Online Savings Accounts & Current Rates

[feh]

Originally Posted by saverbootay

Looks like Redneck offers 2% only up to $35k. After that, it's 1%.

Yes, I noticed that when I was opening an account. Not a problem for us, though, as we don't need to keep more than $20-30K in cash.

[weissheit]

Century Direct is now way down in terms of interest rates

Checking - 0.8%
Savings 0.9%
MMF 1.05%

I am closing these accounts to simplify my life, I can get these rates at a local brick-n-mortar bank!

[poundwise]

Century is among a few from the list to bite the dust, including one literally.

Flagstar, Heartland, Century accounts no longer have a yield that qualifies them from appearance on our list here.

Umbrella Bank is no more and the bank that assumed the accounts does not offer any sort of 'high yield' online savings.

Among the rest, the following changes were made for the first update for 2010:

Shore Bank down from 1.95 to 1.70
Bank of Internet High Yield Savings down from 1.75 to 1.65
Discover Bank down from 1.75 to 1.60
Bank of Internet Money Market Savings down from 1.70 to 1.60
AMEX down from 1.70 to 1.50
Bank of Internet Advantage Savings down from 1.65 to 1.55
Union FSB down from 1.65 to 1.20
Nationwide down from 1.60 to 1.50
Dollar Savings Direct down from 1.60 to 1.50
Ally Online Savings down from 1.55 to 1.49
Ally Money Market Account down from 1.55 to 1.49
FNBO down from 1.50 to 1.40
Apple Grand Yield Direct down from 1.50 to 1.40
iGOBanking down from 1.41 to 1.31
Emigrant Direct down from 1.30 to 1.20

Other institutions listed have not changed in the past two months.

No new institutions were listed. If you know of any that meet the criteria (see first page), especially any with a yield greater than 1.50%, please let me know.

[ukgaz]

ING direct now down from 1.30 to 1.25 as of today

[sweeps]

I see Poundwise is still on top of things here. Way to go PW

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by sweeps

I see Poundwise is still on top of things here. Way to go PW

Yeah, its a lot less fun that when the list was shorter and filled with 4%-5% APY account offerings but it is what it is.

Its good to see you back on the forum.

[Beppington]

Could these rates go to zero? Or, at least, how the heck close could they get to zero?

If they went negative (is that even possible?), we'd all just put the cash in a safe or under our pillows, right?

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by Beppington

Could these rates go to zero? Or, at least, how the heck close could they get to zero?

To get as close to zero as possible, do something idiotic like opening a Bank of America "Keep the Change" regular savings account. The rate, as of this afternoon: 0.10%.

[weissheit]

Sentiment seems to be pointing to even lower rates: FDIC limits bank-account interest - Personal Finance blog - Money Magazine's More Money

However, if the author had done a little more digging she could have found this string which has several banks with better rates along with smaller initial deposit requirements.

I finally caved and went to a type of rewards checking account. I was turned off by all the ones that had activity requirements. But Apple FCU in Northern Virginia has an "investor's checking" @3.5% APY. Instead of debit card and online bill pay activity they simply require 10k in an investment account. So I rolled over an old 401K that exceeds this amount significantly and dumped in the maximum balance permitted to get the 3.5% APY.

[saverbootay]

If they went negative (is that even possible?), we'd all just put the cash in a safe or under our pillows, right?

If you consider real return (return after inflation), maybe we're already at a negative number.

[poundwise]

Originally Posted by saverbootay

If you consider real return (return after inflation), maybe we're already at a negative number.

True.

[weissheit]

Originally Posted by saverbootay

If you consider real return (return after inflation), maybe we're already at a negative number.

Agreed, but only if you strip out the housing component used in calcuating inflation. Due to the depressed housing market it is masking the fact that the cost of everything else is rising, thus putting interest rates in the negative in real terms!

[poundwise]

Changes today, 01/27/10:

Shorebank down from 1.70% to 1.09% and OFF LIST
CNB down from 1.70% to 1.50%
ING down from 1.30% to 1.25%
Union FSB down from 1.20% to 1.15% and OFF LIST

Shorebank certainly fell a long way. This is surprising due to the fact that they have offered a fairly steady, and comparatively high, rate for quite some time.

[saverbootay]

Clicking on the link to Discover Bank, it says 1.35% now.

[jeffmem]

Anyone else getting tired of these low interest rates? I just checked shorebank is now down to 1.24.. time to transfer yet again...

Closed out all my bank of america accounts too, they are a pain in the butt.

And the FDIC's limiting of interest is too overboard and too controlling...

[saverbootay]

Looks like SavingsSquare and Nationwide are a 1.45.
Dollarsavings is down to 1.40.
HSBC is down to 1.25.

Looks like DiscoverBank bought all the Etrade Bank accounts.

[BTC]

I've received no notification from E*Trade about Discover buying their savings accounts.

[GrimJack]

Here in Seattle:
Verity Credit Union pays 0.2500% for Savings and 2.5207% for Checking (the APY works out to be 2.55%.
They have a $40,000 limit on how much they will pay that interest on.
I haven't seen anything to compare with the checking interest

[BTC]

I called E*Trade this morning. If you have an active brokerage account with them, your savings account will not be converted to Discover. I'm not sure if checking accounts are also part of their arrangement, but I guess all of my accounts, brokerage, checking & savings, will remain with E*Trade. I'm happy about that if for no other reason than how quickly I can transfer funds to other accounts using E*Trade.

[jeffmem]

Just a reminder out there to the people who want to sign up for a Redneck account, keep in mind they have a limit of how much you can put in or take out which is 2500 a day. Unless you go through your bank using like a billpay or something, but getting it back out some banks won't help you, or you have to have them cut you a check. I am finding this limit highly annoying, but.... up until this point, they have no interest in changing it.

And wow shorebank has disappointed. I had money with them from April until just this month when they dropped their rates... And now you say at 1.09, that is terrible... Don't know what happend to them.