I’ve blogged about Pentagon Federal Money Market Cerificates (CDs) before, including how to join, previously. PenFed has just announced new rates, and several of them are very competitive –

3 Year CD – 5.5% APY
5 Year CD – 5.75% APY
7 Year CD – 6.0% APY
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Another good question spurned by fellow rate-chasers’ comments. We now have a lot of competition in the high yield savings account arena. So, a good question asked is “When it worth it to move your money”? This is because there may be a gap in between money transfers from Bank A to Bank B where your money will not be earning any interest, which could negate much of the benefits of moving. (Another good question is which bank or entity is earning money off the float.) Things to consider:

1) When does Bank A stop paying interest?
2) How long does it take to for the transfer?
3) When does Bank B start paying interest on your deposit?
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As mentioned by readers. GMAC Bank MM Savings at 4.30% – FDIC Insured, $500 minimum to open and maintain to avoid fees, ATM Card, limited check writing. I don’t have an account with them currently, let’s hope others move to match.

Bummer, I’m finally out of checks. I try to write as little checks as humanly possible and pay for everything with credit cards to get cash back, but still, things like rent, graduation gifts, giving to charity, gradually deplete my checkbook. Last time I was stupid and requested new checks directly from Bank of America. They cost me $35! What a rip off. I didn’t know you could get checks printed from anywhere.

This time, I’m ordering from Costco Check Printing. You get 400 single plain checks for $9, or 300 duplicate checks for $10 with free shipping. Executive members get another 20% off. If you’re not a member of Costco or need less checks, try these places:
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Most people have seen the notices online or in your physical bank that your deposits in an FDIC Insured bank account are insured up to $100,000. But what if you find yourself with more than $100,000 in cash? Say, in between home selling and buying? Well, one easy way is to simply open another account at another bank (You can verify that they are indeed FDIC Insured at this FDIC webpage.)

You can also get around those limits all at one bank if you notice that accounts in different ownership categories, like individual and joint accounts, are insured separately. I found a handy chart [pdf] explaining this from Emigrant Direct’s FAQ Page:
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For me, the only reason I knew Washington Mutual existed was because they offered free ATM access with no fees on their end. According to this recent Reuters article (via Fatwallet), as of November 17th that will be no more. Bummer.

An surprising quote from the article:

Bankrate.com estimates that U.S. consumers pay nearly $4 billion a year in ATM fees, with an average $1.40 surcharge.

$4 Billion??? Yowza. We are lazy folk. I can’t talk though, because I contributed to that $4 Billion myself.
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Back when I was a new eBay Powerseller, I loved PayPal. People paid me instantly, and I didn’t have to run to the bank to deposit checks and wait until they cleared. Of course some people had problems, but I figured they were probably doing some sketchy stuff and had it coming…. Until it happened to me.

They don’t tell you this, but just one nervous buyer or seller can file a complaint against you, and that’s that. Even if they just don’t want to pay for it. Your account is disabled, a happy word for frozen. As in no access to your money. And you don’t get access until you do all of the following:
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I know a lot of people who use local credit unions not only because they have reasonable prices, but they like the personalized customer service and small bank feel. Me, I’ve been pretty happy with my local Bank of America branch, it fulfills all my needs. But I just noticed in the newspaper that a local credit union is offering a 6 month promotional CD paying 5% APY. Not only is that a good rate, but they also have a branch right by my house.

Looking at their website, I also notice a lot of cool little features. They include: free cashier’s checks, free traveler’s checks, $10 outgoing wire transfers, and non-network ATM reimbursements. Definitely must check it out in person, their safety deposit boxes are only $20 a year. All these little things cost more at BofA and can add up.

First of all, thanks to the participants in my $10 Emigrant Direct Opening Bonus for not sending me any e-mails like the title of this post. It has been about 45 days since I started it, and I know some of you have finished opening your account weeks ago. Well, unfortunately I haven’t gotten paid yet. After an account is opened and tracked, I have to bill them at the end of the month. (Nobody sent me their 2nd notice earlier than October) Then they are supposed to pay me within 30 days of that. There have been some bumps in the process, but I have been assured that my first payment is ‘in processing’ and should arrive shortly. I apologize for the delay and just wanted to give you guys an update.

Also, I have streamlined the bonus directions so that new bonus seekers will instantly get e-mail confirmations that I have received your information. If you already started the process, please continue to use the old directions.

Just got note that HSBC’s Online Savings Account is now at 4.0%, matching Emmigrant Direct. (thanks Allan) Too bad I can’t find any sign-up offers right now, I missed the last one for $35. Let’s hear it for some rate wars!

I have most of my cash in a high-yield savings account making 4.12% APY. However, in previous days when the yield curve wasn’t so flat, a technique called laddering along with certificates of deposit (CDs) was pretty popular.

For example, let’s say you had an emergency fund of $5,000. You want to keep that pretty liquid and safe, but you also don’t want it sitting there getting eaten up by inflation. So, you put $1,000 in a savings account, $1000 in a 1-Yr CD, $1000 in a 2-Yr CD, $1,000 in a 3-yr CD, and $1,000 in a 4-Yr CD. You would end up with better overall interest rate, and take an interest hit if you needed to take out more than $1,000 in a year by breaking the older CDs. Now, when the 1-Yr CD matures, you go out and buy another 4-Yr CD, keeping the ‘ladder’ intact (The old 4-Yr CD now has 3 years to go, etc). For a while, the increase in interest by doing this was not worth the loss in liquidity. Let’s check again:

I’ll use INGDirect as an example since they are OK in the interest rate department, and their CDs are very flexible since you can open them with any amount. You could make a small $600 CD ladder with their savings account and 1,2,3,4, and 5 year CD in $100 increments. There are definitely many banks with higher rates out there.

So, if you kept $5,000 in their Orange Savings Account (OSA), you’d currently get 3.40% APY, or $170 in a year.

Let’s look at if you make the following ladder with the current rates:

$1,000 OSA at 3.4% APY
$1,000 1-Yr CD at 4.2%
$1,000 2-Yr CD at 4.5%
$1,000 3-Yr CD at 4.65%
$1,000 4-Yr CD at 4.7%
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$5,000 Ladder earning 4.29% APY

That’s an increase of 0.89% annual interest. Equivalently, you’d get $214.50 in a year, an increase of $44.50 or 26%. Not bad if you do have money at ING.

Remember that you are giving up liquidity by doing this. ING charges a penalty of 6 months interest for breaked a CD with a term longer than 1 year. Be aware that if you break in less than 6 months, you’ll actually be losing money! But, it may be worth it. Now I need to see if I can find a bank with consistently high rates to open a up a ladder with better rates. It would have to be all at one bank, otherwise it’d be a pain to keep track of.

You can do alot of different things with laddering – make the time increments longer, shorter, wider apart, closer apart, and so on. Many people also use this technique with marketable bonds and savings bonds.

I guess the word has spread about the great I-Bonds rates, as is shown by this recent USA Today article. Unfortunately, this article does not help me at all, since the key to buying now or later is the upcoming fixed rate, and these two so-called experts can’t even agree on it. One says it may go down to 0.5%, the other one says 1.3-1.5%. Gee, thanks guys.