any more into the account -- still debating it. I definitely agree with the statements that it's sometimes better to stay with something that works well rather than chase a good rate that may not be that great tomorrow.