After a couple months, they're looking pretty good. The interest rate has gone down, but so has the competition. It's currently at 1.70% APY, and Discover Bank's 1.75% APY isn't enough to be worth the hassle of the bad interface and annoying rules.

This week I opened a second Amex Personal Savings account. The account opening dialog reads like opening the first one, except they verified my identity pretty easily from the existing account. When it was opened, it was instantly available on my same login. (The canned information said I needed to set up online access, which I neeeded to do for the first one; this time I only needed to log on.)

I've also noticed that Amex lets me link to third party savings accounts. That won't help out with ING or Emigrant, who don't allow 3rd party debits; but I've confirmed that I can initiate a transfer from Discover Bank to Amex Personal Savings from the Amex side and avoid having the money disappear into hyperspace for 3 days.

The only odd thing is that I couldn't find the routing number anywhere on the Amex site. I did find it with a google search, and called customer service to confirm that 124085066 is the correct routing number. I also asked about 3rd party ACH debits; Amex will honor them.

As long as the interest rate stays competitive, this looks good. I'm finding nothing to complain about in the interface or how transfers are handled.

Maybe after I finish winding down my accounts with Emigrant and Discover Bank, I'll look into test driving the account at Alliant CU.

Patzer