First Trade Union Bank is a $590 million asset community bank that offers high yield online savings accounts and certificates of deposit. The bank is headquartered in Boston, MA.
Submitted: Feb 19, 2009
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Comments: 14
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First Trade Union Bank is a $590 million asset community bank that offers high yield online savings accounts and certificates of deposit. The bank is headquartered in Boston, MA.
First Trade Union Bank offers the High and Mighty Savings account which is currently offering (Feb 19, 2009) 3.25% APY on balances above $2,500. That's one of the top savings rates according to the BestCashCow rate tables. In addition, the bank is offering competitive Certificates of Deposit (CDs) including:
- Three month CD paying 2.25% APY
- Six month CD paying 2.50% APY
- 18 month CD paying 3% APY
- 24 month CD paying 3.10% APY
- 36 month paying 3.5% APY
- 60 month CD paying 2.75% APY
All of these are amongst the top cd rates for their respective terms according to the BestCashCow rate tables.
Application and Funding
Although it appears from looking at the application that the account can be opened and funded electronically, this is not the case. According to the CSR, the application can be filled out online and then printed and then sent back signed, with a form of ID (license), and a check. For CDs, the rate locks when they receive the signed application and the check. They did tell me that you can have the option of receiving a call before the CD is opened to verify you are getting the rate you want. If not, the application can be cancelled.
This is a bit of a disappointment because the application looks like identify veritification and funding are electronic. If anyone goes through the application and is able to electronically verify identify and fund the account, let us know.
Bank Stability
First Trade Union Bank received 5 out of 5 (Excellent) starts from Bauer Financial for its safety and soundness. It's FDIC insured and is regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision.
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Comments Received:
Brad
(Unregistered)
Opened an account with them. Unfortunately, as mentioned previously, the signup does NOT seem to allow electronic transfer during setup/
Filled out the application electronically on a Friday night, signature card and check sent out by snail mail with Saturday's mail. By Monday evening received an E-mail telling me how to log on electronically and sucessfully logged on. Initial deposit already credited to account, however it is not considered available yet (understandable with a regular check, especially initial deposit). The good news is they recognize the deposit quickly, sometimes this is a problem with other banks.
APY is down, but only slightly, to 3.20%
As far as the question about ACH, I can't seem to do that yet, the site's FAQ says:
Q: Can I make wire transfer to and from First Trade Union Bank?
A: You can transfer money into and from accounts at First Trade Union Bank by wire transfer or via ACH (Automated Clearing House) debits and credits. Call our Customer Care Center at 1-800-242-0272 for complete details.
I am writing this entry in the evening, and it appears customer service is only open during working hours, so I have to call back later to ask about ACH transfer. Hopefully establishing that won't be a problem, but seems like you have to actually speak to someone to get this done.
Posted: Feb 23, 2009
Benji
(Unregistered)
I opened an account with them through ach, which was processed right away. That was 3 weeks ago, I have sent in the follow up paperwork 2 weeks ago, but still cannot access my account. The csr is trying to help, but nothing so far...
Posted: Feb 24, 2009
John L
(Unregistered)
Summary: Do not use if you need ready access to transferring funds in and out, if you have another option.
Kudos 1: They generally respond to e-mail queries in a day.
Kudos 2: Setting up the ACH transfer link from my existing bank (First Internet Bank of Indiana) was easy and smooth once I managed to learn the routing number for 1st Trade. (Haven't tested it further since establishing it, however.)
Problem 1: Rate promised when I signed up (3.25% APY) is not the rate I was given (3.2%), even for a day. It's a good rate for the times, no question, but this is a matter of trust and honoring agreements. I have a problem with them breaking the agreement I made with them (via MoneyLane) immediately.
Problem 2: Customer service hours very limited (See above person's comments)
Problem 3a: The website information is, shall we say, limited, e.g. the bank's routing number isn't even listed. Given Problem 2 and Problem 3, getting information you need to have can be like pulling teeth. And it makes me wonder what other "gotchas" I'm going to encounter when I need to pull money out.
Problem 3b: Even though they usually respond reasonably quickly to e-mail queries, it can often take many e-mails to answer a simple question. Example: it took four separate e-mails (2 from me, two from them) to establish that they could accept external "push-pull" ACH transfers, and to actually get them to tell me the routing number needed to set that up.
Problem 4: They don't seem especially quick at crediting funds sent via on-line bill pay.
Problem 5: No definite date for availability of ACH transfers to or from the account.
Bottom line: Good rate if you can stand the hassles.
Posted: Mar 6, 2009
HW
(Unregistered)
Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't their routing number 211075086?
And, if it is, it took me 30 seconds to fin it at http://www.routingnumbers.org
Is there a separate routing number for the transactions described by John L?
Just asking.
Posted: Mar 8, 2009
Xin loi
(Unregistered)
Listed cd rates vary from those listed at BestCashCow.com:
2Yr 3,10 vs 3.00 BCC.com
3Yr 3.50 vs 3.30 "
5Yr 2.75 vs 4.00 "
Strange ?
Posted: Mar 11, 2009
Brad
(Unregistered)
CD rates listed are the same both on FTUB and BCC
3.00 2 year
3.25 3 year
3.75 5 year
The bank's website claims they hope to have ACH by July 2009. But you can easily transfer to them.
Savings rate is down to 3.04, but still seems like one of the best deals out there.
Posted: Mar 14, 2009
Ken
(Unregistered)
They have a demo login that you can check their online capability. It looks like no inter-bank ACH available yet.
Bad things in these internet era. I will hold off opening an account with them for now, unless someone can show me they can do inter-bank ACH.
Posted: Mar 27, 2009
Brad
(Unregistered)
They claim you can do full ACH by July 2009. But currently you can push funds from your existing bank into FTUB. You have to do it from the other bank's website and not FTUB at least for now.
Posted: Mar 29, 2009
Frank L
(Unregistered)
I opened my account in mid February. The rate is the best I could find without dropping significantly. Some of the other online banks advertise one rate but then it seems to drop once you have opened an account. I agree with the online limitations. However, I just transferred funds via ACH from a Wachovia account to First Trade without complications. Overall, a great place to park money and earn a good rate.
Posted: Apr 4, 2009
Brad
(Unregistered)
Savings rate down to 2.75%, CD rates also down
Posted: Apr 11, 2009
Frederick Chopin
(Unregistered)
"Trade" your money over to. "Darby Direct" 3.00 apy,1 min,No hard pull,Fdic insured,as of 4/20/09.
Posted: Apr 19, 2009
Brad
(Unregistered)
Down to 2.32% ont he savings... OUCH! I guess it couldn't last with where the rates have been going
Posted: Apr 20, 2009
Worried
(Unregistered)
This bank is not secure! A person I live with opened up an account with them, and all my account information is showing up with their account, just because we live together. Be careful!!
Posted: Apr 21, 2009
Neil
(Unregistered)
The process to open an account at FTUB is as easy as can be expected with a mail-in application. Overall, my opening of a new account went as fast (or faster) at FTUB as with accts that can accept an immediate ACH transfer for funding. The requirement for mailing in your application and funding check should not be considered a total negative. My experience with "immediate" ACH funding is that it's not really "immediate". Don't ever expect to be able to transfer $ from an existing account into a newly-opened account (at FTUB or anywhere else) in a day or two. Not gonna happen. The set-up of this account went faster than setting up at some other banks that did not require postal application.
Currently, you cannot innitiate ACH transfers from within FTUB's website to an external account.(Supposedly, this will be changed soon.) But, if your external accounts allow for linking to FTUB, you can transfer funds to/from FTUB using your external account's website. FTUB's website set-up is easy enough to navigate. (I think GMACbank's is the best that I've come across.)
The savings rate had been 2.75% when I submitted my application, and now it has dropped to 2.30%. All the bank interest rates continue to drop.
Posted: Apr 23, 2009
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