Archives for April 2008

ETRADE is offering an online savings account with a current annual percentage yield of 0.95 percent. The account has no fees and no minimums. New or existing Etrade customers can sign up.

ETRADE Financial is also offering an online checking account with a annual percent yield of 0.95 percent, the checking account also offers the following:

• Unlimited ATM Fee Refunds ( Etrade doesn’t charge you when you use other banks ATM’s, but other banks will)
• Free online bill payment
• Unlimited checking writing

 
Open a high-yield account now @ E*TRADE Bank

Bank of Internet is offering high yield Certificate of Deposit (CDs) rates on 3 month to 5 year CDs. The rates listed here are as of April 29th, 2008. You can check for best CD rate by month.

High Yielding CDs, View Rates Here

 
High Yielding CDs Apply Here

WT Direct is offering a 3.26% APY Online Savings Account with a minimum depost of $10,000. There is no minimum deposit required to open the account.

For the first 60 days from the date the account is opened, regardless of the account balance, the account will earn our highest APY, which is variable and is currently 3.26%. After the first 60 days, the APY for the account will have two tiers:

(a) a higher APY for accounts with balances of $10,000 or more (variable and currently 3.26% APY); and (b) a lower APY for accounts with balances of less than $10,000 (variable and currently 0.50% APY). +FDIC-insured up to $100,000 per depositor with Wilmington Trust FSB

Learn more here

Since this past September, the Federal Reserve has lowered the federal-funds rate six times, from 5.25% to 2.25%, over the same period, certificate of deposit yields have dropped in tandem.

This time around, banks have been quicker to lower rates on deposits to offset higher credit costs and lower demands for loans. Some banks are offering promotional rates but you have to do your research to find them.

Washington Mutual has been offering a 3.30 percent Online Savings Account and if you don’t mind locking your funds up for a year, Countrywide Financial is offering a 4.10 APY 1 Year CD as of April 08.

The National Association of Realtors has reported that existing home sales including single family, townhomes, condominiums and coops were down 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units in March from a level of 5.03 million in February, and remain 19.3 percent below the 6.11 million-unit pace in March 2007. A rise in condo sales in March was offset by a drop in single-family sales. Regionally, sales rose in the Northeast and West but fell in the Midwest and South.

At the same time, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, a government agency, has reported prices rose .06 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis between January and February 2008, for the 12 months ended February 2008 U.S prices fell 2.4 percent. Regional prices varied, for a more detailed report, please visit http://www.ofheo.com.

A certificate of deposit is a timed deposit offered to consumers by banks, thrift institutions and credit unions. In exchange for keeping the money on deposit for the agreed term, usually 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or 5 years, banks offer higher interest rates than they do then a traditional savings account, although this may not be the case in an inverted yield curve situation.

Fixed rates are the most common option, but some banks also offer CDs with various forms of variable rates. As of April 2008, current rates for a 6 month or 1 year certificate of deposit average between 2.5% to 3.0% annualized, rates on a 5 year certificate of deposit are over 3.00%.

All bank rates have decliend recently, mortgage rates have also come down to the six percent range for a conforming mortgage.

Whoo Hoo!!!!!! Washington Mutual has a free checking account offer bundled with an Online Savings Account that currently Yields 3.30%. The free checking account has following features:

• Free ATM cash withdrawals
• $1 opening balance
• Cash back for debit purchases
• Free checks for life
• Free Overdraft/NSF Fee waiver each year
• Free outbound wire transfers and more

Open by phone or at any branch/Financial Center for the amount of checking printing charges, or $1.00 if the free check option is selected or no checks are ordered. Or, apply online in less than 7 minutes.

• No monthly service charge
• Free ID Theft Services
• Free Gold Debit MasterCard® with Rewards
• Free overdraft or non-sufficient funds fee refund—use one per year
• Free account access at more than 3,800 Washington Mutual ATMs nationwide24/7
• Telephone Banking
• Free Account Alerts keep you up to date on the status of your account (when signed up through our Personal Online Banking)

Learn more from WaMu.