Updates: Top Savings Account and CD Interest Rates

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Given the recent drop in Fed interest rates, here is a quick update on the rates being paid on online savings accounts:

HSBC Advance lowered its rate to 3.00% APY.

Capital One 360 also recently lowered its rate to 0.75% APY. ($25 bonus) However, they do have a new 12-month CD at 0.40% APY.

FNBO Direct holds steady at 3.50% APY dropped today to 0.85% APY. (FNBO Direct review)

Emigrant Direct is still at 3.00% APY, but if you have more than $1,000 there, you should move your money to DollarSavingsDirect at 4.00% APY instead. They are both under the same parent Emigrant Bank, and so your deposits are insured together for FDIC purposes. The only real difference is that DollarSavings requires a $1,000 balance to earn the 4%.

I was really annoyed at this until I figured out that there is actually no minimum balance requirement at DollarSavingsDirect, your interest rate just drops to 1.0% APY if you go below. No fees or penalties. Thus, I can still open an account and move my money there while the rate is good, and still be able to move it out if the rate drops. Okay, so I’m still kind of annoyed. They are saying “we think you’re too lazy to move your money, but new customers get 4% APY”.

EverBank’s Yield Pledge savings account has an intro rate of 4.65% APY for the first 3 months, and then 3.51% APY afterwards. Not bad, considering even the non-special rate is very competitive, as it “pledges” to stay amongst the top 5% of competitive banks. There is a minimum balance requirement of $1,500 to avoid fees.

Corus Bank has what looks like the top 12-month CD rate at at 4.60% APY if you open with $10,000+.

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Comments

  1. GMAC bank has an online savings account paying 3.6% APY. They also have some good certificate rates. One very nice thing about GMAC bank is that transfers are very fast–much faster than the Cashedge based systems. I find that if I get a request in during normal business hours, the transfer will often process the following business day.

  2. A clarification for your rate summary, Citibank’s Ultimate Savings Account apy is 3.5%; their Ultimate Money Account is 3.0% if you make the minimum bill payments.

  3. Any word on how long it takes to transfer money between EmigrantDirect and DollarSavingsDirect? And do they give consolidated statements, or is there twice the paperwork?

  4. E-Trade has 3.30% savings APY.. They also announced that will give $25 bonuses for current customers who added 5K to their accounts in October

  5. Thanks for the update… I was bummed to see my HSBC rate drop again. Then again most of my spare change is tied up in 12-month CDs at WAMU until next fall… at 5%. 🙂

  6. @anon:
    i use DollarSavingsDirect (without a concurrent Emigrant acct). i must say it seems to work exactly like INGDirect from a functional standpoint – 3-5 business days of clearing electronic transfers. e-statements etc. my gut says that they operate SEPARATELY from Emigrant so you would get dual statements if you had accts at both banks.

  7. Mickey Blue Eyes says

    For those who are AAA members, and have $2500 to avoid fees, Discover Bank pays 3.30% APY on their MMA. That’s 5 basis points (0.05%) higher than the publicly advertised rate.

    I think I’ll give Dollar Savings Direct a try. It kind of sucks that Emigrant Direct doesn’t pay the higher rate for having >$1000 on deposit. I wonder what the real difference is between the two sites since they are owned by the same bank?

  8. No interface difference between Emigrant and Dollarsavingsdirect, save some text and a dorky picture of an Uncle Sam hat vs. a dorky picture of Benjamin Franklin. Yes you get two e-statements and the practical reality is it is just like having accounts with two banks. Getting annoyed is a waste of time though, 4% is way better than Emigrant and a good spot better than FNBO, where I had most of my cash. I happily spent five minutes opening a dollarsavings account despite already having an Emigrant account and I’m now enjoying quite a bit more monthly income from my arbitrage. I’ve always liked the simple Emigrant interface and transfers out are much faster than FNBO. It would have been nice if Emigrant had restructured their rate, but if someone is willing to pay me 4% instead of 3%, I’m happy to exploit their offer, hoops and all.

  9. citibank has a savings account with 3.75% and a 6 month cd at. 4%

  10. Independent George says

    HSBC is offering a 6-month CD at 4%

  11. FNBO Direct is showing 3.25% APY as of now

  12. Important to note that because EmigrantDirect and DollarSavingsDirect have the same parent, Emigrant Bank, be aware that the FDIC limits apply to the sum of your balances at both banks, rather than looking at each balance independently.

  13. I second FNBO. They just lowered their rate to 3.25%.

  14. Why not consider the rewards checking offers out there?

    Using checkingfinder.com I applied with Community Bank of Pleasant Hill, but I am still waiting to hear back.

    I also applied with Midwest America Federal Credit Union, but they make you pay a one time donation to their local animal protection group to become a member of the credit union if you are out of state. I haven’t decided to go through with it.

  15. The EverBank account is a Money Market Account. These are not covered by FDIC are they?

    And are they covered by that 3 month treasury program? From what I read on the Fidelity website, only amounts in accounts on Sept 19 are eligible.

  16. WaMu Online Savings gives you 3% and instant access to your funds in branch or ATM. Don’t have to wait at all.

  17. The Everbank account is FDIC-insured. A money market savings account offered by a FDIC-Insured bank (as Everbank is) is insured the same as any type of savings account.

    A money market mutual fund, on the other hand, offered by a brokerage firm like Vanguard or Fidelity, is not FDIC-insured.

  18. Money-Making-Machine says

    The EverBank Yield Pledge Money Market is FDIC insured up to $250,000. Money market accounts at banks generally are FDIC insured, while Money Market Mutual Funds at investment firms are not.

  19. Man………how many is too many to hold??

    I like the Everbank rate, but it looks like a little longer to open the account than Dollar, plus I already have an Emigrant account. (They really should offer the 4% to Emigrant customers anyway, but oh well, I’ll jump)

    That’ll put me with 4 different accounts if I open these two.
    FNBO
    Emigrant
    Dollar
    Ever

    Is 4 too many??

    Does it even matter?? (i.e. 5, 10, 20 accounts…….whatever it takes to get the best rate??)

  20. Do you have something against E*Trade? I don’t remember you mentioning them. Their savings pays 3.30%, no minimums, no account fees. FDIC insured.

    Their checking is good too:
    2.90% on balances $5,000+
    Free, unlimited online bill payments
    Free ATM/VISA® Debit card
    Unlimited ATM fee refunds
    Free initial checkbook order
    FDIC Insured

  21. BoA affiliate MM accounts (Defenders of Wildlife, etc) are at 3.93% APY.

  22. If you’re a Costco member, you can get a 3.75% rate with a $10,000 minimum balance. If you are Executive status, you can also get an additional $60 account opening bonus. You need to go through costco.com to access these bonuses.

  23. I just opened an account at Dollarsavings direct to replace EmigrantDirect – Thanks for the tip!

    However, I remain perplexed about Emigrant’s actions here. I went to Emigrant.com and they still link you to Emigrantdirect for online savings with no mention of ‘Dollar’. There is very little information online except for a few news entries for when they opened.

    is this a marketing experiment? Are they trying to flush Em’Direct of all their 1000+ clients and leave the others in place? what the heck?

    regardless, I didn’t hesitate to start moving my money to the new entity.

  24. So for those who have both an EmigrantDirect and DollarSavingsDirect account, is it possible to directly link the two savings account to transfer money or must you transfer to an intermediary checking account first?

    And if direct linking is possible, can you report how long the transfer takes?

  25. Mark,

    I think it is the same reason the brick and mortar side of these banks don’t advertise their high interest internet only accounts in branch. They are looking to attract new money from a very specific type of customer, used to self-service online. In Emigrant’s case I would say it is a very calculated business move. What incentive do they have to tell (or grant the 4% for that matter) the guy with $100,000 at 3% in Emigrant about the Dollar account at 4%. A large percentage of those customers will never find out or are too lazy to pull the trigger if they do. People like us will catch wind and move all of their money from FNBO to Dollar (in my case), and bingo, they get a bunch of new money and keep a lot of the old at lower rates. That’s why I would do it if I were them anyway. They know many of us aren’t particularly brand-loyal in this area too.

  26. Bernie Bildman says

    WAMU has now dropped their savings interest rates down by 1/2% — to 2.5%

  27. Bernie Bildman says

    Everbank just dropped their 3 month bonus rate from 4.65% to 3.93% and yearly APY from 3.54% to 3.18%

    Guess the Feds rate drop this week was good news for banks and those getting their Wall Street bonuses, but bad for us fixed income folks who live to some extent on interest coming from savings accounts, this sucks…the whole “bailout scenario”

  28. For those who have opened Dollar accounts has there been any drop in the interest rate so far. My fear is that it’s a lure and then it will drop to 2% after 3 months. It may not be in existence long enough to tell what will happen, but if anyone has any input on this I would be grateful. I think I am going to try it out anyway.

    Thanks.

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