The Sun's Financial Diary

And not get yourself in trouble? Yes and No. I started to offer ING Direct referral links on this site since April and after I finished my own referrals, I also accepted referrals from others and hosted them here so they can earn some bonuses as well. But to all my knowledge, the maximum bonuses [...]

Don’t know what the motivation is, but it looks like EverBank has changed its mind on the interest rate of its Yield Pledge Money Market Account. (check out my interview with EverBank Direct president) When I first heard about the bank, I was quite impressed by the 4.76% bonus rate offer (though only for the [...]

WTDirect is running the sign-on bonus promotion again. The bank had a similar promotion in the summer for its WTDirect Online Savings Account, but abruptly canceled the offer after only three days. The reason for the cancellation wasn’t exactly clear, but it could be because with the previous deal, you can actually profit from it [...]

In just three months, the number of problem banks has gone up from 117 to 171, an increase of 46%! When the FDIC released its second quarter bank profile in August, the agency said it has 117 banks on its watch list, a record number at that time. Today, in the third quarter FDIC bank [...]

It has been two weeks since I opened an account at DollarSavingsDirect. Since the account has been verified and it’s up and running. Here are a few updates on the account. Trail Deposits I opened the account on Sunday, November 9th. During the application process, I was told that the two small trail deposits will [...]

I am not really worried about Citi right now, despite that investors who question the bank’s ability to sustain mounting losses from toxic loans and bad investments have pushed Citi stock to below $4 a share on Friday, the lowest in 16 years (hope you didn’t buy Citi stock). Citi has raised some $70 billion [...]

I am IGoBanking Savings Account customer. Though the bank is no longer my everyday bank as it used to be, I still access my account there quite often. Somehow I still missed their big rate increase of the IGoChecking Checking Account that I mentioned before (I use only their Savings account, not Checking account). If [...]

I have never used a credit union before, therefore, I never paid any attention to how money is insured in a credit union. I just assume that there some some kind of measures to protect credit union customers again losses if a CU fails, like the way my deposits at banks are protected by the [...]