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Money-Rates.com Twitter Updates Available

Money-Rates.com is now posting Twitter updates at Twitter.com for people interested in keeping track of the latest up-to-the-minute bank deals. The easiest way to keep track of the updates is to open an account at Twitter - a process that takes less than five minutes.

Twitter Updates

Top Ten Highest Rates on Bank Savings Accounts

There is a lot of interest in bank savings account now that the FDIC is pushing Congress for the authority to increase deposit limits from $100,000 to $250,000. Here are the top ten rates on a Bank Savings Account ranked by Annual Percentage Yield as posted on Money-Rates.com:
AmTrust Direct, 4.00% APY, $500 minimum
Washington Mutual Bank [...]

Online Auctions Still Lagging on Rates

Moneyaisle.com and Zionsdirect.com are two online CD auctions where visitors can compete in a bidding process to find rates on CDs. A comparision made today on the two sites shows that the auction process (while very cool to watch) returns much lower rates than the rate aggregator sites:
5-year CD rates
5-year CDs on Moneyaisle.com ended up [...]

New Bank Auction Site Launches

MoneyAisle is a new bank auction site which launched today. MoneyAisle allows consumers to place a deposit (either a savings account or a certificate of deposit) up for auction where the network of 70 MoneyAisle banks bid up the rate until one bank emerges as the winner. At that point the consumers can register with [...]

Reward Checking Accounts Looking Better Than Ever

Reward checking is a product that was rolled out by banks (mainly online banks) in 2007 with little publicity. A reward checking account pays a high APY on balances up to a preset limit if customers maintain specific online banking requirements which may include: debit card transactions, check card transactions, direct deposit, auto-debits, and receiving [...]

Zions Direct’s Live Auctions on E-Bay

The live CD auctions at Zions Direct have been around for a whole and allow visitors to bid on CDs offered by member banks of the Zions Direct progrma. The current issuers are Zions Fist National Bank, Amegy Bank of Texas, National Bank of Arizona, Vectra Bank Colorado, and Nevada State Bank. Recent results have [...]

The Fed and Online Bank Rates and Deals

The bad news for online bank investors is that the Fed is very likely to drop rates 25 or 50 points at this week’s meeting, but the good news is that it appears most online banks have already factored in that rate cut into this week’s rates and we don’t expect a large reduction in [...]

An Online Bank Delivering High Rates on Deposits

Umbrella Bank is the online division of New South Federal Savings Bank (FDIC# 32276) a 75-year old bank based out of Alabama (See FDIC Report here). Umbrella Bank through their website Umbrellabank.com has been offering deposit rates ranking in the top 1% of all FDIC banks for over 5 years. Customers of UmbrellaBank have reported [...]

Investing in 2008

Many predictive models and some trading platforms like intrade.com are rating the probability of a recession in 2008 at greater than 50%. An outlook this for the coming year makes investing safely more of a challenge. When you consider that interest rates have fallen a point since last year and are expected to fall [...]

Money-Rates.com Posting Bank Deposit Rates over 5.50% APY

Look’s like at least a few banks still need a little spending at the end-of-the-year. Despite a Federal Funds Rate at 4.25% and falling the following rate specials are listed at money-rates.com:
5.75% APY at KeyDirect on a 10-year CD with a minimum deposit of $50,0005.51% APY at EverBank as an introductory APY on their money [...]

Online Bank Deals Just Got More Attractive (compared to US Treasuries)

On the face of it a rate cut by the Federal Reserve along with signals that the Fed will cut some more in 2008 would appear to be devastating news to investors accustomed to finding great rates from online banks. However, there appears to be enough competition and thirst for deposits by online banks to [...]

Index Returns for Stock and Bond Markets 2007

A quick look at the YTD (year-to-date returns) for the markets in 2007 show that the broad-based market index the Russell 2000 is in negative territory for the year, while the blue chips and NASDAQ composite index are still positive. Bond indexes have not outperformed the money-rates.com Model Bank Deposit Portfolio which is 100% comprised [...]

Comparing Year-to-Date Returns on Investment Portfolios

Investors who have held safer investments this year have matched or nearly matched the returns seen on riskier investments when factoring in YTD returns (including income generated).
YTD Index Returns (January 1st, 2007 - July 26, 2007)
StocksS&P 500 Index: 2.87%NASDAQ Composite Index: 6.80%Dow Jones Industrial Average: 6.44%Russell 2000 Index: -1.25%Dow Jones 3000 Wilshire Index: 3.18%
BondsJP Morgan [...]