The Sun's Financial Diary

I first talked about IGoChecking, the interest checking account from IGoBanking, a couple of weeks ago (check out that post for details). Now IGoChecking is giving a free $50 gas card for the first 400 applicants when opening a new account:
Open an iGOchecking account, use our free Bill Pay and Presentment service to pay [...]

“Regardless of the health of your bank or condition of the overall economy … returns are never high enough to justify the exposure of uninsured deposits.”
This is a quote from an article appeared on The Wall Street Journal online yesterday. Very true, isn’t it?
As more and more banks failed amid this sub-prime mortgage credit crisis [...]

Just a quick update.
Two more banks raised their rates today. Emigrant Direct American Dream Savings Account is now at 3.00% APY with no fees and no minimum. I used to use Emigrant Direct when they were among a few banks that paid highest interest rate. Not any more. Even at 3.00%, they are still in [...]

Washington Mutual now pays 3.75% APY for their online savings account. Banks are competing for our money.
Looks like the competition is heating up.
I just got an email from Washington Mutual with the latest change to the interest rate of WaMu online savings account. The new rate, effective immediately, is 3.75% APY, up 0.45% from the [...]

EverBank offers 4.00% 3-month bonus rate for its Yield Pledge Money Market Account as well as FreeNet Checking Account. In this interview, EverBank Direct President Frank Trotter introduces the bank’s products and assures customers that EverBank has no business in the sub-prime market.
I didn’t pay attention to EverBank (though it was included in my online [...]

IGoBanking is one of the online banks that I used quite often in the past, until recently I switched to Capital One/FNBO Direct because IGoBanking’s rate, at 3.28% APY, is no longer attractive comparing to others.
Early this week, I received an email from IGoBanking, introducing me their IGoChecking checking account. Key features of the new [...]

HSBC Direct is extending its 3.50% APY promotion by one more month. Are you in?
In early June, HSBC Direct rolled out a promotion for its online savings account with 3.50% APY. While the rate was decent, it’s only good till August 15, that’s less than one and a half months. I don’t really know how [...]

IndyMac Bank, the California-based bank specializing in mortgage lending, became the latest, yet largest so far, bank to fail in 2008 after the bank’s customers withdrew more than $1.3 billion since June amid crisis in the financial and housing market. Last Friday, July 11, 2008, IndyMac Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance [...]

I am always on the lookout for better banking deals.
Recently I opened my fifth online savings account with Capital One after considering the move for a long time. At the time when I opened the account, the interest rate was at 3.75% APY which was pretty good given how much bank interest rates have fallen [...]

For the second time in less than two months, E*Trade Financial decided to make its Complete Savings Account competitive by increasing its interest rate from 3.15% APY to 3.30% APY, starting July 2, 2008 (current rate 3.01% APY as of 12/28/2008). It made a similar rate adjustment in early May.
With the Complete Savings Account, [...]