Do not give them your money !!
They can transfer the money via ACH to their account when you open it. But when you close the accout, the ACH transfer is limited to $50K per month to external account outside Discover. It took them 2-3 business days to close an account (not including fund transfer time). They asked me to fax a letter to request closing my account, so I did. But 24 hours later when I called again, they could not find my fax.
They are a mess. Do not do business with them.
Your money will get stuck with them.

I will limit this horror story to the most relevant details; a full recitation would be too tedious to write and to read.

On Nov.17 2009 I requested a transfer of $1000 from my Discover Bank online savings account to my local Wachovia checking account which I had previously registered on the Discover website to enable transfers between the two accounts.
Five days later I received an email saying that Wachovia had rejected the transfer and instructing me to call to resolve the issue. I was puzzled because my Wachovia account is and has been in good standing for many years. I called the Discover customer service number and the person who spoke to me was baffled when I told him about the email. He transferred me to another person (after a long time on hold). That person was equally clueless. Thus began an unbelievable ordeal. Over a period of days I was repeatedly transferred from one person to another, with long periods on hold, having to explain the matter from the top to each one.

On the "Overview" page of my account on the Discover website it was indicated that Wachovia had rejected the transfer because they could not identify the account. I soon detected the reason: the disguised account number shown in the email and on my Discover page was twelve digits; my Wachovia account number actually has thirteen digits. To verify the mistake I asked one person to read me my Wachovia account number shown in their records. I was correct, one digit had been dropped. I pointed this out to each person I spoke to but it didn not seem to register with any of them.


At one point I became so exasperated that I demanded that the account be closed and an official check be sent to me. When I received the check it was $1000 less than my correct balance; The thousand dollars in question had apparently vanished into thin air. More phone calls--more time spent on hold--no rusults.

Incredibly over a span of forty-three (43!) days I spoke to thirty-six (36!) individuals by actual count. I estimate that I spent about five hours on the phone (mostly on hold) Twice I was told that the person would research the issue and call me back. That did not happen. Once I was told that if I wrote a letter formally closing the account I would be issued a check for the missing money. I sent the letter and received no response whatsoever. The last person I have spoken with told me they still needed to verify that Wachovia had rejected the transfer. This after forty-three days and despite the fact that they had sent me an email to that effect and despite the fact that the "Overview" page of my account on the Discover website clearly indicates that to be the case.

!@#$#!@!@$

This nightmarish experience was generated by a simple typographical error compounded by a shocking level of indifference and incompetence on the part of Discover Bank's customer service reps and by their apparent confusion over the banks processes. The matter is not yet resolved.

Discover is truly the Bank from Hell. Lawyers riding on elephants could not induce me to deposit another cent in this bank.