McCain and Obama Suggest Raising FDIC Insurance Limits

The presidential candidates agree on at least one issue with both McCain and Obama strategists promoting an increase in the FDIC insurance deposit limit as part of their candidates financial reform platform. Both candidates agree that the insurance limit should be increased from $100,000 to $250,000.

The last time the insurance limit was increased was 1980.

National City Corp Next?

It goes without saying that when a bank stock loses over 95% of its share value in just over a year that the bank is facing some trouble. National City Corporation (NCC) is being openly discussed by banking analysts as the next bank with their head on the chopping block. It appears that after the [...]

U.S. Mint Halts Sales of American Buffalo Gold Coins

Last week the U.S. Mint temporarily halted the sale of one of their most popular gold coins due to consumer demand. Spokesman for the U.S. Mint, Michael White, announced the suspendedsales of the Buffalo 24-karat gold coin which was first introduced in 2006.

Gold dealers have stated that demand for gold coins has skyrocketed in 2008 [...]

California Bank Offering Online Money Market with 3.75% APY

Hanmi Bank, a California bank with branches in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, is offering a 3.75% APY on their Worry Free Money Market Account for customer who also open a checking account with Hanmi Bank. The minimum deposit is $10,000 which is also the average monthly balance with must be [...]

The FDIC Fights Back Against Bloomberg News Article

An online piece on Bloomberg News from reporter David Evans suggesting that the FDIC may need up to $150 billion to cover bank failures has created a stir to the point that the FDIC has directly responded to the article. In the article Evans suggested that the US taxpayer ultimately could end up paying the [...]

IndyMac Federal Bank Restructuring Loans and Offering High Rates on Deposits

IndyMac Federal Bank is a new bank created when the FDIC closed the old IndyMac Bank. The large bank failure on July 11th, 2008 of IndyMac Bank was one of the first warning signs of the financial chaos to come later in the summer. Now that the federal government is running the bank some progress [...]

New Videos from FDIC

The FDIC has released some new videos about bank deposits and FDIC insurance. The videos feature media star and financial expert Suze Orman along with FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.

Government Bailouts May Increase Long Term Interest Rates

The price tag for the US taxpayer of the government bailouts is reaching staggering proportions. To date the estimated costs has been reported at:
$29 billion for Bear Stearns
+$100 billion for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
$85 billion for AIG
$400 billion for the FDIC failed bank fund
$700 billion for the entity which will buy mortgage securities from [...]

Money Fund Guaranty Program Announced

One of the major developments last week was the initiative announced by the Treasury Department in which the Treasury Department will temporarily back up money market mutual funds with a new federal guarantee program. The program applies to funds in money markets before September 19, 2008. The press release from the Treasury Department summarizes the [...]

Who Will Buy Washington Mutual Bank?

Online reports are indicating that large institutional shareholders of Washington Mutual Inc. have cleared the way for the troubled banks to be purchased. Goldman Sachs and the federal government have both been rumored to be assisting in finding the right buyer. The orderly purchase of Washington Mutual Bank and unwinding of its suprime mortgage exposure [...]

Free Credit Scores from Credit Karma

Monitoring your own credit score used to be an involved process in which a consumer had to separately order their report from each major reporting agency. Although many companies provide a consolidated report online, nearly all of these services required a paid subscription for credit monitoring after an initial free report. A relatively new site, [...]

FDIC May Need to Tap Treasury for Bank Failures

The FDIC insurance fund, strained by eleven bank failures this year already, is at its lowest level in over five years. Although FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has been quick to point out that over 98% of the nation’s banks are categorized as adequately capitalized by regulators, the failure of a major bank could force the [...]

Major Money Fund Drops NAV Below $1

The devastating week for financial companies continued today after Primary Reserve Primary Fund became the first money-market fund in 14 years to drop their net asset value below $1 after writing off $700 million of debt issued by bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and experiencing large withdrawals. Primary Reserve Fund is actually the oldest money [...]

Upromise Helps Parents Save for College

Upromise is a college savings program where parents can earn college savings through their everyday spending. With over 40,000 participating retailers, parents can earn 1% t0 25% back in their purchases at grocery stores, drug stores, major retailers, travel websites, and more. The cash rewards are deposited directly into 529 plans set up for their [...]

Freddie Mac Bailout Not Expected to Effect Hurricane Relief

This weekend it was announced that the Treasury Department will take over the operations of mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to prevent mortgage-backed securities from defaulting and provide more stability to the nation’s real estate market. This news followed by less than one week the hurricane assistance initiative aimed at homeowners in the [...]

Rate Deals from Dime Savings Bank

Dimedirect.com is the online subsidiary of Dime Savings Bank, which is a large bank located in the state of New York. Dimedirect is offering the following new promotional rate deals for accounts opened online:
*** 3.00% APY on the Prime Dime Checking account for balances between $50,000 and $150,000*** 3.25% APY on the Rewards Passbook Money [...]

New 5.00% Checking Accounts

ebank.com is an online bank which has increased the yield on their personal checking account to 5.00%. It only takes $100 to open an ebank checking account, but to earn the 5.00% yield accountholders need to have an average daily of over $10,000 or the yield drops to 1.00%. ebank is a FDIC-insured bank based [...]

College Board Releases 2008 Tuition Index Costs

The total charges at an average private college as measured by the IC 500 Index was $37,208 for the 2008 - 2009 school year up from $35,272 the previous year. The 5.49% one-year increase in the index is used by College Savings Bank as the annual percentage yield for parents who own CollegeSure CDs for [...]

Top 20 Rates on Bank Savings Accounts

Today’s Twenty Highest Yielding Bank Savings Accounts (available online)
Goldwater Bank 4.00% APY
AmTrust Direct 4.00% APY
1st Constitution Direct 4.00% APY (intro-rate guaranteed for 90 days)
SmartyPig 3.90% APY
GCF Bank 3.80% APY
Provident Direct 3.75% APY
ollar Savings Direct 3.75% APY
BankUnited 3.75% APY
Washington Mutual Bank 3.75% APY
Heartland Bank Direct 3.55% APY
Doral Bank Direct 3.55% APY
Capital One Bank 3.50% APY
HSBC Bank [...]