My mom and dad have a bunch of money from a home sale sitting in a checking account earning no interest.
I’d like to get them set up with 4 online banks that offer a high interest savings account.
Since I’m a member of Alliant credit union (and have been very happy with them) I plan on
making this one of the accounts.
I’m also considering Ally and CapitalOne for others.
Do any of you have suggestions of any other (or better) options.
Thank you.
BWS
Banks don’t have the best interest, but you can shop around.
Here’s one place to start:
and
Ally, Barclays, Citizens, Sallie Mae, SFGI Direct,
Synchrony. I’d pass on CapOne
Currently Edward Jones is offering FDIC cds at pretty good rates. You can go to one of their offices instead of online.
OMG don’t talk to Edward Jones people they’ll put the voodoo curse on you and get you into some of their expensive investments or life insurance. I’ll bet those CDs are loss leaders! Get you in the store to buy beer and chips, sell gasoline at a loss.
And if you have to go into an office, it’s not online
I think it was Kathy Jones at Charles Schwab who got really pissed off at an Edward Jones rep because they were walking around her neighborhood knocking on doors and got into a conversation with her mentally impaired sister who had no business talking to anyone about money. Its just so shady and creepy I can’t believe they still do that, but they do.
You just have to learn to say no. I’ve had CDs with them before, you just firmly tell them up front that CDs are the only business you are doing. Wasn’t a problem. Their job is to sell products that they make money on, CDs aren’t really in that category.
5 or 6 years ago I opened checking/savings accounts at Ally. Been very happy with them. Easy to use web site. Ally lately has been very aggressive raising their savings interest.
Thank you everyone who responded.
I’ll take a look into your suggestions.
I am happy with CapitalOne altho all banks have very low interest. I may lock in CDs after the Fed stops increasing the rate. I think I am getting 1.7% interest.
The EJ reps are a mobile version of an over-priced retail store which advertises loss-leaders to get you in the store to sell you their products with the huge markups and fat sales commissions.
I’ve got an account with American express savings bank, current rate is 1.65%. Basically works like a money market account.
I was with Live Oak but ditched them for T-Mobile Money, then ditched them as Ally has been very aggressive. Looks like they match Ally now - no reason to move back
Here are Team Clark’s picks for best online banks: Best Online Banks: Free Checking and High-Interest Savings Accounts
Clark mentioned the Fidelity money market account. It’s somewhat difficult to find the interest rate, but seems to be 2.11 currently. It appears to not be FDIC insured, however. Is this accurate? That makes me uneasy about moving my savings there.
Ally bank has a 2.00% savings account right now that has FDIC coverage.
For higher interest and assurance of safety, you can buy treasury bills on Fidelity or the Treasury Direct website. The latter site you can buy treasury bills in $100 increments. If you buy treasury bills from Fidelity, the purchases are in $1000 increments.
Here is an idea of the rates for treasury bills for the various terms of holding the bills:
Resource Center | U.S. Department of the Treasury
Note the 6 month treasury bill has upwards of 3.4% annualized interest. That is locked in for a 6 month period unless you try to sell the treasury bill on the secondary market.
Thanks this is helpful info. So does the interest get paid out at maturity? Looks to me like 6 months is a good rate. I have not bought treasury bills before. What time frames are you buying these days?
You buy the t-bill at a discounted price. Just an example, a 3 month t-bill might be bought at $990 and after 3 months you get paid $1000. A 6 month t-bill might be sold at a lower price of course because it will accrue more interest for the longer time frame.
I buy 1,2,3, 6 month and one year treasuries on Vanguard. I don’t buy treasuries on Treasury Direct as much dollar-wise. I tend to buy more I-bonds there as the current interest rate is in the 9% annualized range.
Ok thanks. Just bought 1000 worth of a 3 month t bill to experiment and familiarize myself with how this all works. I see fidelity has an auto roll option which re invests your earnings too! At some point I’ll plan to put a lot more into t bills since to me they seem to make more sense than having money sit in an online savings account or cds.
Curious if anyone changes online banks when a better rate comes along. Currently I have use two different banks and now they both have the same interest rate. Bask Bank is offering more than the two banks I have and thinking about opening a third account with them. Does anyone else swap money around from bank to bank when better rates come out?