Cap, the blogger behind StopBuyingCrap.com, had over $13,000 in an Emigrant Direct account for 25 days then transferred the entirety of his balance to ING to take advantage of higher promotional rates. Days later, Cap couldn
t login to his account.

Four phone calls later, he pried the info from a customer service representative, who told him that because his balance was $0 and not $1, Emigrant Direct killed his account. Conveniently enough this was prior to tabulating any interest. She also told him that the account was reopened without him asking. So they canceled his account, discounted its interest, and then reopened it. Classy, very classy.

Should Cap have known better? He would
ve if he could
ve but Emigrant Direct spouts a
no minimum balance
policy. Cap found this transmogrification of nada to a smidgen is nowhere disclosed in any of the terms and conditions or account disclosures.
It took getting screwed to find out this actually means a minimum balance of $1.

I hardly rate chase, but I also haven
t been with Emigrant for long, so I can understand that from a business perspective, I
m not a profitable customer and there
s little reason to keep me. No biggie, I understand. In fact, for some reason, I
m not even that mad about the interest lost. Probably because I should have known better.

Still, spouting no minimum while requiring one is rather annoying. I mean, $0 and $1 is not a big deal, but please be upfront about it. If you have a policy of
automatically
closing accounts with $0, tell us! At the very least, hide it somewhere in your account disclosures, or terms and condition. It
s not even there!

Cap is not alone, MyMoneyBlog experienced the bottom drawer dropping, as did several members of the FatWallet forum.

They advise that when rate chasing, always leave a few crumbs behind for the banking trolls to gnaw on.

Emigrant Direct Sucks [ StopBuyingCrap ]

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