I did alot of research looking for savings with high interest, easy access and low minimum balance – those were my criterias and it has been great! Interest is paid every month on a specific date. I am out of state so I have to mail a deposit and it takes a while, but it has been reliable. But I also didn’t want to have too easy access it is my savings account and I enjoy seeing the interest. I am aware of when the interest goes down when the FED RATE is dropped.

The only problem I had was trying to put another name on it which took 3 letters. In todays day of identity theft, I am okay with the added security – especially since it isn’t a personal relationship for me – I am all online and thru the mail.

I haven’t tried to take the money or close the account but I’ve transfered money into the checking account when I pay my sons “college tuition bill” and the money has been paid on time.

See the Review 3/16 – I thought it was a good break down of the pros and cons

They will put a hold on your money without warning! They will transfer money from an external account and then block it and ask you to prove you own the external account while they hold your money with now warning until the next time you try to log in. You have been warned!

They first deposit money into your external to check if you are who you say you are. Then they withdraw! That can cause a penalty at the other bank. Then they ask you to transfer $500. Then finally they pretend everything is OK. So I moved the balance of what I intended to put into the account. So they transfer it. THEN THEY BLOCK IT HOLDING MY MONEY CAPTIVE UNTIL I PROVE THAT THE EXTERNAL ACCOUNT IS MINE!!!!!! Not before they transfer, they want to check after they actually have their fingers on my money. I call to complain and speak with their condescending “Risk Operations Department.” And the close my account and say they will send me a check after I prove by faxing to them who I am. When I ask who is going to pay for the fax, or if they have been paying interest in the interim, and why they didn’t ask me before the transfer, or contact me, their rep actually told me, “in the time we have been talking, you could have faxed it to me.” How? Do I have a fax machine? NO, I have to go to their branch to fax it. They then send me a letter saying that they are closing all my accounts and sending me the balance. No word on the interest I am losing, the pain of dealing with them, etc. “At this time, your accounts are restricted from all activity. We recommend alternate payment arrangements be made for outstanding items not yet paid as these items will not clear your account(s) at this time.” Can you imagine?

Deal with them at your own peril.

About a year ago I was the victim of an attempted identity theft. As a result, I signed up with LifeLock. I generally do not have problems establishing accounts online. Because I have fraud alerts associated with my personal information, I typically have to submit to additional identification verification when opening accounts. This has never been a problem, until I attempted to open an online savings account with Washington Mutual. I completed the online. At the end of my application, I received an error message stating that my identity could not be verified and that the application had been canceled. Per the error message instructions, I physically went in to a Washington Mutual branch to open the account. I was advised by a branch representative that I would not be able to open the online savings account in the branch, but that I could open a checking account & then open the savings account online as a linked account to my existing checking. After opening the checking account, I again attempted to open the online savings account, but encountered the same error message. When I called Washington Mutual, the representatives, including one “supervisor/manager” claimed that the problem rested with LifeLock and that I would have to have LifeLock remove the fraud alert. After conducting a 3-way telephone conversation with LifeLock and Washington Mutual, I was still unable to open the savings account. At that point I closed the checking account, as I had no use for it. Unfortunately, I will NEVER do business with Washington Mutual ever again. To date it is the only company that has no means of circumnavigating LifeLock services when opening online accounts.

Very very slow transactions. Even if you are transferring between your own accounts in WAMU. In fact the rate fell by 0.75% in the duration in which I put the money and it was available in my savings a/c.

I am closing my a/c. There are much better ones out there.

Dont know how to say this in a nicer way but you must be really retarded if you can’t find the interest rates of accounts for WAMU. If you just searched on wamu.com you can easily find their interest rates for their online savings and online CD accounts. You dont need it posted in your account to find that out.

wamu now at 3.30% apy

Just a point of fact: on the website the APYs are as follows (all for min $1,000 deposit)
6 mo 2.65%
12 mo 2.85%
24 mo 2.95%
36 mo 3.25%
48 mo 3.75%
60 mo 4.00%

I made a deposit. They made a mistake and I have written them several times now. I do get back a message on their secure system but it never answers the question asked. Its like if we address your problem, we have to admit the mistake. So they just dance around the question. I wish there was a branch nearby so that I could go in and confront a person with this. Telephone is almost as bad. What they tell you is: I will check into this and call you back. You never get that call back. The ability to behave this way must take a lot of practice. Does WaMu hold classes for this?

I have been banking with WAMU for years. The customer service at the branch nearby is fantastic. They call me by my name to say hello when I walk in and send me “thank-you” cards when I do any special transactions. I also opened the online savings without any problems, usually tranfer funds between accounts in seconds, and the branch takes care of anything I do not want to do online. As for the interest rate, it has been holding at 4% while my online savings at Citi Bank has dropped from 4.25% to 3.2%. In brief,I am one satisfied customer.

If you are looking for the Free Checking & Online Savings account that offer 4.00% APY, here is what I think:

Pros:
1. High interest rates – sure, it may fall, and it has, but then it is still among one of the banks that offer 4% for $1 minimum opening deposits.
2. No monthly fees and no minimum monthly balances if you keep both of the accounts.
3. Free checks for ever! – No more paying for checks!
4. Free money orders in WaMu branches – If you are into that, it might save you a buck or two.
5. Actual branches that you can actually go to to withdraw or deposit your money – Unlike online banks which you need to transfer your money electronically – You can get your money instantly on the spot.
6. Quick signup process – If you are signing up online, it only takes 5 minutes for you to complete the process.
7. Rewards for using your debit card – Although you might get more for using a cash back credit card if your average purchasing price is over $3.00.

Cons:
1. Mediocre customer service – Do not use the online “Contact” feature. You will often have to wait 4-5 days before you get a response and it will probably be very generalized. If you do need support, do CALL! Sometimes the CSRs have no idea what they are talking about if you are too technical, but you should be fine if you are only asking general questions.
2. No account disclosures sent in the mail – I did not get any account disclosures in the mail – I guess you need to read them all online
3. Confusing little details – Despite their claimed informality (http://www.wamu.com/about/wamudifference/default.asp ), a lot of times they won’t define things explicitly and lets you keep guessing. (ex. When a monthly cycle is? on the 1st or on your anniversary date? – This is important for limited transaction accounts such as the savings – Many people new to banking do not know that there is a 6 transactions/mo limit on their savings account)
4. A required 3 day period for transfer initiation and bill payments – If you are the kind who likes to transfer money around your banks a lot, you may find WaMu annoying as they require you to schedule 3 “business “days ahead before the transfer actually start. So it might take a week and a half to actually get the money if you start close from a weekend. (Bad if you need money right away – My other Credit union transfers money on the same day and often times the money is received the next day)
5. Online alert notifications are not very customizable and vague – If you like alerts emails describing online activity, then you might not like WaMu much. The alerts in the emails are rather vague (A LARGE deposit has been made to your Checking account ending in 1234) rather than (A deposit of $300.00 from PAYPAL INC. has been made to your Checking account ending in 1234)
6. Online banking is somewhat lacking in features – There is no indicator on how many more “limited” transactions you can make in a month. You will either have to manually keep track yourself or face a “overlimit” fee. (For savings account, you will have to manually count the “debit” transactions that are not made in the bank, transfers that are not of XFER type) – probably their way to make more money if you messed up
7. Shady business practices – They are known to close people’s account for no apparent reason – If you do not want your account to be closed due to inactivity, you should keep at least $1.00 in your account(s).

I have MM accounts at both GMAC and Capitol One. No long letters about how important customer service from them. GMAC and Capitol One to date just do it. They provide good service and don’t have to send out letters blowing their own horn.

WaMu is different. They know that they have poor service and so try to cover it up with letters and emails saying “How important customer service is” Very lame. Either the people are poorly trained or they don’t give a damn. Whatever the case, the service is poor, slow and they will put a hold on your deposits at the drop of a hat. I hesitated at posting this. In google(ing) WaMu out on the Internet, I find 100s of complaints about this bank. Mine is just a drop of water in the ocean.

I get the impression that they won’t do anything to correct a wrong unless the matter gets them a lot of negative webspace.

I applied online for WAMU and was rejected. I called WAMU and they opened accounts over the phone but they did NOT say that the interest rate would be 0.25%. The rate of
4% only applies when application is done online. I am closing my WAMU accounts and moving to another bank.
Some banks have rejected me because of moving money around, I have too many inquiries on Chex Systems.

Fact: I sent in a deposit for the 4% interest. ($15,000.00) I asked that this be placed in the interest bearing account. Did not happen. How this is in a non-interest account and I cannot get it moved as of this post. I have called, emailed and now posted this message. They will not move it. They tell me that I have to send another deposit. They don’t seem to understand that I want the money working.

I’m still looking, and haven’t signed up for WaMu or any other on-line bank yet. However: No matter which bank you use, on-line or otherwise, if The Fed drops their rates – which it seems to do often of late – your rate will drop no matter where you bank. To act as if this or any other bank is somehow ripping you off is unfair to the bank, and its a waste of your time to hop from account to account. Find a bank with the best service and rates compared to whatever else is available, and stick to it. You’ll have far fewer headaches in the long run.

WaMu dropped their online Savings Account rate to 3.93%, which equals 4% APY.

So much for the idea that WaMu will keep their rate high to keep people’s money.

Look for WaMu’s rate to drop further after the Fed cuts the rate again in March.

I’ve had my WaMu online savings account for over a year. Although the rates have dropped from over 5% to now 4.25%, they are still quite competative. It’s very easy to transfer money from your WaMu checking to savings and vice versa. You can also schedule regular monthly savings deposits from checking to savings. The only catch is that you must have a free checking account with WaMu. I suspect that they will continue to offer quite competative rates, based on their prior performance.

Wamu decreased the interest rate for online savings down to 4.25% which is also very competetive compare to other banking sectors.

Looks like the rate dropped to APY of 4.25% as of 1/28/08

Other banks have been dropping their rates faster than Paris Hilton can drop her pants.

But Washington Mutual has been hanging in there with the 4.75% APY interest rate.

WaMu, if you’re reading this, don’t you dare cut your rates or I’m taking my money elsewhere!

I signed up for WaMu b/c I use them as my brick and mortar bank.

They are just as good online as they are in real life. Transfers go through in 1 or 2 days, and the rates are great.

I was with another online bank and and WaMu is superior in service, transfers go thru in a couple days vs 4 days and the set up was quick and painless. I would highly recommend WaMu.

Im overall pretty happy with WAMU. It took about 3-5 days for money to initially transfer, and the transfers back and forth take approx 3 business days. I realize they arent the top money giver, but they seem to be competetive with what the Federal Reserve has given them to work with – and my statement savings account isnt a CD either – which many of the higher giving banks are CD rates.

just signed up for my 5% account, had some trouble transfering funds from my other bank online but i went to the branch and they fixed it, still giving me the 5% good customer servie in person

Never had a problem with WaMu Online banking, instant transfers from checking to savings. Even though there are better rates, the instant transfer is too good a benefit to pass up.

Intersting how all the 5 star reviews are from the same day. I like WAMU and have a regular account with them, but thats highly suspicious.

wamu free checking and savings account rules!

i replaced my bank of america online checking account with wamu

great deal for those who need the checking account. cant go wrong with this one

signed up for their checking account. not bad considering how much higher their interest rates are online compared to their local branch savings rates

Never had issues with Wamu. It is a good option in my opinion.

My family uses WaMu and have never had any issues with them. Seems like a decent bank.