MoneyRates Blog
Obama and Interest Rates
President Obama reached his 100th day in office this week with huge questions lingering regarding the effectiveness of his policies and strategies. While it may take years or decades to objectively evaluate the Obama Administration’s response to the financial Pearl Harbor he has faced, at least for this milestone week Obama enthusiasts point to the positive. [...]
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Housing Figures the Latest Data to Put Perspectives on Interest Rates
It was reported this week that housing prices in the U.S. declined by 18.6% for the year ending February 28, 2009.
Let’s take another example. Over the same time period, the price of oil fell by more than half.
Think about it — those are two pretty dramatic examples of deflation. They are dramatic both in magnitude — [...]
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When Will Inflation Expectations Lift CD Rates?
Recent economic releases have increased the optimism of some market analysts about the U.S. economy, although you may have to listen or read very carefully to find the good news. The glimmers of hope are hidden in phrases like, “the pace of declining home sales has slowed” or “growth was forecast to be worse than reported.” Not exactly enough [...]
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Re-thinking the Income Component of Your Portfolio
Diversified portfolios are generally split in some measure between growth-oriented and income-producing assets. With the stock market alternating between 20% declines and 20% rallies over the course of just a few month, there are certainly some agonizing decisions to be made about the growth component. However, there are also important decisions to be made about [...]
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Short-Term Adjustable Mortgage Rates Now Higher Than 30-Year Fixed Rates
The weekly survey of mortgage lenders conducted by Freddie Mac is reporting that the average rate on a shorter-term adjustable-rate mortgage is now higher than fixed mortgages of 15 or 30 years. This is the first time since Freddie Mac started the survey over 20 years ago that the mortgage rate curve has been inverse. Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM)’s are mortgages [...]
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Rates on U.S. Savings Bonds Set to Go Down
The Treasury Department is scheduled to reset rates on the Series EE Savings Bond and the Series I Inflation Bond on May 1. It is safe to say that the new rates are not likely to generate a lot of interest from rate-savvy investors. That’s because short-term interest rates and inflation are low right now, which [...]
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CD Rates: And You Thought This Was Low….
It almost didn’t seem possible, but CD rates edged even lower over the past week, prompting the inevitable question: how low can they go? For savers who’ve been holding off on committing to a CD because they thought rates were already as low as they could get, the answer may be something of a surprise.
As [...]
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Small Ball — Building Your Savings One Step At A Time
In baseball, “small ball” is the art of doing a series of little things to score runs one at a time. While not as thrilling to the casual fan as a three-run home run, baseball afficianados recognize small ball as a way of taking control of the action, rather than waiting around for something good [...]
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Preventing a Last-Second Tax Disaster
Today is a day of panic for millions of Americans. Today is April 15th or “Tax Day”. For households who are just now realizing that their checking account or savings account lacks the funds in it to pay their tax bill, viable options remain. What you can’t do is procrastinate and not file your return. If you don’t have the money to [...]
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FDIC Insurance Hike Could Put More Downward Pressure on CD Rates
In many ways, it is difficult to imagine CD rates, along with interest rates on money market and savings accounts, getting much lower. Historical precedent, the unusually soft inflation environment, and Federal Reserve intervention all suggest that today’s low interest rates are an extraordinary, and therefore temporary, state of affairs. However, there is at least one factor that [...]
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A Bank That Offers a Savings Account for Your Pet?
What happens to a beloved pet if the owner unexpectedly dies? Unless a family member or a friend steps in, there may not be a good long-term solution for these pets. However, what if pet owners could set up an online savings account that earned interest and also served as a legal trust account for the benefit [...]
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Managing Your Cash: Don’t Pay for Parking
With the uncertainty about the economy and the volatility of the stock market over the past eighteen months, it’s not surprising that there are a lot of investors on the sidelines. In any bear market there are people who choose to pull their money out of the stock market and wait for the craziness to [...]
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Save Your Business Money By Depositing Checks Online
Remote deposit (also called online deposit) is a secure service that allows you to scan paper checks from your office or home and electronically send the images to your bank for deposit through a secure platform. Any business with a high volume of checks can benefit by processing deposits online. Advantages include:
Green Banking - By [...]
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Deposit Your Tax Refund Directly to Your Savings or Checking Account
The IRS gives all taxpayers the option to receive their tax refunds through direct deposit to more than one bank or brokerage account. Form 8888, which can be downloaded from IRS.gov, allows taxpayers to split up their refund and decide which amounts go to which accounts. Eligible account types include:
Bank checking accounts
Bank money market accounts
Bank savings accounts
Brokerage accounts
Mutual [...]
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Mobile Banking Can Be Secure and Safe
Mobile banking is huge in Asia and Western Europe, but has been slow to take off in the United States. Even today, only a handful of banks have applications available for download in the Apple iPhone applications Store. Before using your iPhone, Blackberry, or Smartphone for mobile banking, here are a few tips to remember:
(1) Lost Phones [...]
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