Several of the banks have increased their CD yields but for the month, every bank stood pat on their high yield savings account interest rates. The Fed kept rates constant, which gave banks little incentive to increase their rates. However, on the other hand, liquidity pressures have been forcing some banks to increase their rates. Just recently, ING Direct increased their CD rates twice in August and ING Direct’s 12-month CD now yields a healthy 4.00% APY.

If you’re still wary of online banks or aren’t sure how to pick one, there was recently a good article on Dumb Little Man on how to choose an online bank.

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.

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.

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.

Not much of a change this month with a majority of the banks listed keeping rates pat, not surprising given little change by the Fed. The only notable change was E*Trade increasing their rate by a nominal amount, which can assuage E*Trade account holders but probably does little to entice new deposits.

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

This month, a few of the leader banks from last month fell a little farther than the rest of the pack, but most of the banks fell to be within 25 basis points of 3.00%. WT Direct leads the way with a 3.31% APY if you have $10,000+ to deposit but otherwise the Washington Mutual Checking offer is a pretty good return as well at 3.30%.

Also, ING Direct has a referral program where you can get $25 for signing up and depositing $250. If visit this page if you’d like one of these referrals for ING Direct’s $25 promotional program.

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

The dropping of rates at high yield banks continues unabated as this week we saw even more drops from the major online banks. Emigrant fell the hardest, evening themselves up with ING Direct, and it’s a sign that Emigrant is no longer in “growth” mode, offering up higher rates for more deposits, and has entered ING’s mode of just cruising. Some of the newer banks have slid more slowly but the rates are all in the 3’s instead of the 4’s.

Again, rate chasing might become more common now that everything is so low, but I do not recommend rate chasing high yield savings accounts, it’s just not worth the effort and time..

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

The Fed made some moves this month (dropping the rates by 75 points and then 50 points) and, as expected, the rates have fallen as well. The days of 5%+ APY on an online savings account are clearly over as there are hardly any banks offering that rate anymore (none of the ones I track list a rate over 4.40%!).

You might be tempted to rate chase, moving your funds to E*Trade, but I do not recommend rate chasing high yield savings accounts.

Want to see a bank tracked in this list? Leave it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to include it!

I don’t advocate jumping around from high yield savings account to high yield savings account to just to earn a few extra tenths of a percent but keeping your eye on the various rates offered by the high yield savings banks is important because you may find that you’re a full percent behind the top dog. In these monthly roundups, I’ll report out the top rates in the nation so you can be sure you’re within striking distance of the top dog.

There are, obviously, more banks out there but that’s a good selection of the top rates I don’t bother looking past those.