best bank for savings account??
Started by changeofheart77
ingdirect.com is good if you can handle an online savings account.
APY looks great. I guess it's mostly the unfamiliar banks who would have the best rates...
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i like hsbc direct better. i think the yield is marginably higher, plus you get an atm card for emergency access. don't bother getting a savings account at a traditional bank like wells fargo, bofa, or citi - they won't give you jack in interest (which, interestingly enough, is why bank stocks make such good investments!)
I second ING.
They have a great rate and it is easy to set-up and transfer money.
Remember, you asked about a savings account, so you shouldn't be messing around with it too much.
They have a great rate and it is easy to set-up and transfer money.
Remember, you asked about a savings account, so you shouldn't be messing around with it too much.
yeah, well savings are usually put aside for a "rainy day", and you want to make sure that when it starts raining you'll be able to access your umbrella. if you wanted to completely lock your money, might as well go with a CD.
i am checking out hsbc. they have a great APY of 6% thru apr 30, but i'm still trying to figure out what the usual APY w/o the promotion. thanks for all the suggestion. i am a late-bloomer when it comes to financial-saviness. yes, i'm still learning,
GMAC Savings is my favorite right now. 5.10% APY right now, ATM card, and Checks. There is a min balance of $500 to avoid fees, and you are limited to six withdrawls per month, but i'm pretty diligent and it works well for me. I also have an HSBC account, but I don't use it b/c, in my opinion, there interface is a major PITA.
usual apy is at or above ing direct. oh, and i agree - the biggest drawback is the crappy interface, but since it's a savings account, you probably won't need to be on there often anyway, right?
how about good places to have a checking account?
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ING, HSBC, GMAC direct are all good places. If you meet the $3,000 minimum you might consider Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund. Free checks but you can only write them for a minimum $250.
Actually, ING Direct just started an "Electric Orange" E-checking account. The rates are great for checking accounts, there are no fees, and everything is completely electronic. I'm thinking about giving it a try....
Other than that, just pick your local bank with the lowest min. balance requirements, lowest fees, best policies about holds (some are totally nazi about slapping a 10-day hold on any big checks, etc, some aren't.) I'm a big fan of credit unions myself, so if you have the opportunity to join one, you'll probably be better off.
my checking account is my fidelity core account. all money that i have to write checks with sits in the select money market fund, and then when i write a check they redeem it automatically, transfer it to CA municipal mmf, and then debit the account. so i earn dividends up until the last minute.
I have ING Direct (4.50% APY, awesome interface) and Emigrant Direct (5.05% APY, good interface, usually identical APY to HSBC Direct). Love both. $1 to open and no issues. ING usually takes 3 days to transfer; Emigrant, 2.
If you have $1000 off the bat for opening deposit, check out AmTrust Direct. 5.36% APY and great CD rates. I'll open a savings acct with them soon -- I've had a CD with them -- great service and no issues.
If you want other online savings accounts or brick-and-mortar accounts in California, check out bankrate.com.
If you have $1000 off the bat for opening deposit, check out AmTrust Direct. 5.36% APY and great CD rates. I'll open a savings acct with them soon -- I've had a CD with them -- great service and no issues.
If you want other online savings accounts or brick-and-mortar accounts in California, check out bankrate.com.
If you don't have $1000 it doesn't matter what you do. I mean 5% on $1000 is only $50 a year!
it's the settlement account for my brokerage account. i can access this money in 5 ways - ach, fed wire transfer (free for me because i meet trade/balance thresholds), checkwriting, visa atm/debit card, and amex delayed debit card. the rate is competitive, but i'm not sure what - you can get it from fidelity.com and lookup up the money funds rates - typically around 4.5-5.5%.
edit: i looked it up, and the 7 day yield is 5.06%. it's lower than ing/hsbc, but i'm willing to take that hit in order for more convenience/have funds ready for investment opportunities.
ING Direct's Electric Orange accounts yield 5.3% for balances > 100k.
I parked into FSLXX and the APY is competitive wrt Cap 1 Costco. I could probably get a better yield going elsewhere but I like the one stop shop convenience with no fees and am only trading about 0.10% of interest as the cost of this advantage. Great new bank!
EDIT: FYI the apy was actually 5.21% not too long ago. Recently it's been hovering around 5.17% (post expense)
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How much money do we need to open a fidelity core account? I have some stock at the moment (inherited) which are held individually. I was thinking about transfering them to Fidelity just for the easy of operation and in case I want to drop them (if the stock finally goes over $40) and buy some index funds. Is there any advantage to holding stocks individually? I figured if there was a minimum requirement at fidelity I could use the stocks as some kind of relationship deal to get rid of the minimums.
all you need is $2500 to open an account - I think they started waiving all the account fees/maintenance fees etc. "relationships" at fidelity are given at the $50k and $1M level. oh, and sadly they don't offer the amex delayed debit card anymore (i knew it was too good to be true), but current cardholders aren't affected.
The only advantage to holding stocks individually occurs when that stock drammatically increases in value. Therefore, putting 100% of some sum of $$$ in that one stock will yield more than spreading that same sum of $$$ across multiple stocks in a fund. You are risking more for a potentially larger reward.
actually, i think what the poster was asking a question regarding holding securities in book-entry or certificate form, as opposed to "street-name" i.e., in a brokerage account. the only advantage could be that you get to look at a cool looking stock certificate (it's why i hold 1 share of a lot of my holdings in certificate form); but then again, if you lose it, you'll have to pay a 3% "insurance fee" to get another one. also, holding stock in your name as opposed to your brokers means that they can't be lent out for short selling, although it probably won't make a difference considering how miniscule our holdings are compared to the daily float. so i guess you should go ahead and deposit the certificates.
Sorry, I guess I was just being thick this morning 🙂
Dividends are just "direct deposited" into your brokerage account when you use a broker.
No, no. Honestly I know what I meant to ask but I think I had the financial terms wrong. Sorry about that 😳 Google is my friend next time 🙂
or, you can do what i do and have them reinvest the dividends back into the stock. i figure the company will be able to invest the cash better than i can.
Just to talk about savings again:
I'm currently using WaMu's free checking and statement savings (5%) - it's pretty nice if you have WaMu's in your area... interest rates comparable to an online bank but the customer servive of a bricks and mortar (plus free checks! 🙂 )
http://www.wamu.com/personal/accountchoices/checking/wamufreechecking/default.asp
(you'll see the link slightly down that talkings about opening the savings account with it).
I'm currently using WaMu's free checking and statement savings (5%) - it's pretty nice if you have WaMu's in your area... interest rates comparable to an online bank but the customer servive of a bricks and mortar (plus free checks! 🙂 )
http://www.wamu.com/personal/accountchoices/checking/wamufreechecking/default.asp
(you'll see the link slightly down that talkings about opening the savings account with it).
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i have a wamu checking account with $0.09 in it - the ONLY reason i have it is because they offer free domestic and international wire transfers, which is a HUGE benefit. the 5% deal is cool, but i'll stick with the 4.62% i'm getting at wells/fidelity - it's not like i have a lot of money that's in cash savings anyway, so a few tenths of a percent doesn't really matter.
no! i think they still offer it with their free checking account.
EverBank FreeNet Checking Account is a great online checking account. 6.01% Intro APY with good benefits - checks, free atm, bill pay. Need $1500 to open.
http://www.everbank.com/001Checking.aspx
Does anyone know if the transfer of money between your checking account and these online savings accounts is qualified as a "wire transfer." I don't want my checking account bank to charge me $30 every time...anyone know?
nope...they are electronic debits that are processed through ACH (automated clearinghouse), not the fedwire system.
E-trade bank. 5% APR on savings accounts. Use the Ach (electronic check) to transfer money between banks. You need the routing number and account number (it takes a day to process).
my 2 favorite websites to check out for savings accounts are
1. bankdeals.blogspot.com
2. thepiggybanker.com
what these guys do is keep a daily update on various banks that have various rates for cds, savings accounts, etc. check it out.
1. bankdeals.blogspot.com
2. thepiggybanker.com
what these guys do is keep a daily update on various banks that have various rates for cds, savings accounts, etc. check it out.
I just opened a savings account (4.5%) and checking account (4.0%) at ING DIRECT. It was a very simple process and only took about 5 minutes.
Here's an interesting article about ING:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1633064,00.html
Here's an interesting article about ING:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1633064,00.html
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Why not try putting your money into a CD account? CD accounts have much higher interest rates than the conservative savings account. The only drawback is that you can't take your money out. However, you can try doing short-term cd accounts like 6 month CDs...You can search for the best 6 month cd rates here: http://www.gobankingrates.com/cd-rates/6-month-cd/
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