March 11th, 2008 
Vijaianand At the current economy which is so wild and volatile, I don’t blame people who like to stay in cash and park their asset or cash either in a Money Market or CD account instead of risking in investment portfolio unless your financial advisor is really performing well.
But I have better news for you. You can put the cash in a good saving account and still yield around 3.5%. You don’t have to put in a CD and lock it up for 6-12 months. Just a saving account yields an APR closer to CD’s at this current market. Go and read on to find out the secret..
I am dedicated member of my favorite credit union DCU for over 9 years or so. I have seen many banks and credit unions but nobody can beat DCU in their customer service and offerings. They offer very good CD rates and nice service for loyal customers. But they also have overhead and can’t able to beat the current market high rates offered by online banks like ING DIRECT and HSBC DIRECT.
Thats right! These online banks offer very good rates just little shy of the Fed interest rates. I joined ING DIRECT in 2006 since then I moved most of my money from DCU to ING. I currently have quite a number of savings account. It started out with 4.5% when the market was doing good in 2006 and now to 3.5% when its way down as the fed cut rates few times.
It’s real ease to use. You can open savings and CD account just in minutes if you have internet access. They also recently added Electric Checking account with Master Debit card which can used in Allpoint ATM center without any charge. Thats a big saver if you are always on the run.
The main tricky part is, if you want to deposit any cheques you don’t have local branches. Thats how they cut cost as they don’t have overheads. But you don’t have to be worried. You can simply send them the cheque and it will be deposited in few days. Or you can link your local bank checking account to ING Savings or Checking Account and just transfer money from your local to ING. It’s that easy.
As the old saying “The proof is in the pudding” conveys, proof of the pudding is to really taste it. I did my put some of the banks into test and also doing a realistic comparison study with BOA, WAMU, WellsFargo, ING Direct and some other credit unions with their offerings and ease of use. ING Direct came out as winner in Savings account in most of the cases especially because of the reasonable good interest rate return and Allpoint ATM‘s available in almost all gas stations.
But I strongly don’t recommend their CD’s which doesn’t yield much compared to many other credit union and banks. So play it by your ears on that one.
Just want to tell you all, this blog is not intended to advertise about ING Direct or HDFC. I am just sharing my experience with ING DIRECT which yields better interest than any other banks out there. You even get $25 to open the account with $200 referred by a friend.
Go to INGDIRECT and try it out. Let me know what do you think about the experience..
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“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” – Aristotle