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Savings Account/online banks

fireshot91

fireshot91

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
4,721
1
Northern VA
What bank has a savings account that gives good-great interest?

Not looking for CDs. I have to have the money readily available.

Any online banks? How do those work?

Anybody has an account with an online bank?
 
Tomorrow

Tomorrow

macrumors 604
Mar 2, 2008
7,160
1,364
Always a day away
Interest rates are dismally low right now - unless you have a LARGE amount of money to invest (like $10k or more), shopping for an interest rate on a savings account doesn't make a lot of sense. Your fees for the associated checking account (if you get one) will outweigh your interest earnings in many cases, and if you have that much to invest you'd be better off in a money market or something similar.
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
As the previous poster said, rates are really low right now, you probably wont get much more than 1% unless you have a huge sum. I have an account with ING Direct that I use for savings (it paid 4.5% when I opened it but the Fed kept cutting the prime rate so that rate fell too). You link your ING savings account to a checking account at a physical bank and then it's easy to transfer the money between the two.
 
fireshot91

fireshot91

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
4,721
1
Northern VA
swiftaw said:
As the previous poster said, rates are really low right now, you probably wont get much more than 1% unless you have a huge sum. I have an account with ING Direct that I use for savings (it paid 4.5% when I opened it but the Fed kept cutting the prime rate so that rate fell too). You link your ING savings account to a checking account at a physical bank and then it's easy to transfer the money between the two.
Click to expand...

I just looked at INGs rates, and they give 1.00% APY, which is about 5x more than I'm getting at my current bank (I get about .2%). And infinitely more than what I'm getting in my checking account. I've so far just been using my checking account, but since it's not getting any interest, and it has more money in it than I have a need for, I've been looking to move it to a savings account so that way I can at least get SOME money out of it.

So how does ING work, I set up an account, transfer the funds from my checking account to ING, and just wait it out, and if I ever need to 'withdraw', I can just move it to my checking account, and then withdraw from the physical bank?
 
swiftaw

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
fireshot91 said:
I just looked at INGs rates, and they give 1.00% APY, which is about 5x more than I'm getting at my current bank (I get about .2%). And infinitely more than what I'm getting in my checking account. I've so far just been using my checking account, but since it's not getting any interest, and it has more money in it than I have a need for, I've been looking to move it to a savings account so that way I can at least get SOME money out of it.

So how does ING work, I set up an account, transfer the funds from my checking account to ING, and just wait it out, and if I ever need to 'withdraw', I can just move it to my checking account, and then withdraw from the physical bank?
Click to expand...

Exactly, transfers between your ING account and your physical checking account take about 3 days. Alternatively, you could also open an ING checking account along with the savings account and that'll get you an ATM card. Transfers between your two ING accounts would be instantaneous so you can keep everything in savings then move it to checking when you want to withdraw it.
 
fireshot91

fireshot91

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 31, 2008
4,721
1
Northern VA
Alright thanks.

Is 1% good for this-time, or average, or what? Like, can I find a higher percentage somewhere else?

I have one account that I just opened the other day that gives me about 3.5% APY, but has a limit on principle to $1500.
 
GfPQqmcRKUvP

GfPQqmcRKUvP

macrumors 68040
Sep 29, 2005
3,272
514
Terminus
Interest rates are so low right now it's not even worth shopping for the best one. Make it interesting and learn about the financial markets. Even if you don't make anything (or lose a little) you'll at least learn something.
 
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