Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

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tidalwave10
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Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by tidalwave10 »

I'd like to bite the bullet and take all my money out of Vanguard Prime MM--has no real value to me. And park my emergency fund money in an FDIC-insured "high" interest paying checking or savings account. Preferably one with no monthly fees. How does one quickly do rate / fee comparisons and what 3 vendors should I consider? I have access to USAA but have not yet looked at ant of their checking / savings products or rates. Some people seem to like ING Direct, and Ally Bank, at least at one point, seems to have been popular.

What's the highest rate I should expect to receive these days on a personal online checking or savings account with no monthly fee? Or where the monthly fee is waived if you have at least, say, a 10K to 20K balance.
Last edited by tidalwave10 on Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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leonidas
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by leonidas »

I know that barclays bank has a .9% savings account. If checking is what your interested in there are those accounts that pay like 2% interest but require 10 or so transaction a month. I have one but it is not available nationally.
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Phineas J. Whoopee
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Phineas J. Whoopee »

tidalwave10 wrote:I'd like to bite the bullet and take all my money out of Vanguard Prime MM--has no real value to me. And park my emergency fund money in an FDIC-insured "high" interest paying checking or savings account. Preferably one with on monthly fees. How does one quickly do rate / fee comparisons and what 3 vendors should I consider? I have access to USAA but have not yet looked at ant of their checking / savings products or rates. Some people seem to like ING Direct, and Ally Bank, at least at one point, seems to have been popular.
Plenty of people recommend http://www.depositaccounts.com. Others like the less-comprehensive http://www.bankrate.com.
tidalwave10 wrote:What's the highest rate I should expect to receive these days on a personal online checking or savings account with no monthly fee? Or where the monthly fee is waived if you have at least, say, a 10K to 20K balance.
A little-known fact is that Ally is in an agreement with regulators to offer no higher than the sixth-highest savings account rate on bankrate.com. Why is that good? They're consistently sixth. The list of institutions above them changes frequently, but Ally is always among the foremost, which cuts down on the need to change institutions to chase yields. At the moment savings there pays 0.87%. On the other hand, the agreement was because other banks complained it wasn't fair for a government-owned bank to outcompete them, and with the upcoming IPO the Treasury's share will get a lot smaller (pricing is scheduled for 9 April).

Bankrate shows GE Capital Retail Bank at 0.95%.

DepositAccounts shows the University Settlement Credit Union at 1.50%, if you work for Settlement & Door or live on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

PJW
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Kevin M
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Kevin M »

Also recommend www.depositaccounts.com to see alternatives.

I'm earning 3% on up to $20K in a reward checking account that requires 15 POS transactions per month. Other than that, I use Ally savings and checking accounts, although you probably can find slightly higher rates elsewhere.

Kevin
If I make a calculation error, #Cruncher probably will let me know.
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tidalwave10
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by tidalwave10 »

Thanks to all. The very thought of earning only a tiny fraction of one percent in Vanguard Prime bothers me. Even if the total return in a high interest FDIC-insured account isn't significantly higher, this will be a good SWAN move for me--to be done with thinking about it. :-) And that has value beyond the average rate of return.
ralph124cf
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by ralph124cf »

Credit unions in general seem to offer relatively high interest rate savings and checking account interest along with low fees.

Ralph
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tidalwave10
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by tidalwave10 »

ralph124cf wrote:Credit unions in general seem to offer relatively high interest rate savings and checking account interest along with low fees.

Ralph
Thanks Ralph. Just checked the interest rate my credit union is giving me on my checking account--this is with the State of North Carolina's SECU - State Employees Credit Union. A lousy 0.25% interest. Only 1/4 of a percent. Too bad, because I like SECU.

UPDATE: There is what SECU calls a "Share" account which is a savings account I also have with them. The interest rate on it is better but not spectacular: 0.75%.
Dandy
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Dandy »

I have a no interest no fee local checking account. I also have a savings account at Discover Bank (Ally, Barclays would be great also). Once set up it is easy to move money between Vanguard and either bank. Just a few clicks and a few days. You aren't going to get rich with the less than 1% interest but it is better than nothing.
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siamond
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by siamond »

After doing some shopping, I ended up selecting American Express High-Yield Savings Account. Current APY is 0.80%, and no fees indeed, including on reasonable money transfers (which is NOT the case with Ally). Transfers are slow (e.g. up to 6 days), but I kind of like it, as it discourages me from shifting money around on an impulse.
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nisiprius
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by nisiprius »

tidalwave10 wrote:I'd like to bite the bullet and take all my money out of Vanguard Prime MM--has no real value to me. And park my emergency fund money in an FDIC-insured "high" interest paying checking or savings account. Preferably one with no monthly fees. How does one quickly do rate / fee comparisons and what 3 vendors should I consider? I have access to USAA but have not yet looked at ant of their checking / savings products or rates. Some people seem to like ING Direct, and Ally Bank, at least at one point, seems to have been popular.

What's the highest rate I should expect to receive these days on a personal online checking or savings account with no monthly fee? Or where the monthly fee is waived if you have at least, say, a 10K to 20K balance.
Haven't done much of a search. Local bank is paying 0.5% on a some kind of account we have that we can't write checks directly on, but can do instantaneous transfers into the real checking account, which is free-except-for-the-cost-of-the-physical-checks. I think my Capital One 360 account is still paying 0.75%? Yes.

The Reward Checking account I had at another local was paying 1.00% and, I see, it still is, but those Reward Checking deals only pay the interest rate UP TO a certain amount and drops to near-zero above it; when they dropped that amount from $25,000 to $10,000, the maximum possible interest I could earn in a year dropped from $250 to $100 and I didn't think it was worth the hassle any more and I closed the account. But my experience was that yes, with reasonable care and planning it was possible to jump through the hoops and actually earn the stated rate, it wasn't like a carnival game that looks easy but isn't. And, yes, it was totally free except for the check, plus when I opened the account they gave me a strange little set of three Corningware cooking dishes with plastic lids that didn't quite fit. (It was either that or a cruddy daypack with the bank logo on it. But it brought back Ye Olde Days, I hadn't scored an account-opening gift since they abolished Regulation Q).

So it looks like 0.5% to 1% isn't hard to find, and it does seem to me as if the constant decline has stopped and that rates are starting to inch up, particular on longer-term CDs.
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midareff
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by midareff »

tidalwave10 wrote:I'd like to bite the bullet and take all my money out of Vanguard Prime MM--has no real value to me. And park my emergency fund money in an FDIC-insured "high" interest paying checking or savings account. Preferably one with no monthly fees. How does one quickly do rate / fee comparisons and what 3 vendors should I consider? I have access to USAA but have not yet looked at ant of their checking / savings products or rates. Some people seem to like ING Direct, and Ally Bank, at least at one point, seems to have been popular.

What's the highest rate I should expect to receive these days on a personal online checking or savings account with no monthly fee? Or where the monthly fee is waived if you have at least, say, a 10K to 20K balance.
Ally has a savings account @ .87% with no check writing, a savings @.85% with up to 6 checks a month and a checking at .40%. The last two have free checks, pay all ATM fees (monthly reimbursement), and Ally has great customer service including the ability to schedule recurring transactions, in case you want a local brick and mortar to think there is account activity. My accounts are tagged to Fido and VG with all transfers going smooth as silk.
sls239
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by sls239 »

I'd go for a cash bonus first. Then spend some time looking for a halfway decent long-term rate.

You may already buy your max for other purposes, but we're rolling our savings over into I-bonds.
feh
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by feh »

Phineas J. Whoopee wrote: A little-known fact is that Ally is in an agreement with regulators to offer no higher than the sixth-highest savings account rate on bankrate.com. Why is that good? They're consistently sixth. The list of institutions above them changes frequently, but Ally is always among the foremost, which cuts down on the need to change institutions to chase yields.
+1

I spent a couple years chasing the highest interest rate, switching from one online bank to another. I grew tired of it, and have been w/ Ally for the last couple years now, with no plans to change.
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AlaskanWolf
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by AlaskanWolf »

feh wrote:
Phineas J. Whoopee wrote: A little-known fact is that Ally is in an agreement with regulators to offer no higher than the sixth-highest savings account rate on bankrate.com. Why is that good? They're consistently sixth. The list of institutions above them changes frequently, but Ally is always among the foremost, which cuts down on the need to change institutions to chase yields.
+1

I spent a couple years chasing the highest interest rate, switching from one online bank to another. I grew tired of it, and have been w/ Ally for the last couple years now, with no plans to change.

Seriously? THAT is VERY interesting!
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Phineas J. Whoopee
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Phineas J. Whoopee »

AlaskanWolf wrote:...
Seriously? THAT is VERY interesting!
Yes, seriously. It was in 2009. Most of the relevant documents seem to have disappeared since then, but here's one related to the issue, although it doesn't say explicitly what the limit is, and here's a news story.

It doesn't mean Ally is obligated to keep its rates there. It's just obligated to go no higher. Now that the temporary liquidity facilities are closed and with yesterday's IPO (ALLY.N) the agreement may be close to its end. Treasury still owns about 17%. Ally Financial's CEO said in an interview he expects the rest to be divested by the end of 2014. With the IPO, all the bailout money has been repaid.

Ally could still opt for high-ish rates anyway, or perhaps not over time. They were never barred from paying too little, only what the American Banker's Association thought was too much.

Back then, of course, banks were trying to increase deposits.

PJW
Angelus359
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Angelus359 »

I use first american for 2%. I use their automatic bill pay ssystem to pay bills weekly in small amounts to hit the 15 transaction requirement
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niceguy7376
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by niceguy7376 »

my vote would be smartypig for 1% online savings accounts, FDIC Insured.
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Ketawa
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Ketawa »

If you're willing try something complex, you could use a combination of Mango, Union Plus, and Santander accounts. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops, but once you set it up it is automatic. I tie up $12.5k in them for over 6% composite yield in FDIC insured accounts for my emergency fund. See The Finance Buff's articles on them.
Angelus359
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Angelus359 »

Ketawa wrote:If you're willing try something complex, you could use a combination of Mango, Union Plus, and Santander accounts. You have to jump through a bunch of hoops, but once you set it up it is automatic. I tie up $12.5k in them for over 6% composite yield in FDIC insured accounts for my emergency fund. See The Finance Buff's articles on them.
Care to explain how **you** do this?


I just looked at the santander bank account... 20$ a month paid to you, for 2 billpayments, and a direct deposit? Wat?
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Ketawa
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Re: Best option for high interest earning no fee checking?

Post by Ketawa »

Angelus359 wrote:Care to explain how **you** do this?


I just looked at the santander bank account... 20$ a month paid to you, for 2 billpayments, and a direct deposit? Wat?
I use my USAA checking account segregated from my main checking account to make things simpler.

$5000 stays on Mango savings account
$5000 stays on Union Plus savings account
$500 ACH pushed and pulled from USAA to Mango prepaid account every month (tying up $500 to avoid $60 in fees is a 12% tax free return)
$500 ACH pushed and pulled from USAA to Union Plus prepaid account every month (tying up $500 to avoid $24 in fees is a 4.8% tax free return)
$XXX pushed from my main checking account to Santander checking every month
$(1500-XXX) pushed and pulled from USAA to Santander checking every month
$XXX is paid using bill pay from Santander in 2 payments scheduled on the same day
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