What is the best new savings account?

[Harry Pottery]

My current bank, like most banks it seems, pays a ridiculously low interest rate on my savings account. Since I have no intention of putting the majority of my savings into Stocks (via 401Ks and other IRAs) over the next 5 years, does anyone know of a bank that offers a reasonably good interest rate on a savings account (or other type of investment that I can draw on like a savings account)? Does such a thing even exist anymore?

I don't mind investing a portion of my income into IRA-like investments, but the whole purpose of these investments is defeated when a person needs to draw on the funds for various reasons.

I recently saw a savings account (via Internet only) that claimed to offer 4.75% return, and this is the highest I've seen anywhere. And I'm still assuming there is some sort of annual fee or other catch (like transfer fees or something).

(And people wonder why Americans don't save more)

[Pervilis Spurius]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

Harry, if its higher interest you want, why not open an account at TreasuryDirect and buy say, 91 day Tbills and roll them over every 3 months. The last auction yields 5.055%.

[DemonD]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

Citibank, Wamu, HSBC, and emigrantdirect have savings accounts that are "online only" and yield 5% or more. I have mine with HSBC, and I actually have a good deal of confidence in them because they have been upfront about the loan reserve losses and charges they have taken on their RE investments. Their transparency gives me more confidence in them as opposed to the others, but they are all FDIC insured up to 100k and in one form or another have survived RE downturns before.

You can also check out everbank.com which allows you to put savings in other currencies (there are some fees associated with that however).

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

My current bank, like most banks it seems, pays a ridiculously low interest rate on my savings account. Since I have no intention of putting the majority of my savings into Stocks (via 401Ks and other IRAs) over the next 5 years, does anyone know of a bank that offers a reasonably good interest rate on a savings account (or other type of investment that I can draw on like a savings account)? Does such a thing even exist anymore?

I don't mind investing a portion of my income into IRA-like investments, but the whole purpose of these investments is defeated when a person needs to draw on the funds for various reasons.

I recently saw a savings account (via Internet only) that claimed to offer 4.75% return, and this is the highest I've seen anywhere. And I'm still assuming there is some sort of annual fee or other catch (like transfer fees or something).

(And people wonder why Americans don't save more)

It has been about 10 years since I had a bank account per se.

I use Charles Schwab for all my accounts. One of the personal acounts has checking privileges. I don't think we pay anything for checks. It has a debit card feature. In this account cash draws 4.79% 7-day yield. No minimum. One money market fund available pays 5.04%, but I think that requires $50K initial investment in non-IRA account. I think there is also a Checkfree feature, which we use, but for which we do not pay a fee based on having some minimal balances amongst all the accounts.

I personally see no use for banks for personal financial management.

[DemonD]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

LOL jim I am the anti-you when it comes to that. I have money at 3 banks, and investments spread between 4 different brokerages. Eventually I'll probably consolidate one of my brokerages, but I almost feel "diversified" with having my holdings at different places. The biggest hassle is keeping all the usernames and passwords straight.

In the internet age you can hunt for the best savings rates and move your money whereever it's best. check www.bankrate.com for the latest up to date info.

oh yeah and i forgot, i have a loan with another financial insitution so that brings me to 8. You don't even want to know how many email addresses i have.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

LOL jim I am the anti-you when it comes to that. I have money at 3 banks, and investments spread between 4 different brokerages. Eventually I'll probably consolidate one of my brokerages, but I almost feel "diversified" with having my holdings at different places. The biggest hassle is keeping all the usernames and passwords straight.

In the internet age you can hunt for the best savings rates and move your money whereever it's best. check www.bankrate.com for the latest up to date info.

oh yeah and i forgot, i have a loan with another financial insitution so that brings me to 8. You don't even want to know how many email addresses i have.

Less is MORE.

[DemonD]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

didn't you get the memo jim? "More" is the new "less"

[spunky]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

Dont know, but I went with the big orange bouncing ball, ING.

[Finster]

Re: What is the best new savings account?

My current bank, like most banks it seems, pays a ridiculously low interest rate on my savings account. Since I have no intention of putting the majority of my savings into Stocks (via 401Ks and other IRAs) over the next 5 years, does anyone know of a bank that offers a reasonably good interest rate on a savings account (or other type of investment that I can draw on like a savings account)? Does such a thing even exist anymore?

I don't mind investing a portion of my income into IRA-like investments, but the whole purpose of these investments is defeated when a person needs to draw on the funds for various reasons.

I recently saw a savings account (via Internet only) that claimed to offer 4.75% return, and this is the highest I've seen anywhere. And I'm still assuming there is some sort of annual fee or other catch (like transfer fees or something).

(And people wonder why Americans don't save more)

You hit the nail on the head. Consciously or otherwise, it is national policy to discourage people from saving. All it takes is interest rates that are low-to-negative in relation to inflation (the real inflation, not the official government CPI).

Remember big money is in charge, and it doesn't like competition. If saving is fruitless, you might have to buy stocks. Big money likes this, because if people are forced into the stock market, corporate managements have a captive pool of cheap, undiscriminating capital not likely to notice if they have their hands in the cookie jar raking in tons from stock options that only savvy investors would question.

Tired of negative real returns on bonds? Skeptical of stocks? Buy gold.