Financial Review

EverBank Review: Online Bank For High Yield Investment Accounts

2011-10-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

EverBank has some great savings products. Check out their unique offerings in the savings account space.

If you’re on the lookout for innovative bank products (like I am) then you may want to turn your attention to EverBank. I’ve been keeping up with them because they are one of the few resources I’ve found that offered interesting financial products that I couldn’t find anywhere else. Plus, they handily address a lot of my personal investment requirements.

Here’s the quick scoop. While EverBank provides many financial services from mortgage banking to investing, they’re actually quite well known for their online banking and consumer products, from high yield checking and high interest savings accounts to money market accounts and CDs that are denominated in both U.S. and foreign currencies. Considered as one of the largest online banks in the U.S., EverBank has received the Forbes “Best of The Web” recognition from 2000 to 2005.

Here’s a quick summary of their product offerings, which are mostly safe savings accounts with a few intriguing exceptions:

For a no monthly fee high interest checking account, you can take a look at EverBank’s Yield Pledge Checking Account. This account was formerly known as the FreeNet Checking Account but has since been renamed. They do require an opening minimum balance of $1,500, but if you can afford it, you may want to check out this account for the following features:

Latest Promo: Receive $60 for opening a checking account. Offer expires November 30, 2011.The yield promises to be in the “top 5% of competitive accounts” across leading banks (as per their “yield pledge”. Currently you’ll make 8X more than the national average with this account.There’s no minimum balance required to receive interest.There are NO monthly charges and NO debit card fees.You will be reimbursed for all ATM fees, regardless of which ATM you decide to use.They are of course, covered by the FDIC.Online bill pay is free for accounts that contain at least $5K as an average daily balance. Also, online and mobile banking is free.They’ll pay you $50 if you decide to take your business elsewhere ($50 satisfaction guarantee!). Numerous awards including Money Magazine’s “Best of Breed” and Kiplinger’s “Best Checking Account”.Open an EverBank Yield Pledge Checking Account and receive $60.

The EverBank Yield Pledge CD is described as a high yielding certificate of deposit (relatively speaking) that is covered by EverBank’s “yield pledge”, which simply means that the bank ensures that their yields will always be at the top 5% of competitive accounts. Their rates range from 0.35% APY for a 3 month CD all the way to 1.90% APY for a 5 year CD. Accounts are FDIC insured. The only downside is that they require a minimum opening balance of $1,500. Some other great features? You can opt for automatic rollovers or ask to be notified by a bank representative when your CD is about to mature (notifications occur 20 days prior to maturity).

Here’s where to sign up for an EverBank Yield Pledge CD.

Another FDIC insured product, the EverBank Yield Pledge Money Market Account has a .76% APY. Again, they require an opening balance of at least $1,500. Also, it’s only free if you maintain at least $5,000 in your account, otherwise it’ll cost you $8.95 a month to keep your money here. Given the relatively lower savings rates at this time, you may get more mileage from the Yield Pledge Checking account, which has some pretty attractive features that are focused on lowering costs instead.

Here’s where to find out more about the EverBank Yield Pledge Money Market Account.
Note: Following are EverBank’s unique foreign CDs. However, note that they are not available at this time and are only offered on occasion.

Okay now we come to the fun part! This is what I particularly appreciate about EverBank — they have a series of “WorldCurrency” products which I look upon as great diversifiers for any investment portfolio. Here’s what I mean: for foreign exposure, most of us own foreign equity mutual funds. But if you’re nervous about the volatility that stocks and currency exchange rates bring, then here’s the perfect product for you: the EverBank MarketSafe CD. What’s interesting is that this offering only comes around once in a while based on current market conditions, so you’ll need to apply for an account prior to a particular deadline (the last application deadline was on October 8, 2009) in order to participate in it.

The MarketSafe BRIC CD has a term of 3 years and gives you exposure to the 4 BRIC currencies: the Brazilian real, Russian ruble, Indian rupee and Chinese renminbi. Basically, you’ll make money if the BRIC currencies gain against the dollar upon the CD’s maturity at the end of its 3 year term. If your investment does not increase or goes down in value, you won’t be losing any money. In this case, you’ll get 100% of your principal back after the 3 years is up. So there’s no downside (except the potential loss of interest over 3 years)! It requires a reasonable $1,500 minimum deposit.

It’s something I’m seriously contemplating on as a great way to diversify my international holdings. You’ll need to check up on it now if you want to be part of their next offering.

If you’re unable to invest in the BRIC CD (because it’s unavailable), then there are still other ways to invest globally with EverBank. They have a ton of other foreign currency based CDs but these carry with them the currency risk inherent in international investments. So it’s safe to say that they’re only FDIC insured for bank insolvency, not for fluctuations in the value of your investment. If you’re interested in exploring diversification through foreign currencies, then you can check out the following products:

For more on foreign currency investments and research, check out this link!

All these products are available through both regular and IRA accounts. There are a whole slew of investment and savings options that are available with EverBank, many of which are not readily available through other banks. If you are looking for no-risk accounts, you can check out their Yield Pledge products. On the other hand, if you’re more interested in diversified foreign CDs or precious metals investments (which aren’t considered staples in most banks), then do take a look at EverBank’s commodity baskets (e.g. WorldCurrency CD baskets and Metals Select Gold and Silver accounts). You can also open an EverTrade brokerage account to trade traditional equity and bond securities.

Open an IRA account with EverBank here.
Created September 3, 2009. Updated October 27, 2011. Copyright © 2011 The Digerati Life. All Rights Reserved.

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