A while back, I switched banks and put my money in Bank of the West, the only “blue” bank with locations near me at the time. Lately, though, I’m wondering if I should move my savings to Shorebank.
Shorebank’s an environmentally and socially-responsible bank that “invests in people and their communities to create economic equity and a healthy environment.” One of Shorebank’s projects, for example, is bringing green collar jobs to disadvantaged communities.
Shorebank only has branches in Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit — but it does have an online high-yield savings account, which is offering 3.5% APY right now. Put $500 or more into your new account, and you also get a reusable canteen.
I do like having my savings and checking accounts linked up at one bank, but I’m considering starting a second savings account — but I’m afraid too many bank accounts will make life unnecessarily complicated. So I’m wondering:
Poll closes Monday night.
Update, 9/18/09: Since this post, I’ve opened — and am now in the process of closing, a Shorebank account. And I don’t recommend anyone opening an account with Shorebank — and it’s not because they kept lowering the APY.
Simply, Shorebank’s service sucks. The idealism’s nice, but the the horrendous, glitchy Firefox-incompatible web interface is a huge pain, transfers extremely slow, and the service full of weird rules and quirks no one should have to put up with.
I have a savings account linked to my checking & an ING interest bearing savings account, but my APY is much lower than the one you noted for Shorebank. I have an automatic deposit on a monthly basis and I’ve never had a problem transferring money to my checking account at the other bank when needed.
Comment by Hannah — November 9, 2008 @ 1:18 pm
Cool — So it’s unlikely I’ll have probs with transfers at Shorebank! Since half the people polled had 2+ accounts, I think I’m gonna go ahead and open my second one :)
Comment by Siel — November 11, 2008 @ 10:12 pm