Entries Tagged 'Banking' ↓

If you have an ING Direct Orange Savings account and don’t have an Electric Orange checking account yet, you can participate in their $25 promotion. All you need to do is visit the promotional page, open an Electric Orange account, activate your Electric Orange MasterCard (it’s a debit card) and then use it in three signature-based purchases within 45 days of your account being opened and you’ll get the $25.

If you don’t have an Orange Savings account, you can also get a $25 bonus for opening one through a referral link (I have a whole bunch at this ING Direct $25 promotion referral page) and deposit $250 into the account. Or, if you don’t have $250 to deposit, you can just open an ING Direct account with $1.

Lookee loookee, it appears that FNBO Direct, which is offering a very competitive 3.50% APY on their online savings account, is also offering a $25 promotion if you open an FNBO Bill Pay account.

Commerce Bank is running their Summer Reader Program promotion where they will deposit $10 into a new or existing Young Savers Account if you read ten books. Simply fill out the Summer Reading Brochure and bring it to your local Commerce Bank for the $10 promotion.

Terms & Conditions:

$10 will be deposited into a new or existing Young Savers account. One coupon per Customer. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Valid through September 30, 2008. Bring form of ID for child for a new account opening.

Washington Mutual recently increased their one-year (and 13 month) Certificate of Deposit rates to 4.50% APY, which appears to be in lock-step with their 3.75% APY online savings account. WaMu has been in the news lately for liquidity issues, an acute problem that brought down other banks recently, but they are FDIC insured up to the standard $100,000 so you won’t have to worry about losing anything.

Hat tip to Bank Deals!

The last Bank of America Checking (aou260508) bonus just expired so it’s time for a new bonus code! This is an offer for Bank of America credit card holders.

1. Open a new MyAccess Checking account using code: CH75TAD (make sure that code appears on the page)
2. Fund the account with $25 within thirty days.
3. Receive $75 within ninety days.

Offer expires November 30th, 2008.

Looks like rates are moving upward this month! WaMu jumped over all competitors and currently has the highest rate of 3.75% APY for their online savings account. Other banks have upped their offers as well and you now have at least three banks with offers over 3.50% APY. The HSBC Direct offer is valid until at least Sept. 15th and the WaMu and FNBO offer are both good indefinitely. Sadly, high yield saving account pioneers ING Direct and Emigrant Direct (increased their rate by 0.25% on Friday though!) lead up the back of the pack having not raised their rates.

Concerned about banks failing? (Some have speculated the generous offer by WaMu is because they are facing a liquidity problem) All of these banks are FDIC insured so your funds up to $100,000 are safe.

Guess who has just joined the online high yield savings account market? The Provident Bank of Massachusetts has with Bank Provident Online, their new internet division offering 3.30% APY guaranteed until 2009 (which is only the next 5 months).

3.30% isn’t the highest rate, HSBC Direct offers 3.50% APY interest rate until August (with no mention of the rate afterwards), but they are covered by FDIC and DIF. DIF stands for Depositors Insurance Fund and it’s a private insurance fund that insures all deposits above the $100k FDIC limits.

Hat tip to Bank Deals for the find.

FDIC Insurance has been on a lot of people’s minds given the recent conservatorship of IndyMac. Many people that had more than the FDIC insurance limit, which is essentially $100,000 per person per institution, lost their money but if you structure your accounts correctly, one person could easily have many times more coverage. At worst, you could open multiple accounts at different institutions and get coverage that way, there’s almost no reason to have more than the $100,000 limit.

Today’s Seniors has a great explanation and example scenarios of how you can extend the insurance. If you are married with children, there are several ways you can extend your insurance limits. First, each person in the marriage can open an individual account that gives them $100,000 of cover. Then, they can open a joint account that has $200,000 of total coverage. If you’re keeping score, that’s three accounts with $400,000 of coverage ($100k, $100k, $200k). Then, each can open a testamentary (revocable trust) account naming each other as beneficiaries for another $100k each - total of $600k. That’s over half a million dollars in coverage.

Always consult a financial professional before making any decisions, I’m not a financial professional.

The FDIC insurance limit on bank accounts is $100,000 per account per type. It’s a little confusing sometimes but you’re safe knowing that $100,000 is the maximum you should ever keep in any bank account. In the event the bank should fail, which means that it’s gone into FDIC conservatorship, your deposits are insured up to $100,000. Your first $100,000 in that account is safe from loss.

In the latest bank collapse, IndyMac Bank, people withdrew $1.3bn in 11 days and caused a liquidity crisis that forced the Office of Thrift Supervision to step in and take over. If you had more than $100,000 in an account there, you would normally expect to get absolutely nothing back but as this plays out you might get something back.

The bank went from OK to done in eleven days. There were signs of this happening, of course, as 1.3 billion was withdrawn, but it shows that if you weren’t paying attention and had over $100k in there; you were out of luck.

I’m all for simplification of accounts and assets, the less you have the less you can screw up, but with so many online banks offering great savings rate APYs you should be able to find places to store your money if you have more than the FDIC limit.

With the Fed standing pat on rates, the only high yield savings account interest rate jockying will be for new deposits. Last month there were only two rate changes, FNBO Direct upped the rate to match HSBC’s 3.50% APY and WT Direct ticked up their rates by a tenth of a percent.

The only word of caution I’d throw in there is that benchmark rate, 3.50% at HSBC (but also available at lesser known FNBO Direct) is available through August 15th, 2008. There’s no saying where it will go after that.