Finished opening my new Dollar Savings Direct online savings account offering 4.00% APY

I just verified the two small verification deposits (and matching debits) that DollarSavingsDirect, a division of Emigrant Savings Bank, made to verify that my "checking" account (actually the bank checking account associated with my Fidelity brokerage account) is now properly linked to the DSD online savings account. Is is offering a rate of 3.92% or 4.00% APY for online savings, with a minimum of $1,000. This is not even a money market account, but simply an online savings account. And fully FDIC-insured.

The account is already earning interest. I only made the minimum $1,000 initial deposit to verify that everything is working fine. I will transfer more money once I figure out how much money I need to live on next month.

I am not sure why they bother with the verification deposits since they had already debited the initial funding amount before I had manually verified the deposits. Maybe it is just a double check and verification that I in fact have access to the account. And maybe they wanted the funding deposit ASAP. After all, they are paying a high rate for it, so they must need it.

-- Jack Krupansky